SERIOUS Car Sickness

I take Truffle to work with me, because it's just hubby (who also works full-time +) and I & I live too far away to come home to let her out & not have her crated for long periods of time.

I work full-time but as a supervisor do have considerable flexibility. Nevertheless, it is a 20 minute drive either way between home & work.

When we brought her home from the breeder at 8.5 weeks old , it was a 7 hour drive & she got sick twice on the ride home. She is now 13.5 weeks old.

I had a week off where I didn't have to put her in the car again, except for the day after Gotcha-Day for a 15-minute-each-way trip to the vet.

After that I began driving her to work with me daily. She showed serious car anxiety & the following long weekend (Memorial Day), my husband and I worked hard on desensitizing her to the car without having to take her anywhere.

We made some tiny progress, but she never willingly walks up to the car to get in. I always have to pick her up (and she is clearly very unwilling to be put in the car).

Since then we take 1 step forward and 2 steps back, with her throwing up every few days (and unfortunately 3x this week).

She associates the door into/out of my work as related to having to get into the car.
She associates me putting the leash on her at predictable times at home as meaning that we are going to the car & she hides in the back of her crate (at least she considers her crate as a safe place).
She knows the time of day at my office when we would be heading home & she nows goes to the back of her work-place crate to avoid having to head out to the car.
I've learned not to let her have food within an hour of putting her in the car.
I've learned to turn the car on & let the AC run long enough to cool it off.

Knowing her hate of the car has seriously curtailed us taking her around town to get experiences (she threw up on the way home from Lowes!).

My choices seem very limited at this point: to continue to have to expose her to car rides (20 minutes, twice a day), or to leave her at home, all alone, crated for 4-5 hours at a time (her housebreaking so far has been stupendous & I think she could hold it that long - but she'd be all alone; folks at my office are true dog people & this week she has finally come out of her shell and has enjoyed playing with people).

I'M DESPERATE FOR SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO ADDRESS THIS! Everyone has helped Stacy & Maggie so much ... I'm hoping to hear some great guidance here.

Thanks, everyone, in advance.

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