Do you "buckle up" your pet?

Auo restraint for pets - Why restrain your dog? There are more reasons then you may think...

Prevent driver distraction. This is the most important reason because it affects not just your vehicle's occupants, but potentially many others. Pets and loose objects are the 3rd worst in-car distraction according to a recent AAA study! They were considered worse then cell phone usage (#6), eating & drinking (#5) and adjusting climate controls (#4) (#1 is radio or CD player, #2 is children or others in car - Source: Extra Magazine telecast 8-20-01). During 2000 in the US more then 1.5 million accidents were caused by distracted driving! (Source: NBC Dateline telecast 6-19-01). 

Protect your dog. Your dog deserves the same protection as you and your family... In a 30 mph. collision occupants of the vehicle can exert a force 20 times that of their body weight! Seat belts and harnesses protect by absorbing some of this force and distributing the load evenly across the stronger areas of the body, protecting the head, neck, and body from injury. A dog restraint that reduces this potential impact force can make the difference between life and death, and help prevent serious injury. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that:

seat belts are the "most effective means of reducing fatalities and serious injuries when traffic crashes occur" 
"3/4 of occupants who are ejected from passenger cars are killed" 
inpatient hospital charges are on average $5,000 higher for non belted occupants 
 


 


Protect yourself, your family, and other passengers in your vehicle. In an accident, a dog can be thrown with hundreds or even thousands of pounds of force into other occupants of the vehicle, easily causing life threatening injuries. A good restraint system can help minimize this danger. 

Make it easier for rescue workers and EMTs to help in the event of an accident. A dog that has been in an accident is likely to be shocked, confused, injured, and protective. It does not understand what has happened and may attack people or rescue workers indiscriminately and without additional provocation. Your dog may think that people who come to help you actually caused the accident and are now coming to attack again! Police officers have told us that they have shot dogs when in this situation.

 

Prevent runaways and daring escapes! Even well behaved dogs can have their moments of "distraction". Far from home or on vacation is the worst place to lose your dog. Dogs can also get injured or killed jumping from even a slow moving vehicle.

Convenience. It is easier to restrain your dog then to worry and guard against escape every time a window or door is opened! This also means you may be able to leave some windows open for ventilation. 

Helps dogs that get carsick or fear driving. Some veterinarians recommend restraint systems to help stabilize a dog when braking, cornering, and accelerating. This gives them a feeling of security and may help them overcome nervousness and the fear of driving.

Restraints may be required by law. California and several counties and cities in other states now require all animals to be tethered in vehicles.
@sacmom (14192)
United States
May 8, 2007 1:03pm CST
This may seem like a silly question, but do you buckle up your pet while in your vehicle? Buckling up can be with a type of restraint or in a carrier. Or do you simply let your pet have free rein of the vehicle?When my husband was younger (and before we ever met), his dad put their dog (a big Labrador retriever) in the back of their truck unrestrained. They were going at least 55 mph when my husband saw their dog acting like he was going to jump. He told his father this, but his dad just ignored him and kept driving. Sure enough the dog jumped...and survived! Luckily there was no one else around and when the dog came up to them he had scrapes all over him and was bloody, but the dog had no broken bones. Several years ago when I got my kitten I trained him to like car trips. He too was unrestrained. As our kitty got older, the first thing he'd do is lay across my husband's shoulders in the driver's seat when getting inside the car. Passerby's would point and laugh at the sight of my husband with a cat around him. My cat was not afraid of the car and thoroughly enjoyed riding in it this way. My husband and I never thought of the dangers associated with doing this. We did this for 3 years and then stopped as we heard it wasn't safe. Years later, I still see dogs unrestrained in vehicles or in the back of pick up trucks with no shell to keep them enclosed. There are a lot of what if's but what about this one...What if the dog jumped out of the back of the truck? The dog may or may not survive doing this, and this pet would become a hazard on the road, especially if there are other vehicles around. I've seen so many dogs unrestrained in the back of trucks this past year alone and am always worried for these pets. The ones unrestrained INSIDE the vehicles are just as bad because the dog would be tossed around if the driver was involved in an accident, causing more injuries. If I remember right there was a news story where this happened. A person with 2 Rottweilers had been involved in a car accident on the freeway and the dogs got loose. The police ended up shooting these beloved pets as they were a threat to others on the road. Okay, so maybe the dogs wouldn't have done anything, but one can never tell and the officers took the action they thought was appropriate. So, do you "buckle up" your pet(s) while in the vehicle? Why or why not?By the way here is a cool site that sells auto restraints for pets. http://www.canineauto.com/I have one of these for my dogs and it works great! Oh, and they are better made then the ones you can buy at PetsMart, Petco, etc. Everyone that has a pet should have one of these!
2 people like this
9 responses
@Inky261 (2520)
• Germany
8 May 07
I have three dogs. There is a special cover for the back seat, then three special seat belts and the dogs have each a restraint around their waist. It functions pretty well. They can lay down or sit and look out of the window. The dogs are used to it and they love it when I take them for a ride.
2 people like this
• United States
8 May 07
I always have a crate in the back of my car and the dogs will go in there instead of the backseat. I've had a lot of close calls on the road where the dogs were tossed haphazardly around the car, so now they just go in the crate.
2 people like this
@loved1 (5328)
• United States
8 May 07
I only have a cat and he would sooner go bungee jumping than ride in a car. He knows that if you put him in a vehicle, that vehicle will eventually end up at the vet's clinic. When I do need to transport him to the vet it takes more than one person because someone has to hold his box and try to keep him calm for the 3 minute ride. If I had a dog that liked to go for car rides I would probably use one of those handy new pet restraints. They seem to be a good idea.
2 people like this
@KissThis (3003)
• United States
9 May 07
I restrain all three of our dogs just like I would restrain my children. We went out and bought special harnesses for them. My dogs usually only ride in the car a couple of times a year to see the vet. But I wanted to be safer then sorry. Our love our dogs just as much as we love our children.
1 person likes this
@shinjiao (1457)
• China
9 May 07
I have a dog and I will buckle up her in my father's car,because it is dangerous to let her free in the car.She may hurt or knocks on the window when the car skidding.At the beginning,she refused to wear the tie,she barked loudly and rudely;however,when she got used to the tie,she accepted the tie.And in China,the Government asked people to buckle up their pets when they are rumbling on the roads with their owners.So I must buckle up my dog when she rumbling on the road.
1 person likes this
@ebread (2)
• China
9 May 07
haha...i wish i had a dog to let me buckle, and i also wish i would have a car to carry my future dog. But if i do have a dog and a car, i would buckle him up for safe driving.
1 person likes this
@maainim (70)
• Israel
9 May 07
I take him on a tour in the ferrarri .
• United States
8 May 07
Thank you for the great story and the tips on restraints. I personally don't take my dog on any trips right now because he gets freaked as soon as he has to go in one. He thinks that he has to go to the vet again. He hates the shots. lol I think that there should be stricter laws governing the restraint of animals in vehicles, but I guess I worry more about the ones that are say in the back of the truck or something like that, that could just jump out whenever they please. Sometimes they do it because they are getting freaked out by the movement of the vehicle. I also think they should have to be restrained so that they don't jump out when the vehicle is parked. We have had way to many dogs do this around here. Some have attacked people, but some have just run into traffic and caused accidents that could have been prevented. :)
@PsychoDude (2013)
• Netherlands
8 May 07
Our dog goes in the "trunk" of the station wagon, he can't jump out from there and there is not much space for him to be tossed around there because he's pretty big.
1 person likes this