How do you de-escalate dog excitement?

Bodhi has always been a bit squeaky when she is excited, mainly in the car.

But she is just getting silly now.... when she is in the car she is SOOOOOO friggin excited about ZOMG WE'RE GOING SOMEWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!! that she squeaks continuously. And it drives me BATTY. EEK EEK EEK EEK EEK EEK EEK EEK EEK EEK EEEK EEEEEK EK EEEK EKEKEKEKEKEEEE.

She is getting worse as she gets older (she is 7 this year.......). I have contemplated just putting her in the car and going round and round then home again, so she starts thinking car journeys are pretty dull....

The thing is we ALWAYS go places in the car.. it's not novel to her.

How do I make this less exciting to her???

She's always been a bit overcome with excitement in certain situations - not so she is naughty, but so that she is utterly consumed with wow. You've seen the dogs that give you 20 actions before you even give them a command just because WOW they might get a treat or a ball? That's Bodhi

I just want her to calm down and STFU in the car! She never used to be this bad. Weird?

I would start bringing her on boring car rides plus give her something to do in the car like a really, really good stuffed kong. If you are ambitious, you can get a Manner's Minder, place it in the back of the car and reward her for calm, relaxed behaviors.

I would suggest to isolate the stimulus that causes her to vocalize/go high/self reward. It could be just getting into the car, could be motion, could be anticipation of a reward etc etc. Once it is isolated then you can do something about it.

For example if just the action of her entering the car drives her nuts, then one thing to try is to load her into the car close door and walk away, return , slow stroke on back then walk away again.

If it is the motion and the visual of objects going by, the cover her kennel with a blanket. Once the stimulus is identified then a solution can be tried. Now keep in mind that after 7 years of re-enforcing, it can only be controlled by so much.

Thanks for the replies

I will definitely try a few different things!

She tends to know when we are going on long drives, and will stop once we're on our way, as soon as we slow down, she begins to get excited again. So I think it is may be the whole experience of BEING in the car.

Zander was always terrible in the car. Then I drove him cross country. After about two hours, he started dozing. After two days, he stopped jumping up every time the car went under 50mph. We were on the road, constantly, for a good four days.

He suddenly doesn't think car rides are so interesting anymore. Lol.