Do you car harness your dog?

[hennypenny]

No, we don't use a harness. To be honest I only heard of harnesses for dogs in cars very recently on Sheffield Forum!

 

Our dog doesn't go in the car very often, and when she does, it is in the boot, or on the floor in the back. We did take her in a motorhome last year and it didn't work out very well, as she wanted to wander around and kept appearing in the cab. We ended up making an enclosure under the table with pillows, and keeping her in there.

 

As she is 13 now, I think introducing a new harness would upset her too much (she hates new things, and old things changing) so we will carry on as we are for the two or three times per year she travels in the car.

[medusa]

Can i just advise folk that when your doggy sticks their head out of the window, please be aware of cars that are parked door mirrors or lamposts, cyclists, over hanging trees and grass on country lanes etc.

Having the window open is lovely and safe with the harness but only to stop them falling out or in event of an accident. please be aware or stationary/moving objects that you pass or over take!

 

Good point there- that's one reason why Molly only gets to put her head out of the window on the driver's side and only when I know that we're on a road that's wide enough for her to be safe to do it.

[blue-kat]

I've just started taking a dog out with me in the car, without a designated human to hold the dog on a 1:1 basis !

Our dogs wear harnesses for walks, I clipped either end of the double ended lead to the harness and wrapped the lead around the headrest poles. it stopped the dog wandering around the car, and being distracting.

[holidayhutch]

Ours go behind a dog guard in the boot (hatchback) or in a dog crate. Having seen a dog seriously injured before to the extent it had to be PTS, when knocked by a motorcyclist as it had it's head out of the car window, I cant understand why any responsible dog owner would allow their dog to do this however much they enjoy it - just put the air conditioning on in the car or open rear windows a couple of inches if you need to keep the dog cool in hot weather.

[Benneh]

Depends tbh, most of the time I must admit that no, Parka does not wear a harness in the car but instead sits on the passenger seat, or jumps up and stares out of the window or sleeps on the back seat.

 

However if I was going to have the windows down, then I most certainly would use the car harness we have for him cause he would be out of the window like a shot the first time he saw another dog.

[Strix]

... but nowhere near as fast as he'd fly though the windscreen if somebody pulled out on you and you had to slam the anchors on!

 

out of common sense and kindness to your dog, please use a restraint of some description when he's in the car

 

 

Brude's usually crated in the boot BTW, or if we're undertaking a more hazardous journey than average (eg friday afternoon on the A1) then we rearrange the seats so he's out of the way of a rear end shunt too

[katkin]

Nellie (Ailsa) always wears her harness and has the back seat to herself- except when Im forced to share it with her if we take the other half's mum out for the day -and then she (Ailsa) promptly dances all over me (she's not the world's best traveller). She used to travel in a crate in the boot but howled the car down and got too worked up for us to continue with it- not an option now we've got a smaller car, anyway.

 

I've read too many reports of dogs being hurled through windscreens and/or at drivers and front seat passengers during accidents or if the driver has to break voliently, to convince me that she should ALWAYS be secured.