Dogs in cars

Penny Less

Penny Less

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10 March 2009
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I have just found out that it is against the law to travel an unrestrained dog in your car. Only found out because I am in the oprocess of adopting a rescue dog. I have had dogs all my life and have never seen this publicised in any way?Also been told that its against the law for children under 10 to walk a dog ?
 
Only ever kept a dog in the boot, although I know my mother used to let our old girl sit up front in the passenger seat
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Wasn't aware it was law, I've never seen people with 'head out the window' dogs being stopped by cops!

I didn't know for definite about the children under ten one but that is common sense and I'd be all for raising the age too (as a kid who was allowed to walk a GSD at 12 - I probably shouldn't have been
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Yes, if you think about it makes sense as they can really distract you. Henry has no sense of timing at all and will climb around - a couple of times when he has been in other people's cars (without me) he has started the journey in the boot and ended in on the front seat
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A friend of mine saw a 'head out of the window' dog fall / jump out of a moving car the other day - she says it got up and was running ok but how scary is that? I hate seeing dogs sticking their heads out for that reason!

Henry has a seatbelt which he hates - too flipping bad! It's either that or the boot which he hates even more - he likes to look out of the windows and view the scenery so in the boot he spends ages on his back legs, not good for the hips.
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So he gets the whole back seat in his harness instead
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Not sure about the under-10 thing but probably makes sense?
 
Are you sure? I've worked for the Police for the last ten years or so and that has certainly never cropped up.

Obviously it is safest to travel a dog in a cage in the boot for both dog and driver and I always use one during the shooting season so that they can sit in it with the boot open whilst we stop. But most of the time they are just in the boot (estate car) and luckily never climb over but if you were to have an accident the dog would shoot forward like an unrestrained back passenger
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Never heard about an under 10 yr old walking a dog either. I would be interested to see the actually legislation for that.
 
Our dog is generally unrestrained asleep in the back seat as he is less of a distraction - he keeps trying to hang himself in any seatbelt he wears. Can't go in the boot as boot is full of OH's work stuff (as is most of the back seat! When OH has made emergency stops with him in the back (or front) he's ended up in the footwell, no injuries to him or us, and if the car rolled, the dog would be least of our worries - estate type boot covers don't strike me as substantial enough to prevent vet kit from escaping and coming visiting...
 
My brother is a homologation engineer and is an expert witness for car accidents etc and has done work for the MOT... We bought a car harness for our wolfie when he was a pup and proudly showed it my brother as he was concerned about the weight of an unrestrained dog if an accident occurred. He told us the harness was useless as it had plastic clips that went throught he seatbelt, and said on impact at speeds possibly lower than 30mph, the plastic would break and we would invariably be killed. He solved the problem by developing a mechanism for attaching our dog via a harness with metal clips, to the chassis. In an accident the dog would die, but we would be saved. Horrible to think about but ideally, a strong cage secured well, is the best way to travel a dog.
As for the walking rule I sincerely hope this is correct! I witnessed a poor child aged around 8 years old being dragged on the floor,across a road by a large GSD who was a bitch in season, to get to a male dog. Poor kid didn't let go despite me running over to her and telling her to as she
'would have got into trouble'!!!! The strength of even a smallish lab is not to be underestimated!
 
My lab (27kg) has nearly pulled me over, and can certainly get me off balance if he tries to go somewhere - usually to my OH fortunately. I weigh more like 76kg! He's pure muscle! He's obedient though, but if anyone smaller and lighter (or me when I'm broken) has to walk him, it's Halti time.

Can't think where we'd put a cage in OH's car most of the time - we haven't even got space for the weekly shop!
 
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Does the 10 yr old thing maybe come from the fact that 10 years old is the age for criminal responsibility so the age when you are considered old enough to be responsible for your own actions? And aren't dogs in public always meant to be with a responsible person?

Just a guess but maybe that's why you are supposed to be over 10 - beacuse that's the point in the eyes of the law when you can be responsible.

Re the car thing - I ssupect its' like a lot of things, the police won't stop you unless the dog is being a danger by distracting you as they have other things to do!
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My dad (who was a copper) always said this was one of the reasons they don't always stop people who are speeding - depends on the circumstances and how fast you're actually going.

Again only an educated guess though!
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Henry has the same harness as Popple, I think they're probably quite good as they have a proper seatbelt clip in metal that goes into the seatbelt socket? Henry's has held up well when I have had to make couple of emergency stops from going quite fast, fingers crossed it doesn't get a real test though!
 
I am no engineer hanandhen, but presume that these things have been tested and are safe. The harness is different to the one we had so could not possibly comment ....sounds great though!!!! Just out of interest are the side clips plastic? The slot in kind?
 
Oh yes they are, is that the bit that worried your brother? Sorry didn't understand, am a bit dozy!
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Aw Popple is gorgeous and sits so nicely. This post has definitely made me think twice about travelling my dogs. I am afraid to say I am one of those whose dogs do as they please and sit loose on the back seat. I have also allowed the bigger one to have her head out window for a couple of mins on a hot day as she is long haired
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(going off to look for cages)
 
It did indeed Hen HOWEVER.... ours was plastic on the top and the sides, so that the main strain would have broken the clip at the top. If it is a side clip then I don't know if the strain is as great, plus our dog was at 6 months old 56KG and rose to 86KG. Problem is we had the same thing with an extending lead.. It was calibrated far above our dog's weight and it snapped causing a hell of an accident within 2 months of purchase! Made us very very aware!!!
Popple's harness looks ,much better as the webbing on her chest is much wider and so, I should imagine, would take a hell of a lot of strain, ... but do remember I am no engineer and not qualified to comment in any way! Contact the manufacturers and ask for some safety assurances on the testing of their harnesses. I can guarantee they will be more than willing to send some data!!!
My brother's 'invention' consisted of a harness of the same material as would take a man rock climbing, and the lead and attachments (courtesy of hubby) where of climbing rope and carabiners. That way we knew that if our dog was the weight of a man and these things are tested to extreme (such as seat belts etc) He would be fine!!!
Thankfully we never had an accident, closest trauma we had was a large branch fell on our car as I was driving, poor dog got a hell of a shock but I managed to swerve across the road and hit only the thinner part at speed. It damaged our car but if another car had been comig the other way, and I couldn't have swerved, it might have crushed us... but you can't predict something like that! Wasn't even windy!
 
Ahh bless you Han... he is the quietest, most modest man ever.. He has won design awards and featured on TV and in magazines. He is a fellow of the institute of mechanical engineers. In sixth form (he is 44 now) he was on television as won an engineering comp. At the age of 15 he developed a way to run a car partly on water, the list is endless yet he is so unassumming and modest! He was always a twiddler but I can remember his attempt, aged 15, at making the best baby bouncer for our baby brother who was 6 months old at the time.... He used several aero elastics and my mum's laundry basket... the results did not go well.... one angry, tearful baby and one banishment to his bedroom to 'think about what he had done and that a pile of house bricks weighing the same as a baby did NOT equal a baby' and he reformulated his idea only this time with my sisters old dolly with a few house bricks!
 
I heard of someone being fined £60 about 3 months ago for allowing the dog on the frony seat unrestrained. Daisy wears her harness and its attached to a dog control lead that clips int the seatbelt, she sits on the back seat.

I learnt the expensive way not to travel her loose, when i got out of the car to open the gate she jumped in my seat and pressed the button that locked the central locking!! It was freezing outside and my coat and mobile were in my lovely warm car!! I was on my own and spent ages trying to coax her to press the button again or stand on the window button, i gave up and put a brick through the window.... Yo arrived to find me in tears glass everywhere. I had to pay to have the window replaced!!
 
Our dogs go in the boot and I sit in the back so I can keep an eye on them and stop them from jumping into the front. Leah isn't a very good traveller - she gets nervous and refuses to lie down, and is tense and panting the whole time, so we don't take her in the car very often if we can help it! Leah did have a crate (not any more - she tore it up in a moment of panic when someone nearby was setting off fireworks) but it was too big to fit in the back of my mum's car.

I think it's very sensible that children shouldn't walk dogs on their own - my mum was bitten by a dog which was being walked by a little girl who was just being dragged around with no control at all. When I was about 10-ish, Leah saw her Labrador friend and got so excited she pulled me right over - luckily she is a very kind dog and when she realised I was on the floor she stopped to make sure I was okay.
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But I probably shouldn't have been waling her on my own like that.
 
I didn't know that either, my dog sits very quietly in the back seat and you'd never know he was there until the snoring starts. ( he's a bulldog ).
 
Henry is a Dogs Trust Special as well, I don't think they'll let you take them home without a boot guard or harness will they?

What kind of dog are you adopting?
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