How do you travel your dog?

How do your dog/s travel in you car?

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SillySausage

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A few years ago now, a lady I met at the vets had to have her dog put down due to a broken back. They had just been in a minor car accident, but the dog was sat on the front seat and was thrown into the windscreen. As soon as I got home I asked my parents to have dog guards put in all of the family cars, and my dogs always travel in boot! Just out of interest, thought I would ask how people travel their dogs, and reasons why they do so!
 
Aww poor dog - I have seen many many dogs in the back seats of cars, heads hanging out of windows - scary stuff.

We have taken the shelf out of the boot and put a dog guard in, and he travels quite happily in there slobbering all over the back window :D It was either a dog guard or 2 squished kids :D
 
I have a doggy van, with crates up the back and just space in the back (near back door) so depending on what dogs and how many some in crates some out between crates and back door.
In my 4x4, dogs are in the boot, no dog guard, the seats are pretty high though.
 
At the moment she sits on the front seat but after reading that first post I will be reconsidering!!! She gets car sick so I try to bring her with me to lots of places so she gets less car sick!
 
Couldn't answer the poll as it depends on the car - in mine she travels on the back seat unrestrained but in the Skoda she's in the boot with a fitted dog guard. I need a new (bigger) car! :o
 
HuntingmadinEire said:
At the moment she sits on the front seat but after reading that first post I will be reconsidering!!! She gets car sick so I try to bring her with me to lots of places so she gets less car sick!
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Sorry I didn't mean to scare/upset anybody, but I was so shocked by it at the time. It was such a minor accident that the humans all walked away without so much as a bruise, but the poor dog didn't stand a chance and the woman was devestated and wouldn't stop blaming herself :(

Really made me think twice about how I travel my dogs.
 
Goldie - harnessed in front seat
GSD - harnessed in back seat
in my car (Peugeot 106 and I try NOT to use my car unless I have to)
but in my Dad's car they have a custom made crate for both of them (Vectra estate) they don't go in my Mum's car - she's too car proud :p!
my dogs have never and will never travel unrestrained; seen and heard way too many horror stories from work and the training club :(
K x
 
Shirley Bassett would prefer to travel in the front,sort of sitting on my lap, with her head out the drivers side window.However I am a "mean mummie"and she travels in a crate in the back of the hatchback.
 
I don't think it's illegal in Ireland either. I think as long as the dog is not in your lap they won't say anything.

I have a commercial jeep so I think a crate would be a good idea for me!
 
Also illegal here (Germany) to have an unrestrained animal in any part of the main body of the vehicle. Hefty fines and points on licence otherwise.

Bear (and Tugg, before him) travel in a properly secured travelling crate in the rear of the Outlander. :)
 
In OH's car, we have 2 dog guards, one between front and rear seats, one between boot and rear seats, so hopefully that is adequate. Dog goes on back seat - he has one seat worth, rest is full of stuff, unless the x-ray machine is in the car, in which case he stays at work as x-ray machine an paraphanalia take up that space... He's a complete git when harnessed, figeting trying to hang himself on the seatbelt, whereas unharnessed he curls up in a ball and sleeps quietly, reducing the likelihood of a crash. He does wear a lead though so he's easy to grab if hasty exit required (after seeing a couple of dogs weave across 6 lanes of motorway following a crash.

In my car, he sits, usually harnessed, on the only passenger seat, unless there's another human passenger in which case he's in the footwell. He'd roast in the boot (engine is between boot and rest of car!), and there is nowhere else he could possibly fit. Occasionally I have to shove his nose out of the way to change gear - so my car is only an emergency (as OH having busy on call) dog transport option!
 
Have seen nasty accidents too :( Mine are in the boot of the jeep with a dog guard but I do wonder if they would be even better protected if I had cages fitted....
 
When push comes to shove, if a crash is high-impact or high-speed, people and dogs are going to get hurt, whatever precautions we try to make.
I've known a guy get rear-ended by an artic and the dogs in the boot (in cages) survived without a scratch.
I've also known a dog come out of a very high-spec trailer on a motorway :(

We can do what we can but I would never travel a dog unrestrained in the main body of the car, there is far too much that can go wrong - even if they were to be thrown out of the car and escape/get lifted etc.
 
Both mine travel in the boot (estate bit) behind a factory fitted dog guard. The collie travels loose and the spaniel is in a dog cage - saves bickering!
 
This is all very interesting stuff!

CaveCanem, I agree that if a severe crash is going to happen then passengers are going to get hurt, be it dog or human, and there's nothing we can do :(

In the case of the lady I mentioned, her dog may not have been killed if it had been restrained - this is what drove me to take every precaution possible :) !
 
Ours have never travelled in the front or unrestrained. (never been caged either though but thats more to do with the make of the car.)
I would have just thought that it was common sense not to have a dog loose in your car, if only for the fact that when you stop at a service or such like you are likely to loose your dog if its loose and you open the door.
 
All mine travel brilliantly in dog cages ,they are safe and just sleep mostly, we are safe too.It is my nightmare ,a motorway crash ..and loose confused dogs on the road..so easy to prevent.If it is`nt law..it should be.
 
In the boot of my jeep, with a dog guard up as younger dog would definately not stay put. When I had one staffie and a 2 seater, she would travel on the front seat but in a proper doggie harness. I didn't even get as far as considering the dangers of her going through the windscreen, it was a " no way a staffie would stay put when the windows were down" thought.

But question about crates - do they really offer much more protection? they don't seem that strong to stand upto an impact - I thought that my tyre on the back of the jeep and the tow bar would offer pretty good protection but you have me questioning myself now..

Jeeps have a great design in that you can open up the back window and leave the main door shut so I never have a problem with escaping dogs when opening the back though.
 
Ours go in the boot behind a dog guard (except if Susie is feeling particularly evil, in which case she is segregated in the front footwell) but I do wonder about the safety of this having been rear-ended with a dog in there. Thankfully it was only a low speed ding and Oscar came away with just scratches but it did shake me up. However I couldn't think of suitable alternatives without making the child go in the boot instead lol
 
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