Advice on car safety needed

Its pretty standard here to have the seatbelts that do retract to hold you tightly.....I can only think you had an older car.
I have just brought Leo a dog safety clip/seatbelt from Amazon....one end clips into the seatbelt and the other end clips on his harness. We havent tried it yet but it seems very secure and safe so I feel happier now that I wont be able to use his crate.

It's unrelated, but foreign seats I think sometimes essentially have one of those locking clips built into the seat. Some U.S. seats have that too. My niece's infant seat base thingy had that, and it was the easiest thing in the world to install.
But, back to the subject, we don't really have much of a clue about what will hold up in a crash. I've seen videos where the dog crashes through a plastic crate. I still use one for my larger dog, because it is what fits my vehicle and budget. Luke rides in a wire, because that is what fits the car. Until I had to change to the S70, it was also easy for me to remove the crate when I needed to take it out to crate him somewhere, when he is competing in flyball or doing a demo. Now I have room in the trunk for an extra crate for him. I can only hope my crates would hold up in a crash. If they did, my dogs could then be removed from the car in the crates, which might be safer for them and anyone involved if they were afraid. At the very least, being in the crates prevents them from causing an accident.
As for my back up harnesses, I picked what I did because there are no buckles on them. I also have a petbuckle http://www.petbuckle.com/ that I keep stashed in my trunk as a backup. That one is fairly adjustable, so I could use it on almost any dog. That one has automotive quality buckles, so they should hold up in a crash. There's no saying the dog won't be injured in some other way, and they will definitely travel forward and possibly impact other things in the car, but the buckles have a much better chance of holding than a plastic buckle would. A plastic buckle seems to me to be almost guaranteed to break.
If I had a budget and car that would accommodate them, I'd get these http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=32 73 .
If these would fit my car, I might try them http://www.rufftoughkennels.com/ , but I need to have a side door on Luke's crate to make my arrangement work.
I also need to have crates I can take out easily, or an extra set of crates (I'm loving having the extra crate for Luke and not taking his out).

I don't have room in my car for the crates, so he has only ever ridden in a harness.
He has the Kurgo Trufit harness and a petbuckle attachment (both are crash tested) and then i just put a blanket on the seat for him.
The petbuckle attachment doesn't attach to the seatbelt, rather, it attaches to the vehicle LATCH system (on the lower anchor).
http://www.car-safety.org/latch.html
It is very easy to use, and is unbuckled easily.

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Originally Posted by cavalover

This is what my husband and I got for Butters.

http://www.amazon.com/Solvit-Tagalon...+seat+tagalong

He loves it! This got us through a 24 hr drive from NY to Texas. He refused to sit there with just the harness secured to the seatbelt. Somehow, this made him feel more comfortable and less restricted. He enjoyed looking out the window and being a bit elevated off of the seat. There is an attachment at the bottom of the carrier that latches onto his harness to keep him secured. We assemble it in the back seat of our little sedan (you do, however, need back seats with a head rests and fold-down/single standing capability to secure the booster properly). There are some sample photos on the Amazon link, to include assembly in back seats

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I love the looks of this. Perhaps it will help with my car sick puppy :)

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Originally Posted by Ms Debz

I love the looks of this. Perhaps it will help with my car sick puppy :)

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I have really been very satisfied with the Tagalong, and I think it does help with car sickness. Before we got it, Butters used to become nauseous and antsy on only 1-2 hour trips. Please excuse the poor cellphone picture quality, but here are some pictures of Butters enjoying his carseat on our move to Texas.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8507/8...709b622a_z.jpg
IMG_0623 by LSidari, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8379/8...7165474c_z.jpg
IMG_0582 by LSidari, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8371/8...155c2e0e_z.jpg
IMG_0598 by LSidari, on Flickr



The second photo shows how the the latch on the seat attaches to his harness :) We put some soft blankets in the bottom of the basket to boost him up a bit more and keep him comfy

Mommy to Butters
That is so cute. What size Tagalong did you buy for him? When I did an Amazon search reviews mentioned getting the next size up so they can be comfortable laying down.

I completely agree with the amazon reviews about buying the next size up. I purchased the largest size available (X-large), which is the perfect size for Butters (he weighs 15.5 pounds). The description says that it can hold a cocker spaniel-sized dog, but a dog that big would have to sit up the entire time to be able to comfortably fit in a booster of that size. I would say it is best to get the largest size, even if you have a small cavalier. The big version allows for some extra space to put a blanket in the basket, which makes for an especially comfy ride :)

Thanks! I am thinking that is what I am going to get for Remy. He is not fully grown yet (10.6 lbs at 20 weeks) but am thinking he is going to be about 15lbs when he is finished growing.