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Hey Dogtrackworld, how do you transport your dogs around in the car? I'm considering a car seat type thing for the Lab puppy (3 months old at the moment). We drive very infrequently at the moment but will have a long drive from Manchester to Northumbria in a few months so looking for solutions that don't involve his crate. Car is a Kia XCeed if that helps, and sadly, we probably won't be taking bikes.
Thank you in advance!
Boot with a dog mesh to stop them jumping over the back seats for me. Simple and works 🙂
I think you can get dog harnesses that plug into the car seat belt slot?
Worth a try...
We have a harness and a clip-in seatbeat strap. Not a huge amount of movement for him, but enough to see out and stick his nose in my ear.
We have a harness that clips around the seatbelt so she can still move around the back seat to some degree but is protected by the inertia reel.
Be aware that there is no test standard for dog safety harnesses so do your homework carefully.
In the boot in a crate or with a separator to the rest of the car. That 3month old puppy will be a hulking great big dog soon and will be best in the boot to be safe so get them used to it early? Dogs usually adapt quickly. Oh and short trips to get them used to it and big walk before longer trip.
Crate train it and get a fabric crate for the boot.
Crate in the boot, but take the parcel shelf out of course! 🙂
You really need to start as you mean to go on. A fullly grown Lab walloping around the inside of a car isn't ideal IMO, and it'll wreck your seats.
You'll probably need to move to fully open boot and dog guard in future though due to size of dog.
We've got one that clips into the seatbelt and attaches to the dogs harness.
What muffin man says.
As a now not so new dog owner my preference is a crate. The dog prefers a seat belt/harness combo. The car prefers a crate. And that's a petit cocka-poo now fully grown.
Well done cha****ng, the thread title was crying out for a less serious answer.
As Tony says - whatever method you use get it used to the car right away. Regular short trips so it is happy in the car. If it is nervous then someone can sit in the back seat withit just now for short local trips.
If you have the room in the house then I'd crate. I have a smaller one for the boot with a sloping rear. Very handy if anybody else has the dog or you have a different car, the crate just goes with her.
I also have some of those tethers for seatbelt points, but dogs tend to spin. If they're out of sight in the boot and tethered they can string themselves up. Ours ended up like this on a long drive once and I had to cut the straps to release her as it was so tight.
Back in the day, my mum always used to make the dog lie down in the passenger footwell. With her feet on it. Dogs are so spoilt these days 😀
(Border collie sized dog, so not a little'un!)
Well done cha****ng, the thread title was crying out for a less serious answer.
Dogs doing human things are never not funny.
On our return home from Dogs Trust with our new pooches, they chewed through their leads and the seatbelts they were attached to. Seat belts are surprisingly expensive.
There are load tie down points in the boot of the S-Max and we have all metal chains and toggles now, just to collars for local trip a mile or five to the woods, and a couple of padded travel harnesses for long trips.
In the boot, lined with a dog bed and with the vehicle specific dog guard. Guard stays in possition all the time and seats can still go down.
Haven’t had a dog for years but when we did this was standard for them all
Back in the day, my mum always used to make the dog lie down in the passenger footwell. With her feet on it. Dogs are so spoilt these days 😀
We trained them asap that this was where they traveled and it worked, although again Mum got what ever space various dogs deemed appropriate for her legs 😜
Even though you drive infrequently, having a dog who doesn't travel well is ultimately a pain in the bum! Our GSD cross couldn't make it 5 minutes without being very ill just because of how little he travelled. Ziva on the other side would very happily travel all the way from the West Mids to the middle of France without needing anything other than a pee break. I'd make every effort to put in the work now for it not to be a problem later on down the line. She had a large bed in the boot and happily slept her time away, if you let them on the back seat now they'll want to be there forever which is fine when clean but what about after their muddy walk? If you teach the dog to settle in the bed in the crate/boot/car life will be a lot easier and safer than having them pondering all over the place.
Previous dogs and cars with kids), just in the boot with a guard attached to the rear of the seat.
Current dogs and car with no kids, on the back seat as it's a saloon 🙂
Lintran or similar dog box. Dog is safe, untethered, the box is comfortable and plenty of space. All of us are protected in case of a collision. I've got mine in the load bed of a Hilux with a canopy, which means she never comes anywhere near the passenger compartment at any time, so all the water mud, filth and hair associated with a working dog can stay away from passengers.
Edit: She travels perfectly happily in there, it's her space. Start off as you mean to go on and they very quickly get used to the idea.
We do in the boot with a dog guard or clipped in on a car seat hammock on the back seat. She preferred the back seat until she was big enough to see us from the boot. She's now quite happy with either. Boot tends to be for local journeys, back seat for trips away when we have luggage/camping equipment in the boot. One of the things I was most relieved about is she's been an awesome traveller from day 1.
L200 with a hardtop and the mutt is in a cage in the back 😉
Boot with crate, or boot with bed and mesh to stop her jumping in the front. Travel bowl of water and a few snacks. Nice and simple.
First thing that comes up on a search. I reckon the *majority* of people transporting their dogs do so illegally. I've seen a stack of people in the last few years with their dog on their lap, between their arms, while driving.
Yet another thing (much like phones or shit hanging from rear view mirror obstructing visibility) that there should be a proper crack down on.
"If you plan to carry your dog in the car, the law is pretty straightforward. Rule 57 of the Highway Code states that you must “make sure dogs or other animals are suitably restrained” in a vehicle. So, you can’t have Bonzo wandering around the car’s cabin or sticking his head out of the window as he sees fit."
I prefer a proper dog harness with the seatbelt attachment,you've got seatbelts ,why not the dog 🙂
As opposed to bouncing around the boot in a cage when some numpty decides to ram.
Discovery and Berlingo both have dog guards for the boot (the Disco also has a divider as the boot is huge). The odd occasion they go in the Mini or in my in-laws Jazz they have short lead type things with seatbelt clip bits on the end which go in the car’s seatbelt receiver on the back seat.
Make sure any lead or similar is the right length and preferably not attached to a collar but to a harness- a few years ago my boss had his mother in law’s cockapoo on it’s lead attached to the back seat belt. Boot had shopping in it. (Octavia hatch with no parcel shelf fitted) He stopped for fuel and the dog jumped into the boot to investigate the shopping. Lead was long enough for it to get over the seat but only just & the dog choked to death in the time it took him to go and pay for the fuel… 😦
Back in the day, my mum always used to make the dog lie down in the passenger footwell. With her feet on it.
This is what I've always done, ,minus the feet bit. Has there been a law change? What's with all the cages?
Has there been a law change? What’s with all the cages?
Oft quoted but no, there is no specific law, but if the dog distracts or interferes with safe driving it would be used as a factor contributing to a charge of careless driving.
Besides which, in a collision an unsecured dog is a frightening source of unwanted newtons….
Back seat is pretty much always down in our car, so the dogs have harnesses and a very short tether about 12" long, and are clipped into the back seat mounting points over the wheel arches. One on each side. They have plenty room to move about, lie down, whatever, but can't wander far
Oft quoted but no, there is no specific law, but if the dog distracts or interferes with safe driving it would be used as a factor contributing to a charge of careless driving.
hmm. I'd taken the Autoexpress view as fact - the Highway Code isn't quite as clear.
https://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/rules-about-animals-other-animals.html
"When in a vehicle make sure dogs or other animals are suitably restrained so they cannot distract you while you are driving or injure you, or themselves, if you stop quickly. A seat belt harness, pet carrier, dog cage or dog guard are ways of restraining animals in cars."
I'd have hoped that is a 'must' as in failure to comply by itself is an offence. but maybe not.
Any traffic police on here?
Cage in the boot. Plenty of options including ones with sliding doors for boots with a lip. Cage in the dining room too where he sleeps every night.
Boot unless it’s a 2 seater sports car
My boxer fits in the boot of my Abarth 595.
No tether required as the boot is fortunately exactly her size.
I open it at the end of the drive and she's chilled AF just lying there. If I crashed she'd move about 4 inches forwards at most.
Solution - become a petrolhead and then buy an impossibly impractical car.
Having seen the rear end of a friends' Audi (fortunately their dog wasn't in it at the time) having been rear ended by a lorry, we'd never have ours in the rear; Ruffwear harnesses with seatbelt clips - they reside on the rear seats and are also contained by one of these:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/SUPSOO-Dog-Car-Seat-Cover/dp/B07JN1NY4B/
Dog crate in boot(Fabric one) went through 3 pets at home ones(plastic poles kept breaking after a while) but now have a Maelson soft crate(solid) not cheap but very well made and sturdy. Metal crates are only for bad dogs 🙁
Use a dog guard from guardsman or travall (can be found 2nd hand as people change cars more often than dogs). Can be the car that affects how travel sick a dog is. Our dog doesn't like the boot of a Passat estate and is nearly always sick even if we haven't fed him for 12 hours and will always travel looking out of the rear window or pressed against the dog guard. Put him in the Sportage and he lies down on his bed and goes to sleep and has only been sick once.
I’d have hoped that is a ‘must’ as in failure to comply by itself is an offence. but maybe not.
Any traffic police on here?
As you rightly point out, it's in the highway code but isn't a "must". The Highway code doesn't in itself create offences. Anything that has the word "must" in it is embodied in the Road Traffic act and its many amendments. However, any evidence that a driver or road user has not driven in accordance with the Highway Code can and often is used as evidence of carelessness, negligence or recklessness, in a chain of evidence used to reinforce a case of an actual offence against the Act itself.
(I was a cop for thirty years)
Thank you all! First choice is definitely training the dog to be a chauffeur, but failing that, lots of ideas to take away.
Lidl have pet stuff in at the moment, they had some car seat hammocks
If your dog is in the boot with a dog guard up do you also tether it in the boot?
If you're sure he/she won't jump out as soon as you open the lid, no.
Travall dog guards are good. Ours only goes in when we are taking the dog but it takes less than the time two children take to get their act together and have a wee to install. We have a splitter with ours so dog gets half the boot, luggage the rest which is ok for a weekend away (SMax).
We have a rubber boot liner with puppy pads and old towels/throws/blankets but our dog is not a happy traveller. He has to have anti sickness meds for anything over about 10 miles so no nice dog bed that's hard to wash.
The guard is a pain in the backside the rest of the time as it prevents bike handlebars overhanging the back seat and gets in the way of rolled sails hence it comes out.
If you want a fairly large crate I have one gathering dust in the shed.
Harness, seat belt clip and water proof seat covers here, but it'll depend on the dog. Barney will sit where he's told and doesn't bite lumps off the interior.
He's a bit anxious to begin with but settles down after 15-20 minutes then sprawls out across the front seats and sleeps for pretty much the entire journey, occasionally getting up for a few minutes before nodding off again.
He likes it in the van as he can look out of the windows and gets lots of waves 😀