How do you secure your dog in your car?

[demelza]

With a baby on the way we are thinking more about the dog and the kid riding in our vehicles together and trying to keep them both as safe as can be.  We both drive 4 door full size sedans.  We have never tried any restraints with our dog in the car.  

My husband showed me this article about Subaru putting dog restraint systems to the test:

"In Subaru's crash test, performed at a Virginia laboratory that tests child seats on a device that speeds down a track and stops abruptly, the results show that devices such as dog tethers are prone to break in a crash, sending the dog rocketing into whatever is in front of it. Rather alarmingly, the organization reports a 100-percent failure rate. In other words, "None of the harnesses were deemed safe enough to protect both the dog and the humans in the event of an accident."

Subaru tests dog restraints article Aug 2013

So it sounds like the harness systems aren't effective in a crash at all.  With a sedan it seems like those systems are the only option as there is no where to fit a crate for a 65 lb dog?  

[thebuddhagouda]

My dog is 10 lbs so we just crate him and buckle in the crate.

[TrickyBob]

I have a jeep liberty. In order to crate her, we have to put the back seats down and even then, the crate slides.

We just leave the seats up and put her all the way in the back. She doesn't bother to try and jump over the seats and since we have her bed back there, she usually lays down because she gets car sick.

It kills me to think about accidents because if we got hit from behind, she'd directly take it. That breaks my heart. If we were to get hit anywhere else or hit someone else, she'd go flying into the back of the back seats. Unless the car rolled over.

I just pray we never get into an accident.

[motzie]

Eeek. We use car harnesses that buckle into the seatbelt. At times we have rigged them to something else, depending on room in the car, etc, or tethered them together and then to the seatbelt as well.

My aunt was in a small ice related car accident in which her dog was harnessed on the front seat. The harness held the dog and my aunt insists, saved the dogs life. That was the one thing she kept saying after the accident.

Thanks for sharing this!

[nomad100]

We need to get Willow a harness for the car. She move around too much right now.

So we were thinking about something like this that clips into the seat belt
www.snoozerpetproducts.com/pet-safety-harness-and-adapter-p-63.html?utm_source=GoogleBase&utm_medium=Feed&utm_campaign=Feed&adtype=pla&kw={keyword}&gclid=CPTa0IXqibkCFUqk4AodDAYA-A

or this
www.petco.com/product/115350/Bergan-Auto-Harness-with-Tether-Dog-Car-Harness.aspx?cm_mmc=CSEMGoogleAdExtProd%20-_-Harnesses-_-Bergan-_-1436198&gclid=COWogLfqibkCFYOe4AodUH4A3A

[Deleted]

that's sad about the harnesses.

[Deleted]

My big dog has a leash that has this little thing that clips onto the seatbelt.

It looks just like this:

[roxysoxy]

We crate our dog in the car.  We've tried seatbelts, but she freaks out if she's in the car without her crate.

[circa1978]

We have a harness for trips with one or the other. When it's both, they get crated together in the back (which I hate because I worry about being rear ended.)

[lolly]

We use car harnesses hooked to the seatbelt.

[BlackCanary]

We don't harness Abby, even though we should. She tends to lie down in the backseat anyway. 

[janegold]

She gets the trunk space to herself (we have an SUV) but we don't restrain her. We got the SUV so that when we have a baby, the dog and baby are in separate areas of the car.

[Deleted]

We just put them in the back seat. We strapped Nika in her carrier when she was small but now that she's a bigger dog she either sits in the back seat with Nanook or on my lap. If there was a reliable safety system we would use it but we haven't found one so we have decided it is more pleasant, and equally safe, for the dogs not to be strapped in.

[iammalcolmx]

I have a harness hooked to a seat-belt as well.

[DaisyCakes]

We've used this since she was a pup. Works great!
usak9outfitters.com/CCSS.htm

[alare]

I just tuck the seat belt through her regular harness. Bad pug mother.

[bania]

If I'm driving by myself I crate them in the back seat. If DH is driving, I'll hold them. We have the seat belts for them but they both hate it. We crate them instead. Or if we are driving a long distance together we crate them/ hold them for a bit etc.

[Kristinmo]

We don't. I always thought that was flammable but now with that article, I'm glad we don't. It would be a nightmare trying to get her into a harness.

[Deleted]

We have a booster seat.

He's only in it when the baby's in the car. I was concerned with him scratching her.

[fuckyourcouch]

We have a backseat hammock thing, and then the seat belt harness hook up like what dovey posted.

[SKP82]

We haven't ever restrained our dogs in the car. We have two hatchbacks and either put them in the way back or put the seats down flat and they have the whole back. When we have the baby, they'll probably just ride in the very back.

[shepoz]

We don't harness. Puppers lays in the back seat next to the car seat. She is 90lbs of restraint-hating beast.

[VeryViolet]

We have a really great strap that hooks into the seatbelt and then at the other end has a clip. That we just clip onto his regular harness. I really like that we don't have to get him into another contraption. They made a point to say to always hook it to a harness and never his collar because of strangulation and harm in the case of an accident. I don't know if it is any safer if we had an accident but I do know it is much safer to drive without him all up in my business while I try to drive.

[snickers]

Puggles has a harness that gets buckled into the seat belt holder thing.
I rarely have the patience to use it though.

[RoxMonster]

Roxie just lays or sits down in the backseat. She hates being crated and our cars are not big enough for a crate to hold her anyway. We want to condition her to one of the car harnesses, but right now she would not have it. We are just now working on building up the length of car trips we take with her.

I pretty much just have come to terms with the fact that nothing will be totally safe for her in the car and pray to God we never get in an accident when she is with us

[thinklikeajellyfish]

We have a harness that has a place for a clip that snaps directly into the seat belt buckle.  Like this (except my dog is an Australian shepherd   We started using after a time that I had to slam on the brakes really hard and he flew from the back seat to the front seat.  Ever since then he has always worn a seat belt.  Last year he was in the car when I was rear ended badly enough that my car was totaled.  He stayed safely buckled in the back seat the whole time.  Better safe than sorry.