Restraining Your Dog In The Car

Evie

Evie

Experienced Member
**Not sure where i should put this thread**

What do people use to restrain their dog/s in the car?

At the moment Evie has free range of the car (I am 90% sure that in my state (in Australia) that you do not HAVE to restrain your dog while in a vehicle).

Anyway, I want to get her a harness which attaches to the seat belts for her own safety however I've read that most harnesses will cause quite a lot of damage to the dog if you are in an accident.... (not that her current way of travelling is any safer..)

So, i'm after a few opinions. For the record, Evie isn't crate trained and having a crate in my car isn't an option due to the size of my car anyway.

Thanks :)
 
648117

648117

Honored Member
Holly has a harness with a seatbelt attachment, the attachment clips to the back of the harness (like a leash) and then into the normal car seatbelt clip bit (whatever its called) and she always sits in the back seat (never the front).
For some reason she goes to sleep as soon as the car starts so she doesn't move around but I think its safest to have her seatbelted in.

I think the seatbelted harness is very safe and practical especially since she goes for walks using the harness so she usually has it on anyway when we leave the house and you can leave the seatbelt attachment in the car.

I hate seeing dogs in cars that arn't restrained at all. It's not just for the dogs safety, if there was an accident an unrestrained dog is a pretty big object to have flying around the car. Worst of all is when the driver of the car has a small dog on their lap (I see this regularly) between themselves and the steering wheel, it makes me so mad, a really small crash (or sudden stop) could really damage the dog.

I think if you don't want to restrain your dog with a harness you could get a crate, put the dog in the back of the car with a barrier (if you have a station wagon), or maybe train the dog to always sit on the floor of the car (this would be safer than on the seats at least). I can't think of anything else.
 
Dogster

Dogster

Honored Member
Shivon isn't restrained in the car either. She sits in the back seat. (and likes to stick her head out the window, lol:ROFLMAO:) I haven't bought any seatbelts for her, I'm not sure if I should get one.
 
running_dog

running_dog

Honored Member
I'm with Holly's owner on this one :).

I have a seatbelt harness for Zac which he uses on longer distance journeys. For short trips to the park (where we're only doing 30mph max and usually less) I admit he is often unsecured on the back seat but he has to be laid down (no jumping around or sticking his head out of the window) until we arrive.

My personal opinion is that even a well behaved unsecured dog is basically an unsecured load in a car - in an accident bad enough to cause the dog injury from wearing a harness an unsecured dog could be flung into your head and injure/kill you or be flung through the windscreen and out of the car and that would kill it. I'll take the risk on the harness.

Add to this that a dog is unpredictable - for example what happens if an unsecured dog is suddenly stung by a wasp that was lurking down the side of the seat?
 
Dogster

Dogster

Honored Member
Thanks for the info!!!!! I know exactly what you mean. Ashamed I didn't get a seatbelt before:oops: I just can't find a good brand of seatbelts for dogs. The pet stores here don't have that many.:( What brands are good????
 
tigerlily46514

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
My dog roams free in the car. Maybe i should get him buckled up, but, i don't. I bet ppl will kill me for that, but, it's one of his big joys in sticking his face out the window.
 
running_dog

running_dog

Honored Member
tigerlily46514 said:
My dog roams free in the car. Maybe i should get him buckled up, but, i don't. I bet ppl will kill me for that, but, it's one of his big joys in sticking his face out the window.
Click to expand...
No killing but LOL you are funny Tigerlily :) you worry about almost every other aspect of your dog's health and yet you let him do this :rolleyes: It is a big joy of Gus's to leap 3' in the air but he's only a puppy with baby joints... do I stop him out of concern for his health? (This is a rhetorical question it doesn't need a 20 page derail along our usual lines :LOL: but feel free to do so if you wish). I'm sure Zac and Gus would LOVE to stick their respective heads out of the car window but...

To me there are loads of health concerns about dogs sticking their heads out of windows... like getting their head knocked off or being blinded by getting grit in their eyes. I remember the only time I stuck my hand out the window while we were traveling (slowly) I got stung :LOL:. Also if your dog is sticking it's head out of the window it's centre of gravity is higher than if it is laid down or on the floor so it is MORE likely to be flung about and do itself or yourself some damage in an emergency stop or accident. It also puts additional strain on the joints in unnatural directions as the dog braces itself against the cars motion.

I think that Holly and I are from the UK, I think we have different ideas about car safety in the UK - like if you drove with a dog on your lap here you would very likely be stopped for dangerous driving. But then again I used to travel with Zac loose all the time until I spent some time reading up on advanced driving and became much more averse to unnecessary risk - to me and Zac.
 
tigerlily46514

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
//you worry about almost every other aspect of your dog's health and yet you let him do this//

lol, so true, so true,
i guess i might be like a vegetarian, fitness and health-nut
who rides fast motorcycles or sky dives....
 
648117

648117

Honored Member
I live in New Zealand, I don't think there is a law concerning dogs in cars.

Our very first dog wasn't restrained in the car, he was a corgi collie x (got him from the SPCA when he was 12, had to have a massive tumour removed after 6 months and then lived for about 18 months after that, neither of my parents had ever owned a dog before we got him). He would lie on the backseat, but if the car had to suddenly stop he would fall off the seat and onto the floor (at least he wasn't standing on the seat and he never got hurt) he did that a couple of times before he gave up and just lay on the floor most of the time, I have no idea what his previous owner did or if they even ever took him out in the car.

Our cavaliers were sometimes belted in using their harnesses (they had a loop for the normal car seatbelt to go through), but they liked to sit on people so most of the time they sat on someone (I didn't really like that) and even worse was my sister would let Paris sit on her lap in the front passenger seat, I was constantly telling her not to because I could easily see the projectory path that she would take if there was an accident (straight out the front window).

So when we got Holly I insisted that she always sit in the back and be belted in. It's not much extra effort because she walks in the harness anyway so has it on whenever she leaves the house and she doesn't need to see out the window. And the added bonus is that now Paris sits in the back with her harness belted in too (to set a good example for Holly ;)) .

I would think that a big dog would still be able to look out the window with a harness on and might be able to stick the end of its nose out. You can also get extendable window barriers so they can't stick their head out the window (we have one for if we need to leave the dogs in the car on their own).
 
running_dog

running_dog

Honored Member
There isn't a specific UK law concerning dogs in cars just if you are doing something really stupid like driving with a dog on your lap it would come under a general law prohibiting "dangerous driving" that covers anything that could endanger road users including things like putting on lipstick or reading a newspaper while driving.
 
tigerlily46514

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
wait til i tell Buddy he can't read the newspaper when he drives!:ROFLMAO:

i'm not sure,
but, i do think in USA we do have some laws about no dogs in your lap when you drive. But i still ppl driving with dogs in their laps anyway, which is so dangerous, as even one sudden stop,
could crush or at least squeeze the dog between driver and steering wheel.

I bet, in USA, the 'no-dogs-in-lap' laws vary from one state to the next state, not a nat'l law, but, i could be wrong.
 
Anneke

Anneke

Honored Member
In my last car, I had the backseat folded down, to create more room for my dogs. I had a tiny car and Cooper took up the entire backseat leaving no room for Jinx. I bought a Pet Barrier and installed it behind the front seats. Not just for the dogs safety, but also for mine, since Cooper would give me kisses, when ever I looked over my shoulder:D Or he would come up between the front seats to have a better look out the frontwindow:rolleyes: The barrier would keep them behind the frontseats even if I were to have an accident(never happened, fortunately)
Now I have a van-like car, but they are still not restrained in the back. I know they could get hurt badly, because they would fly through the back and hit the barrier, but they don't like to be in a crate.
And this is still allowed over here. I think they are working on a law for it, but even then my way would still be allowed.
 
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