New law? Dogs must be restrained in cars?

Milford_Cubicle

Yes, I understand about crumple zones, thanks. I spent quite a while trying to get the dog used to the harness and she wrapped herself up in knots far too many times and I found it incredibly distracting, especially as I mentioned already that I was concerned she'd hurt/strangle herself. I think the likelihood of injury to her is higher if she's put into a harness rather than the boot where we've chosen to transport her.

I wouldn't put my child in the boot, but she can be trusted not to throttle herself using the seatbelt.

hethmar

I feel dreadfully guilty as one of mine is a parcel shelf dog and the other lays on the back seat. Ive tried the harnesses, they both wriggled out of them. We have now ordered a Golf Plus and we are doing that so they have a big boot area, the back seats slide forward and we have already bought the special dog guard for it.

I absolutely agree, a small terrier on a parcel shelf is terrible and should we have a crash he would go flying. Im just hoping the expense of the new car will mean we can travel more safely with them. (The one laying on the seat is disabled and we couldnt harness him properly anyway, he slides out of it, doesnt even have to wriggle).

lostinrates

Further to this thread we are now mking the decision to replace our car and we had a chat with our vet about harnesses and cages.

He felt that the cage option would be beneficial for us, but not so much for the dogs ( itwould need to be a sizable cage to fit all of them in meaning when alone one would have a lot of throw room and when lying down all three travelling would have a lot of throw room. He said he felt the way we travel all three was ''ok'' under the crcumstances (and reminded me I have taken his wife's dog in my car and travelled his daughter's pony, so he considers me fairly safe , but I pointed out that I was not alone on the road), but agreed with the consensus here that the lone travelling greyhound should (and now has) a harness for travelling alone on back seat, in away that is not safe or practical travelling as the group. Its also worth mentioning, shock horror, there are times I travel horses partitioned but untied because I believe in VERY specific circumstances it to be safer, but not the norm and not somehing I would recommend: I think part of what mught be mistaken as laissez faire is that it is a lot less stressful to travel well behaved dogs in a car for me than it is than travelling horses, which is again less stressful to me than travelling farm stock which I have done infrequently, are always untied, but the risk to the driver is less, as they are separate in the back of a lorry or trailer.

So, we are now car shopping for a different car that will have a contained back area which will be a cage in its own right. I feel very conflicted about this as the increased impact of emmisions will impct on everyone and their dogs, but we need to trade up our small car and our very large dog-car's wheel hubs mean that the cage we'd have to have would have to be specially made, and would make travelling less comfortable for the dogs.

Incidently, an MSE friend sent me a book about an entirley different subject which opens with a chapter, IMO highly relevant to this, about the statisticl reasoning of when seatbelts are safer and not.

Milford_Cubicle

Yes. There are interesting arguments about seatbelts (working in trauma, I know all the pros and cons!) but that's for a whoooooole different thread :rotfl:

Minniethemoocher

We use a car harness, comfortable and safe for both our dog and others in the car.

In the event of an accident, dog would not hit any front seat passengers.

hethmar

The Golf Plus we are getting (using scrappage deal) has an all round "curtain" that inflates on impact.