Just over a week ago, I was in one of those car accidents that remind you to slow down and not take life and health for granted. Not that I was speeding; a crash happened about 10 or more car lengths in front of me, and I managed to stop the car without hitting the mess in front – and so did the guy behind me – but the car behind both of us didn’t. We were hit from behind fairly hard. My car was banged up, and my passenger and I definitely felt some aftereffects of whiplash, but afterward, all I could think of was that I was so glad I didn’t have any dogs in the car. (Virtually all of my friends: “You didn’t have a dog with you??!”)
Not only do canine seat belts prevent dogs from being thrown through the car like a dangerous projectile in a car crash, they keep dogs from being flung out of the car onto the roadway – or escaping in a panic through broken windows immediately afterward. The accident was somehow confined to the middle lane of five lanes– and this being a big city on a Saturday afternoon, traffic continued to pour past the damaged and disabled cars on both sides, at least until the Highway Patrol came and stopped the traffic on the right two lanes so an ambulance, a fire truck, and several tow trucks could attend to the hurt drivers and disabled vehicles. If a dog had been thrown out of any of the crashed cars, or had escaped from one, the dog’s death under a passing car would have been the next horror to happen. Again, I didn’t even have a dog with me, but I can see that happening as clearly as I can see what actually did happen.
There are many online groups that have Facebook pages where members can share information about lost dogs, and at least a couple times a year, I see a post from someone who lost dogs in the chaos of a car crash and is hoping beyond hope that the dog will be found unhurt. But there’s nothing like your own crash, or one that happens to a friend, to remind you that protecting your dog is just as important as protecting your children and other loved ones in a car.
Let me be that friend. Buckle up those pups!
(And, yes, I’m gathering products for an updated review of canine seat belts and other car restraints.)
Nancy, we’re glad you’re ok! Scary! I use a Sleepypod crate for my 13 lbs. dog because it was crash tested and it was my understanding, that there was no safe harness for small dogs. Would love some updated information. We travel a lot with some long days in the car so it would be nice if she could be seatbelted and enjoy looking out the window. That said, she loves her Sleepypod because it predicts happy trails ahead.
Yes. Each and every trip. Buckled into their harnesses. No exceptions. Ever.
I don’t understand all these negative comments about the seat belts. I use one every single time I leave the house with one or more of my six dogs. I saw what happened when I didn’t. I saw how a close friend lost two dogs when he didn’t secure his dogs in the car in either a crate or by using a seat belt. His small car was t-boned by a bus. One dog was thrown and died at the scene, the other broke his back, had surgery and died two days later. Not to mention that if a dog survives the actual accident, but bolts from the scene you may never see them again.
Here in Atlanta a man was in an accident on our major interstate. His service dog was not secured, bolted from the scene and was found several days later- a casualty of Interstate 85. Seat belts are super easy to use. They merely clip onto the back of your dog’s harness and click in where the car seat belt goes. Even if I am driving a block up the road with my dog I don’t leave it to chance, I belt her in. I also talk about this and my experiences in my dog training workshops every month.
Please, be careful out there and be careful with your dog out there.
I’m glad you weren’t seriously injured and that you actually didn’t have a dog with you. Working in rescue, we had someone who applied to adopt a dog from us who lost their dog in an auto accident. These were wonderful people who took excellent care of their pets. I know she wished she’d buckled her dog up. Unfortunately (for us), this family adopted another dog from another rescue group. I was hoping she’d take one of ours, as (despite the accident), they were a wonderful home.
It would be great to see an article that addresses these kinds of variations. Here are mine:
Sometimes our 68# dog sits in the footwell of the passenger seat. (sometimes there’s a person in the seat, and sometimes not.) He lies down or sits up. There’s not much extra room around, so I don’t think he could be thrown unless the car flipped or rolled. He’s below where an airbag would deploy. This wouldn’t prevent him from escaping, I realize, but I would like to understand more about the footwell as a somewhat protected space.
In addition to items intended as dog car restraints, it would be helpful to understand what makes something effective or not. Some folks can’t readily buy something new and/or already have things that might be good. What to look for or be aware of? One example is the Ruffwear webmaster harness, which has distributed support and is strong. One could run two seatbelts through it (like the sleepypod recommendation). I attach a strong webbing loop to the seat belt and clip it to both the d-ring and the handle, for stability and less risk of a single point of failure.
I would very much like to see a safe system to buckle up the giant breed dogs. I have Danes and Wolfhounds and have yet to find a system that is safe for them to be buckled into the back of a van or mini-van. And a crate? Uh, we have a minivan and our crates don’t fit in the mini-van (too tall and the are wide enough that you simply cannot assemble them in the van–fully assembled there is (according to our measurements) about 1 inch to spare in total in terms of width. You can’t fit one crate in there, much less two if you need to transport more than one dog at a time. If anyone knows of a system, please let me know. Most of the systems I’ve found are way too small (either they won’t fit around the dog at all, or they cut into the dog making them very uncomfortable, or they hit the dog in an unacceptable area of the body). I’d love to find a system that we could use to buckle up our giants.
YES PLEASE do a review of safety harnesses and safety crates. As far as I know there is only one organization that does crash testing, and it is sponsored by Suburu : The Center for Pet Safety. Last time I looked there were only 3 harnesses that passed. Other comments mentioned here refer to harnesses that ‘passed crash test’ but don’t mention who performed the testing (if at all). It must be very expensive to perform these tests correctly. I don’t know how WDJ could adequately perform these crash tests. I wish you well because ALL of us dog lovers need this information ASAP. You can go to FB or Center for Pet Safety to watch the crash tests with the dummy dogs. Horrifying. We need more companies doing testing as the number and variety of harnesses is vast.
Big dog seat belt company
Being both a CVT and one of those unlucky people who lost a dog in a crash, I will never ride with an unrestrained dog again! I was in a vehicle rollover in 2007. Both dogs were thrown from the vehicle. One sustained a broken neck and needed to be euthanized at the ED, and the other went running down the highway but was picked up within minutes by a Good Samaritan and taken to the ED. We couldn’t even go with them because we (2 adults and 2 children) were being transported to 2 separate hospitals.
I use SleepyPod, and it is worth every dollar I spent and every extra minute I take.
I have researched seat belts for my dogs but repeatedly but always run into the same problem — the designs only contemplate that you have one dog in your car. Please include in your article seatbelts that can accommodate two dogs in the back seat area. A crate or crates big enough for my 2 dogs would be too big for my vehicle. Currently I have a very sturdy barrier between the back of the car (seats folded down in small SUV because of dog anxiety) and the front. I also wanted to comment that dogs in the front seat of the car can be injured or killed if they are hit by an airbag. Even children and smaller or frail people are at the same risk.