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Advice on car safety needed

meljoy

Well-known member
Hi,
I have just ordered a new car today and it should arrive in April. At the moment Leo travels in his crate in the boot (its a hatch back by the way I dont lock him in darkness in the boot).
So my new car is lovely but Ive down sized and the problem is the crate doesnt fit in the new boot. I have a harness that attatches to the seatbelt so he wont be "free" in the back of the car. I was wondering what others use.

Should I try and buy a smaller crate or is the dog seatbelt sufficient?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Mel
 
This is what my husband and I got for Butters.

http://www.amazon.com/Solvit-Tagalo...324&sr=1-2&keywords=dog+booster+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
 
I was able to put Luke's crate on the seat in my previous car (Chevy Aveo Hatchback) and put an intermediate sized Vari-Kennel in there too. Actually, I do it now too in a Volvo S70. In order for it to work with the two crates, Luke's crate has to be one with a side opening door. His crate overhangs the seat, and is wedged against the front seat. In the Aveo, I anchored the crates to the tether hooks and latch anchors that are meant for child car seats. I don't have tether anchors in the Volvo, so they are hooked to a cargo anchor in the back and I think I ran the strap on Luke's crate through to a part of the seat track in front of his crate. Luke's car crate is a regular sized crate for him (24 inch wire).
I also have these for when we can't bring the crates for some reason.
http://www.ruffrider.com/
 
Sorry I can't help for enjoy the word boot for what we American's call the trunk :)

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=22221&ref=NA&subref=NA&cmpid=PPC-G-NA

Fletcher has a medium size one and its plenty of room for him on short trips. He like it naturally he's just happy to be going with us but I love it because I can secure it to the seat AND because it folds up nice and quick and I easily store it in the car whenever I don't have Fletcher. I think its other plus is you can use it as a carrier too.
 
Truthfully there doesn't seem to be any real research published on pet safety in autos. There is a group doing some but they haven't published their results yet. I settled for getting a strap with a loop--I put the seatbelt through the loop and clip the strap to the walking harness. It's not perfect but it would provide some protection in a crash, and it keeps the dogs in their place in the car with the ability to move around a bit. Tess is well-behaved but my male Golden always wants to "help" me drive. LOL. At the moment the two large dogs travel in the cargo area--just got an SUV--and I plan to get SUV-sized crates for them. Tess, the CKCS, sits in the back seat in a small dog bed.
 
We had one very similar to this for Rose, and it worked really well (it also folds up for storage). Since we got Emma, we got a Pet Tube: http://www.petego.com/products.aspx?catId=24&prodId=121 that also folds flat. So far, I've been happy with it too. We have the large (you can adjust the length of it via straps to 1/3rd or 2/3rds the original length), but it also comes in a small that looked Cavalier size.

If you google for pet carrier crash tests, you can find a few videos that are helpful. One thing I learned is that I won't put a hard sided plastic crate in a seat with or without a seatbelt around it anymore- they go in the floorboard!

Sorry I can't help for enjoy the word boot for what we American's call the trunk :)

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=22221&ref=NA&subref=NA&cmpid=PPC-G-NA

Fletcher has a medium size one and its plenty of room for him on short trips. He like it naturally he's just happy to be going with us but I love it because I can secure it to the seat AND because it folds up nice and quick and I easily store it in the car whenever I don't have Fletcher. I think its other plus is you can use it as a carrier too.
 
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When I owned a car I really liked the sturdibags. They have places for the seatbelt to slide through so the carrier can be anchored to the seat. In the event of a crash the dog would be thrown sideways against a soft structured surface, have protection from broken glass etc. If you are ever in a crash with the dog in the car that's about the best your going to get, being thrown forward will mean a lot more force along the spine so anything that has the dog sitting with a harness is going to offer very little protection. Leaving the dog loose, or in something open like the hammocks they sell means the dog will be thrown about, potentially out of the car (really, REALLY bad).

But I have to ask, when I rented a car in England this past summer (July 2012), the seatbelts in the backseat didn't have the car seat feature (you pull the belt all the way out and then it can only be retracted (so gets very tight to hold a baby seat, or pet carrier)). Was that just a strange car we had, or do the British not bother with car safety, or is there some secret mechanism?
 
When I owned a car I really liked the sturdibags. They have places for the seatbelt to slide through so the carrier can be anchored to the seat. In the event of a crash the dog would be thrown sideways against a soft structured surface, have protection from broken glass etc. If you are ever in a crash with the dog in the car that's about the best your going to get, being thrown forward will mean a lot more force along the spine so anything that has the dog sitting with a harness is going to offer very little protection. Leaving the dog loose, or in something open like the hammocks they sell means the dog will be thrown about, potentially out of the car (really, REALLY bad).




But I have to ask, when I rented a car in England this past summer (July 2012), the seatbelts in the backseat didn't have the car seat feature (you pull the belt all the way out and then it can only be retracted (so gets very tight to hold a baby seat, or pet carrier)). Was that just a strange car we had, or do the British not bother with car safety, or is there some secret mechanism?



http://www.amazon.com/Graco-4045-Se...id=1361712194&sr=8-1&keywords=carseat+h+clips This would forever solve that problem. We have an older car which the seatbelts don't have that locking feature either.
 
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=3273 .
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.
 
This is what my husband and I got for Butters.

http://www.amazon.com/Solvit-Tagalo...324&sr=1-2&keywords=dog+booster+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

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

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.


IMG_0623 by LSidari, on Flickr


IMG_0582 by LSidari, on Flickr


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.
 
Is the latch on the seat at the top or bottom? Does it have enough length to allow Butters to turn/move around some inside?
 
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