Dogs + Cars

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Discussion

TDS86

Original Poster:

496 posts

156 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
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Afternoon everyone.

Forgive me if this seems like a daft question/topic but I wanted to canvass opinion. I asked a few folk a similar question in the Aston Martin forum, but wanted to canvass a wider opinion.

In the long term, we're a couple of months away from getting a cocker spaniel. At the moment, our only car is a 3-door M135i which is likely to be joined by a MINI in the new year. (Not my choice; apparently, they're cute)

The question, members of the forum, is what's the best place for the dog in the car? Back seat with a harness that's plugged into the seat-belt? Boot with a dog-guard?

Long-term, I'm looking at buying a 2-seater to accompany the BMW. A high-days and holidays car to use at weekends and visiting friends and family who are dotted around the UK. Is that feasible with a dog in the foot-well/on the OH's lap for a short-journey or is it best to leave the dog at home?

There are mixed views in the Aston forum, so, as good as they've been to me, I thought I'd ask some other dog owners here too to canvass a wider opinion.

bexVN

14,682 posts

210 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
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Personally I have always preferred back seat with harness. Our old harness used to go around the seat belt our current one clips into the lock directly. The 'lead' bit also has a swivel joint attachment on the harness allowing movement for when they want to turn around to eg settle to sleep. Some don't and I don't like that design.

This would be fine for a cocker Spaniel size. Large dogs are better in the boot But they are sun suntrap (aircon not always great at fighting off sun beaming in through the windows of a hatch back!

otolith

55,899 posts

203 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
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Our dog has an annoying knack for reversing out of his harness.

Howitzer

2,828 posts

215 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
quotequote all
It is probably different as we have a Rotweiler but for medium, small dogs I would always say a cage in the boot.

The ones we saw for a ML just weren't big enough unless the entire boot is taken up with cage, which with a pram etc too isn't practical.

We have an OE fit dog guard, he has a longer lead tied into the tie down point and everything is strapped down properly when the dog or little one is in the car, even though the guard is up.

Ours couldn't get on with a harness and couldn't get comfortable. He then managed to tie himself up and would have torn the seat up if left I think.

Whatever you do I would have them tied in securely as a small rear end shunt and a broken window would see them out and in traffic I think.

Dave!

bexVN

14,682 posts

210 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
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Getting tied up in a harness will depend on harness type quite often. Those without the swivel design will cause problems and I think are a terrible design flaw.

Crates are fine but just be bloody sure the dog you won't be able to see in your mirror is not getting too hot/ uncomfortable.

smashie

685 posts

150 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
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For us it depended on the car.
When I had a saloon, the dogs used to go in a harness on the back seats.
When I got an estate they went in a crate in the boot.

We looked at the situation as follows:
What if I was involved in an accident?
1) Dog in boot- dog guard
If windows smash or boot springs open then dogs could escape and possibly get run over. No injury to passengers from dogs

2) Dog in boot - crate
Create gets squashed and injures/kills dog. We ended up with a TUV crash tested crate, No injuries to passengers from dogs

3) Dog on back seat/footwell - unrestrained
- Dog could escape
- Dog could injure/kill as it could act as a heavy blunt object
- Dog could become protective and prevent emergency services giving you treatment

4) Dog on back seat - in harness
Dog gets tangled in harness and injured. Same chance of injury to passengers as child properly belted in.

We do a mixture of 1 and 2. As I have a 7 seater (back 2 not used), there is air con in the boot. Also glass is tinted.
Will probably get the new car tinted at back, but unfortunately the crate does not fit in so will have dogs in boot with dog guard.

I would never have an unrestrained dog in the car no matter how well behaved.

Mexican cuties

686 posts

121 months

Friday 28th August 2015
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We had the awful sight of an old English sheepdog laying dead on the side of the hard shoulder on the m40, literally minutes away was a rolled BMW estate, looks as if the dog had been thrown some distance out of the back window, horrific to seefrown not sure if anything would have prevented that

smashie

685 posts

150 months

Friday 28th August 2015
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Mexican cuties said:
We had the awful sight of an old English sheepdog laying dead on the side of the hard shoulder on the m40, literally minutes away was a rolled BMW estate, looks as if the dog had been thrown some distance out of the back window, horrific to seefrown not sure if anything would have prevented that
A dog crate would have prevented them being thrown from the car as would the dogs having being harnessed on the back seats (unless the seatbelt/latch failed)

otolith

55,899 posts

203 months

Friday 28th August 2015
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smashie said:
A dog crate would have prevented them being thrown from the car as would the dogs having being harnessed on the back seats (unless the seatbelt/latch failed)
Although whether the injuries would then have been survivable is another matter.

Autopilot

1,298 posts

183 months

Friday 28th August 2015
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I'd say it depends on the car and what the dog is like in the car.

When we got our first dog (as a pup), I had a 2 door coupe. When you put the seats forwards to get in the back, most of the space created is higher up so bit of a squeeze by the base of the seat. Not a problem if the seat actually lifts and moves forwards though.

Once in, he hated being in the back. He ate his way through several harnesses that clip in to the seatbelt. He also ate the cover I bought for the rear seats. I though it was on well, but once he started doing wheelspins, he soon got the cover off the seat. It didn't take long for the back of the car to become completely trashed and filled with mud. It was a crappy car that I bought for abandoning at stations etc so didn't matter, but when I did try and clean the back, no machine or cleaning fluids could fix it up, it was trashed!

As we use the dog for sport and were going to get a second dog, we had to have a crate because when the dog isn't working, they come off the field and go back in their crate. Because of this, I had to buy an estate car. As it happens, this works really well for us. The first dog used to HATE traveling in the car, but he's as good as gold in the crate. We regularly travel for a good 2 hours before having to stop which is easy as they both just sleep or lay quietly.

I personally wouldn't have a dog on the seat, it didn't work for us...saying that, if I have the female only with me, I have let her sleep on the passenger seat on a couple of occasions as she's a good traveller smile

We have a TransK9 crate which is pretty sturdy and they seem to like being in there. The male hated it to start with but soon learned that when it opens up again, he's in a nice place to play/work.

DogSafe do some decent crash tested crates too.