New law? Dogs must be restrained in cars?

snowman2_2

It is not a matter of whether it is the law or not, it is plain old common sense. RoSPA and certainly our local "Road Safe" have been running campaigns for years, the RAC have a range of harnesses. Unfortunately I have seen dogs break their backs in minor car accidents and I know of people who have had serious head and neck injuries because their dog hit the back of their head.
If a broken back or concussion is a risk worth taking, fine, but my dog is safe in the car.

remembered_nights

It should be a flipping law. I was behind someone the other day whose small dog was running about on the back shelf and bouncing down to the back seat and up again. What do they think is going to happen to the dog if they have to stop suddenly? Grrr.

pollyanna24

Our staffie sits in the footwell in the front by my feet. This regardless of who is in the back. Know this probably isn't the best place for her. Have mentioned a harness to keep her in the back, but bf doesn't want her licking our 8 month old all the time! I'm sure she would just lie down on the back seat though

Sammy_Girl

miamoo wrote: »

Are dogs allowed to sit in the front seat if they are restrained? our doberman has a dog seat belt that fastens to the normal seat belt and she loves sitting in the front.

My dog sits in the front with his harness. As long as they are restrained I shouldn't think it would matter which seat they are on. My dog loves sitting in the front so he gets a good view - too many times the dog has been in the front and the OH in the back

whatatwit

Slightly off topic here......

I wonder if this is one of the ideas that got talked about and well publicised, but never put into action.
A similar *new law* new drivers are not allowed to take their test before they are 18 (or some such idea) I thought this had come into being this April, but apparently not.

Trollydolly_2

I just wanted to add a couple of things here....

It is possible to restrain your dogs in the car and if you cant then don't put them in the car in the first place. If you wouldn't let your children be loose in the car then why on earth would you let your dog.

Many reasons for having them restrained apart from the obvious of them bouncing about and causing distraction, stopping suddenly and them causing you damage.The major one for me is if you do crash, windows smash or rescue services open the doors to get you out what do you think the first thing your dog is going to do??? Id pretty much guarentee they are going to leg it out of the car. This is highly likely to cause other road users a problem if not causing more accidents. Do you really want that on your conceince? I wouldn't.

There are many ways you could restrain your dogs as have already been mentioned. If you don't have a seatbelt to fit the car harness to then you can buy thick metal hoops that you can easily screw onto the floor/walls of the vehicle. If you dont want to do that yourself then any handyman/ garage would do it for you for a few quid. It literally just needs a hole drilling and the hoop put in with a nut on the other side. They can be picked up from B&Q.
I help out with a few rescues who have these fitted to their vans along with crates.

Can I just add

NEVER secure your dog in the car using a COLLAR AND LEAD. One emergency stop and your dog has broken its neck or damaged its windpipe. If its not in a crate then use the CAR harness' (not walking harness) they are specialy made to withstand certain impacts and to spread the force across the chest area in a similar way our seatbelts work. Obviously it wont always stop injury from occuring but it will be a far better option than having its neck snapped by its collar.

mehefin

just a quick point.. my Lab has found that he can undo the seatbelt which his harness is attached to simply by putting his paw on the red button!!
He's now relegated to the boot area ( its a 4 x 4 in case your wondering).

GettingHitched

I see not reason why a dog would not be secured. as someone has said, would you allow a child to be in as car with no belt on?

Plus if there was to be an accident, the emergency services would have enough to deal with, without the added frighten dog running amok.

common sense!

Milford_Cubicle

We tried the car harness idea with our dog, she wrapped herself up in it too many times and I was seriously concerned she was going to hurt/strangle herself so she's been relegated to the boot.

However! The style of car we have means a dog guard or crate does not fit so we've had to improvise. Fortunately the gap between the tailgate and the rear seats is small so in a collision it's highly unlikely pups would be thrown forwards into us/the windscreen and the "guard" we have would make this even less likely.

My OH was rear-ended last week at approximately 25mph. Our car suffered no damage at all (pups wasn't in the boot at the time), however the car which hit him (W reg Megane) was written off. I'm confident that she'll be safe in the boot even if (IPU forbid) we're rear ended at higher speed. Well built cars FTW (we won't be buying a Megane!!) :P

picklepick

Well the megane was written off as cars have this thing called a crumple zone. If it didnt, your head would snap off as the car stops so abruptly!! Plus, its the front end that hit you... the engine end, im guessing, hence the reason it was written off. I actually think the Megane was the first car ever to get a 5 star safety rating! I sound like i work for renault dont i! haha

Anyway this is besides the point.. they've stopped making those volvos was it? that had the rear facing seats in the boot. For the exact reason that they would be crushed in an accident. So again, if you wouldnt put your children there.. why would you put your pets there?

I still think that a harness on the back seat is by far the best option. I think you have to get the dog used to the harness first.. before you even try to tether it down by it