Crates and Harnesses Make Your Pup Safer in the Car
Dogs that travel loose in the car are a risk to people and to themselves. Make your pup safer with crates and harnesses.
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Good Dog is on a mission to educate the public and make it simple for people to get dogs from good sources and for reputable breeders, shelters and rescues to put their dogs in good homes.
Good Dog is on a mission to educate the public and make it simple for people to get dogs from good sources and for reputable breeders, shelters and rescues to put their dogs in good homes.
Dogs that travel loose in the car are a risk to people and to themselves. Make your pup safer with crates and harnesses.
People who would never allow their child to be in the car without a car seat or seatbelt, travel with their dogs loose in the car without giving it a second thought. Yet, here’s the cold, hard reality–many dogs die each year while riding in a car during an accident.
Good Dog is on a mission to educate the public and make it simple for people to get dogs from good sources and for reputable breeders, shelters and rescues to put their dogs in good homes.
Secure Your Dog
Dogs need to be secured in a car the same way people do. Loose dogs can distract drivers, causing accidents but more importantly, if you hit something at 50 miles an hour your car will stop abruptly but anything not secured in the car will continue traveling at 50 miles an hour. So if you have an accident, your dog will be a 50-mph rocket traveling through the car, hitting you, your children, the windshield, or window. If your dog survives, it could be thrown from the car, injured, hit by another car, or roaming loose, dazed and frightened.
What can you do to ensure your dog travels safely? Use a crate or harness, ideally crash tested. Here is more info about these products.
Travel Crates
You can use any kind of hard-sided crate in your car, such as wire or plastic, but only a few crates have been crash tested. Fair warning, these are expensive crates. But even a regular Varikennel is better than your dog riding loose. The (only) two crates that passed the Center for Pet Safety crash tests are:
Car Harness
Of course, not everyone has enough room in their car to keep a crate for their dog so you can also use a harness. Car harnesses use your vehicle’s seatbelt, to secure your dog. The two harnesses that passed crash testing are the ClickIt by Sleepypod and the ZugoPet Rockateer Pack.
Using The Back Seat
If you insist on letting your dog ride loose in the car, the very least you can do is never allow it in the front seat while you are moving. As with children, the airbags that are installed in most vehicles these days can kill a dog if activated and, as many of us know, it does not take much of an accident to have an airbag go off.The next time you ask your dog, “Do you want to go for a ride?” think about the risks she faces because of the way you have chosen for her to travel in your car. Then do your very best to reduce those risks! Oh, and be sure to wear your seatbelt, too!
Dr. Gayle Watkins, PhD is the Founder of Avidog, the leading educational platform for dog breeders and puppy owners, and Gaylan's Golden Retrievers, her 40-year breeding program. Today, Gayle is the only golden retriever AKC Gold Breeder of Merit, and is a three-time AKC “Breeder of the Year.”
