Car rides.................
 (please)
Up until last week, Heart was sleeping the airline crate she arrived in. It is getting too small for her so I took our bigger crate up and now she is sleeping in that. During the day, when we are gone, she is in a wire crate. I am taking her on car rides to socialize her and so she get used to the car. Also, we just started puppy classes on Monday evenings. NOW THE PROBLEM------ How do most of you transport your sheepies??? I just don't know what to do.....The bigger crate will not fit in my car and although I would love to buy a new SUV or VAN, I am stuck with my 2004 Grand Prix. Does anyone else have this problem??????? How about those pet seat belts????? Any help will be greatly appreciated by Heart  and me.....
Thanks |
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| Mine ride in the back, loose. They do all travel well in crates, but rarely do that. Mine are taught that they never can come past the front seats, so having a dog acting up while driving isn't an issue. Rarely they will stick their head between the front bucket seats for a little TLC, but that's it.
From a safety point, I love the harness/carseat restraints. I know several people who have them and they work well. I would think it would be fairly easy to get a pup accustomed to them, starting with short trips and never letting them chew on the belts. Then work up to longer trips. Having a sedan and fitting a big crate in is not an easy thing to do! |
| As a quick restraint, Grannie Annie closes the rear door on their leash preventing them from jumping around in the car. |
| Thanks Dawn--
I have taken Heart on (very) short trips, a couple blocks and she just lays in the back. She doesn't seem scared, very relaxed. However, she is just 15 weeks old and being that young I just don't trust her on a long car ride on the highway. I have maybe one-two more weeks until she will not fit in the smaller crate at all so I am trying to prepare for a transition of sorts.
I have never used the pet seat belts for any other of my dogs...Pearl is great in the car, always has been....I never crated her in the car.(she is 9).but in this day and age, I just don't know...... |
| Ron---
Does that really work??? or are you just "having fun" with the newbie.... (Haven't quite figured you out yet)...  |
| I usually wrap the leash around the arm rest.
So if they do jump out when I open the door, they don't get too far. I only do this for trips to the dog park because they get REALLY EXCITED.
Normally they just sit on the sit and look out the window. They are very well behaved in the car. (Except when we pull up to the dog park  ) |
| Pepsi's Mom---
How did you get them to behave in the car...or did it just come naturally??? I didn't do anything special with Pearl...Just had her jump in--and off we went. Didn't know any better, just assumed she would behave.......... Ignorance is bliss.... |
| Barkley has a chest harness designed for being attached to a car seatbet. As a plus, it also has a D-ring if you wanted to walk your dog on it (I never do, he can pull enough on a regular collar, he doesn't need a harness to lean into). He took to it really well from the beginning, and seems to enjoy car rides more (he used to be in his crate, or on the floor in the van) because he's on a seat and not feeling every bump in the road.
I have a pretty easy time getting it on him (slips over the head, has two buckles to hook it together around his mid-section). The seatbelt in the car (shoulder belt works best and gives him the most ability to change position) slides between two strips of nylon webbing and then gets buckled. Before getting the seatbelt, he would periodically ride in the back seat of the station wagon, and we never had a problem with him trying to get into the front (other than just his head appearing between the seats at elbow level, looking for love). The seat belt is as much to keep him from wandering around the van as it is in motion as it is for his safety and ours (no 80lb projectiles, thank-you-very-much). |
| Both of mine were older when I got them. Pepsi was 10 months old and Rags was just about to turn 2 yrs old.
Pepsi used to get nervous when he traveled and would curl up in a ball on the seat and not move. Rags likes to take in the scenery. Pepsi is getting a bit more comfortable with driving and will sit up occasionally now and look around. But without fail he always has a loose bowel movement when we reach our destination. |
| It really works. It allows them to be in the car, and prevents them from jumping into the front seat.
Just don't leave any of it dangling outside, or to the point where it could be run over by the rear tire... that could be a choking/decapitating disaster. |
Both of my girls have the doggy seat belt. It works great especially in my Mustang Convertible.  |
Duch has a car harness the same as the one like Craig Duffield and another one slighly different. She can release the car seat strap from both of them so they're not much use  . I have a leash that I leave attached to the seat frame and hook her up to that just to be safe from her jumping on me and causing us to have an accident. |
| We have a seat belt, and it works great. The harness-type, that Craig desribed.
I would never tether a dog in a car by a leash unless the dog was wearing a harness, We had a car accident this summer, and rolled the van. I am so glad that our dogs were not tethered by a leash, as they would have broken thier necks in the roll. They were loose, but they had thier leashes on so we could grab them. If the leashes had been shut in the door we would not have been able to open the door to get them out....We were afraid of the van blowing up, so had had no time to look for and find a knife, then cut the leash or anything like that. Ever since our accident the dogs are either belted in by the seatbelt, or they are loose with the leash attached to their collar, but nothing else. But they don't wander...With a puppy I would use a seat belt or a crate. |
| Whatever you do if you leave the back window open so they can stick their head out like so many people do, be sure to disable the automatic window opener if you have one. I had a collie once that almost lost its head when he stepped on the opener, while his head was out the window. Fortunately when the window got to his neck he let out a yelp and changed positions with his feet so the window stopped. That was the last time I let a dog stick his head out the window. Now I have a pickup with camper shell and the guys ride in the back in their separate kennels. |
Bosley's mom wrote: had no time to look for and find a knife, then cut the leash or anything like that. Or simply unsnap it? That's the same excuse people used to give for not wearing seatbelts.
Of course it's not a good restraint. It's a temporary solution. In an accident it might be bad to be restrained by the neck (although it's pretty strong on a dog) perhaps the chest restraint they sell as a "seat belt" would be preferable. Nobody can tell what kind of accident they may have in the future. If you had been going faster when you rolled, the leash in the door trick might have prevented your dogs from being ejected. Who knows. |
| Thanks to everyone ----
I will try the harness...Heart is very calm and behaved in the car so I am hoping I can train her to sit with restraint and not "freak"out.
BABY STEPS............................. Gosh!!!! I just knew I could count on you guys for great advice!!!!! |
| oops forgot to say I attach the leash to the car harness not her neck |
Ron wrote: Bosley's mom wrote: had no time to look for and find a knife, then cut the leash or anything like that. Or simply unsnap it? That's the same excuse people used to give for not wearing seatbelts.We have thought about this a million times, over and over since it happned. IF the dogs had been restrained, and did not break their necks in a roll, and I was able to unsnap the leash from their collar, then they would no longer have a leash on them and could easy run away, totally frightened, on the highway. We will always have a leash on them, attached, for now on. Ron wrote: perhaps the chest restraint they sell as a "seat belt" would be preferable. Exactly.The harness type of seatbelt, it has a short leash/tether with it... Ron wrote: If you had been going faster when you rolled, the leash in the door trick might have prevented your dogs from being ejected. Who knows.
Yes, it would have kept them from being ejected through a broken windshield or open door, but they might have been dead having thier neck snapped,or they could have been stuck inside a burning vehicle. We were lucky that the doors didn't open, and we ended up on our side, so Bosley had to be helped out the top, and Dixie, bless her, had to be carried out covered in blood. If we had landed straight, and the dogs scrambled out by them selves, it would have been another thing...and possibly ended under an 18 wheeler... . It is difficult to foresee what might happen. Do I restrain my dog, so it stays in the car, and then possibly get killed or unable to escape? Or do I leave him/her loose, so they can get out, if need be, and hope they are caught outside, alive? Yes, we don't know how an accident can happen....But I am glad I had leashes on my dogs so when we were all out on the side of the TransCanada Highway, they were with us. Like you said, Ron...Who knows.... |
| The biggest thing about an accident with any sort of unrestrained object, being groceries or animals, is that they become a projectile in an accident. You may be restrained during the accident but when 50 pounds of mass comes flying at you at high speed and it's force increases exponentially.
I also would never secure a dog with a collar and leash for the exact same reason. The force of the dog's body moving forward would snap it's neck. You'd be fine but the dog would be injured or dead. Harnesses are best because they work like a seatbelt. Crates that are secured are second best. |
| Our previous sheepdog Sydney loved to get into the car but just don't do that engine thing. She would just go nuts, whine, cry, bark or all at once. It was so bad we rarely took her anywhere. We finally tries putting her in a covered crate. As long as she could not see either of us she was fine but if the cover came off it was back to the crazyness.
Bella on the otherhand loves to ride. She will either sit on the back seat or put her head on the consul between us. We have not tried to restrain her but we do leave her leash on to control her when we open the back door. |
| Nigel just sits in the back behind the front seats. He loves the car. I wrap the leash around the arm rest just in case. He must go out in the garage about 10 times a day and just stands by the van and looks at his door. I have never seen anything like it. I take him with me to pick up the kids as much as I can. He loves to go "bye bye in the car". I worry about safety, but I have always kept dogs in the car this way...he is the best traveler though! |
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