Fear of being in the car/travel sickness...

Sounds like a mix of being uncomfortable in the car environment (panting) to car sickness (being sick)

Dogs stomachs are like a dumping ground and where most of the digestion of their food takes place. i.e food sits in stomach a long time before moving to the intestines. Therefore feeding well in advance to prevent them bringing food back up you are talking many hours! Traveling wise mine has brought up stuff she ate 5-6 hrs before. Mine was cured by getting a second dog. She brought it up the new addition ate it, she has not been sick again, as if to say I keep my own dinner!! 

Some people give something like a ginger biscuit before traveling to help keep tummy less queasy (mine would not touch them)
Others give things like what Dorwest offers www.dorwest.com/Category/Travel-Sickness (never tried them so cant comment if they work).

You can assess your driving habits, think of keeping a full glass of water on your dashboard and you must not spill (no fast turns, swinging car on roundabouts, taking speed bumps too quickly, any fast changes in speed etc. This helped my dog.

Observe for pre sick markers. i.e mine will sit up, have hang dog look etc and I then know she is not feeling great so can stop and give her a breather or make sure I dont swing her about at all till she settles again.

As for feeling safe in car then it comes down to experiences they have and making every one positive.
Have you tried feeding his meals in car, having play sessions and chill out sessions in car, going somewhere and watching world go by etc etc.

Also some dogs dont like to be in too open a space. My mums dog for example prefers to be in a tight-ish space curled up, give her a big estate boot and she is very uncomfortable (salavas, wont settle etc etc). My second dog totally freaked when I caged her as a pup and the moment I put her on a car harness she settled straightaway. Its finding how the dog is happiest to travel. May be worth considering crating him in the car and seeing if he is happier that way.

Have you ID what makes him nervous, engine, movement etc.

Maybe as he is up on the seat the movement of houses, trees etc is making him feel ill, have you tried reducing vision out to prevent him seeing movement?

HTH 

This is the only photo I can find just now but usually his head is further up & more in a sitting position between the door & seat with head pointing up 

i have had the same problem with Riley when he was younger, he would tremble, and vomit it was very traumatic, i tried sitting him in the car whilst i was parked on the drive, taking him around the block. every day and each time going a little further, over time he did seem to get a little better/ no vomiting / panting. i tried travel sickness tablets from the vet but they did nothing has i don't think it was really travel sickness it was more down to anxiety issues, the vet did advise me to try serene - UM calm tablets (non sedating) for travel car sickness ,seperation anxiety,fireworks and thunder storms, and noise phobias,
since using these tablets riley has much improved during car journeys the only thing he really does now is excessive drooling. but to be honest i can cope with that, he seems more relaxed whilst in the car he even has started lying down on the back seat which he would never have done, riley suffers with quite a few anxiety issues one being noise phobias but he is much better whilst taking the calms, riley has been on the calms now for some time and i did try to wean him off them and he just was a nervous wreck so i introduced them to him again and he has much improved.

Riley was at the vets last week for his booster and i asked the vet about taking these tablets long term and she said if they seem to be suiting them to stick with them as they are only herbal and non sedating..

I hope this helps you out a little i know how frustrating it can be. Good Luck.

Usually if we are going out in the car it will be visiting family/friends or somewhere different for a walk like the other day was the beach which he was happy once he was there just not while in the car.
He does also get a little anxious around new people/dogs we meet while out where as Bert loves everyone human...dog...cat...he doesn't mind really.
I'm just hoping that through all your advise & ideas we will find something that may suit him.

It sounds like he is associating the car with something bad. I would try getting him used to the car but not going anywhere like caz2golden said. Take him in and out of the car, feed him, play with him in there and try to distract him and make it seem like fun. Then just sit with the engine on for a while and do the same before going anywhere too far.

Let us know how you get on

Thought it might also to be handy to mention Alfie's experiences in the car!

He used to travel in the boot behind a dog guard. We had quite a bit of trouble with him getting excited, he would whine a lot for most of the ride unless we were going on a long trip when he would settle down eventually. Whenever the car stopped for traffic lights or just because of traffic, he would start barking and whining a lot, when we reached our destination it was a nightmare with barking and him trying to fly out of the boot.

A little while back I decided I was fed up with moving the dog guard between my mum's car and my car as it took quite a while and was very fiddly to put in - so I got him a harness. I wish I'd done it sooner!
He doesn't bark or whine at all now and will sit there quite calmly just looking out of the window or between the front seats. He is calm getting in and out of the car too! He now only barks sometimes when we pull up at our destination - usually only if he sees another dog outside. I didn't need to do anything - the behaviour change was instant. I think he prefers that he is closer to you and can see you.

I realise that this is a completely different problem to yours but thought I might mention it as the change in his behaviour just from travelling in a different area of the car was amazing - he is like a different dog and no longer a terror in the car, he is now fun to travel with!

Oh dear this had tears of laughter running down my face as I mis-read it as

Wondered how she'd swallowed it in the first place!!!!  My OH wondered if it a new method of birth!!  D