Car Crates And Barriers.

648117

648117

Honored Member
Hi everyone.

I recently bought a car and am now starting to think about safe travel options for Holly and Lewis and I want to get everyones opinion of what is best.

Previously I always used harnesses with seatbelt attachments for Holly and Lewis for our weekly trips to class etc. If we had a competition I would put all the back seats down and put two crates in the car for the dogs so they would have space to move around when parked at the show. (this was all using mums car).
Now that I have my own car I can put something more permanent in. The car is a hatchback.

At the moment I'm still using the harnesses with seatbelt attachments but we haven't had a show yet, I'm not sure how well the crates we have will fit in my car as it is (a lot) smaller than mums.

So my main questions are: Is it better to get a pre-made crate for the boot or get a custom made one? What features do you think are impotant for the crates to have? Has anyone got any experience getting custom made crates or using pre-made ones?
I need to get a good balance of safety, ease of use, comfort for the dogs and a good price.

One feature that it must have is Holly and Lewis will need to be able to be seperated as Lewis can sometimes get a little guardy in the car when I'm not there and I would hate for him to re-direct onto Holly. Especially if they are tired after being at a competition.
 
Gordykins

Gordykins

Experienced Member
We just got our dog Sleepypod Clickit seatbelts. If I remember right, both of your dogs are very small, so they are probably not going to fit into those seatbelts. The same company makes carriers for smaller dogs though. Sleepypod was the only company I could find that had equipment for dogs that passed the same safety tests as human baby seats are required to pass.

The downside for Sleepypod is that I had questions after I made the purchase, and the company never got back to me. I wrote a message on facebook, so I could see that the message had been seen, and days later, still no reply. I'm really disappointed about that, so I'm keeping an eye out for other companies to come out with products that pass the same safety tests. I hate when I feel cornered into making purchases with a company who figures that because they have a product that is better than others their customer service doesn't matter.

If anybody does know of other companies that have caught up to Sleepypod, I'm sooo willing to hear about them!
 
648117

648117

Honored Member
I have had a look on the SleepyPod website, the harnesses and carriers do look really good. I think Skye should have one of the carriers (she travels in a crate in the boot at the moment), I think Holly and Lewis would be right on the edge of being too big for a carrier and too small for the harness O_o

But I think I'm going to go with cages built into the back, that way I don't have to put the crates in my car when we go to shows and I can leave the boot open for fresh air in summer when we are parked.

I'm thinking about getting it designed so that it has door at the boot entrance (to the outside) and then two additional doors inside the car (behind the passanger seats) for emergencie access or for if I just want to let the dogs have more space. This will also mean that when I get a larger dog (next year) I can just install a third grate behind the front seats to effectively make a third (larger) crate for the bigger dog to use at shows (although I would use a harness for driving).

Thats what I think I'll do, but I have to save the money to pay for it first.
 
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