Java has some anxiety about jumping into the car, for some reason. No anxiety about car rides, just the act of jumping in. I decided to take it in bits - I'll sit in the back seat with the clicker and some tasty treats, click for getting half into the seat, then click and treat for getting in when he starts to get comfortable. Put it on cue for "Get in!" Not when we're actually going somewhere, we just go out there once or twice a day and work on it, then back inside. Next step once he gets comfortable with that will be to move to standing outside the car and saying "Get in!" Click and reward. Move to having him jump into the backseat with the crate in it. Move to actually using this when we're going somewhere. So on and so forth.
For a few days, it was no dice. He'd get his front feet up on the seat, get nervous and run away with his ears back. (He was on the long lead, so no dogs were risking being run over in the making of this video.) Gradually he got more confident, more comfortable. Today, he did it like a pro for the first time. I was so proud. I was in the backseat holding the long lead, he would be sniffing around the yard, hear "Get in!" and hightail it into the car, hardly any anxiety to be seen. Seems so small, but it seemed like such a breakthrough at the time.
Violet came out and sat in the backseat with me for a while, then we went to the field to train. Java got zoomies. Pictures happened.
