So, as a family we've agreed to take on a rescue dog and hope to collect her next week,

 

We've thought long and hard about the pros and cons etc, however being a very active outdoor type family, we feel having a dog will fit nicely.

 

This then brings me to transporting her safely/best options.

 

I have a VRS hatch and whilst I appreciate the estate would've been the better option, to trade mine in now would be financial suicide.

 

In light of my car being the hatch, can anyone who owns a dog and transports them in their mk3 give me honest opinions on best way, i.e harness and strapped in on a seat or in the boot via a cage.

 

Would also be handy to know what type of equipment you're using, images welcome.

 

Happy for the estate guys to chip in, just keen to come up with the best option of transporting safely, comfortably and using equipment that will also take the hammering from the dog rather than the car if you get my drift   

 

All opinions welcome.

 

 

Here’s a couple of pictures of my wife’s dogs (sadly no longer with us).

 

At that time she had a Fabia hatch and they both fitted in the boot space just fine. When they were younger she used a dog crate (which they shared) to contain them in the case of an accident. Later they both wore a dog harness which I rigged up so that it attached to the clips in the boot provided by Skoda.

 

I have an Octavia estate now and there are ISOfix points for connecting a child seat in the rear, and I presume that is the same in the hatch? If so I guess you could clip a harness to that to stop the dog flying around in the event of an accident? A dog crate may be preferable but probably is a more expensive option.

 

You don’t mention the size of the dog. This will influence selection of the best containment option. Also if it’s a big dog it is not a good plan to let it enter/leave the boot by jumping in/out. This can be bad for their joints in the long term, and is a scratch hazard for your boot lip! Also as they get older they just can’t be expected to jump in and out.

 

The second picture shows a ramp I made for a few pounds using wood offcuts and bits and pieces from the gash can in my garage. In my opinion I would make a ramp and not bother with buying one. They can be extortionate to buy!

 

Can’t help with specific Octavia hatch issues with dogs I’m afraid, but best of luck with your rescue dog!

 

Regards MM

We have a hatch and a medium sized pooch. When she was a pup we used a borrowed cage and put her in the boot. This was fine, but a bit of a pain when we went away as it took up half the boot space. Now she has outgrown the cage we have switched to a harness and clip her to the back seat isofix mount. She sits in the middle between the kids, and whilst she probably now has less room than in the boot, she seems happier and we can keep an eye on her. Should probably get a seat cover now though.

On another note. When she was in the boot we stowed the parcel shelf, and this unfortunately increased the rear end rumble no end.

Hatch will be fine. The only slight downside with the sloping tailgate on the hatch will be if you have quite a large (tall) hound it might occasionally when not paying enough attention raise its head and hit the glass quite hard.....my 4.5 stone pointer springer cross did this once in a loaned vauxhall vectra I had once and how he didnt shatter the screen was beyond me.

How well a dog travels by car will vary from dog to dog, ours was fine generally so long as we had a guard in place...he got spooked once on the M4 then from rhat point he couldnt be transported without one. Regardless I would never transport a dog in anything other than the boot with a reasonable guard in place.

Get a good liner as if you have a dig that malts badly it'll get matted into the boot carpet pretty quickly and you'll struggle to get it out...also even the best dogs do have accidents occasionally (wee, poo and sick)

Also make sure you have something to protect the back bumper and load lip as I found ours had a knack of catching his claws on the bumper lip and made a mess of a couple of my cars.

A lip protector and pull out load flap make all the difference.

Lastly best of luck with the rehome....sadly we didnt have so much luck with our boy....we took him on at 11 months old and was his 3rd home and as lovely as he was he had nervous agressive tendancies that no amount of dog whisperer sessions could fully resolve....5 or so years on we'd had a baby and as soon as he started crawling we had a problem, he turned on our baby boy one day and simply had to go....more so because he was a big lad and really didnt know his own strength.

It was really upsetting but friends of ours took him on so was a happy ending...in certain respects they can be more difficult than kids at time....but Id love another in time.

Edited 24 April, 201511 yr by pipsyp

Cheers all for the replies so far, much appreciated.

 

The dog we're getting is medium in size so hoping all will be ok, she's also fully trained and six years old so I'm now leaning towards a harness for the seat as mentioned already.

 

I guess she'll only have to really go in the boot when I'm carrying five people.

 

Agree re decent seat covers and boot liners etc, the later of which is already nicely placed in the boot.

We have the estate and our dog goes in the back, I have heard but not confirmed that a dog has to be restrained if in the passenger compartment. I am looking at getting a dog guard with a divider from Travall for the estate but it's not cheap and they do a guard for the hatch. Good thing is the hatch cover can stay in place when the dog is not in the car so might be worth a look.

Edited 24 April, 201511 yr by sturgi

I have a FL MKII estate.

I tried to save a bit of dosh by buying several generic 'one size fits all' dog guards, but none were totally suitable; poor build quality, didn't fit properly, too many compromises. Eventually I saw sense and bought the Skoda OEM one (£90). Problem solved.

Tried several generic boot liners before again eventually seeing sense and buying a Hatchbag with full rear seat coverage and rear bumper protector (around £140 all in). Perfect for taking garden waste to the dump.

I place the Skoda rubber boot mat on top of the liner and then a heavy duty waterproof (cover is removable for washing) dog bed from Groupon (£15).

You may also want to consider a rear sunblind. Not only does it cool the rear down, it also reduced the amount of glass entering the cabin if the back screen is smashed. (Been there, done that!) I have the Skoda OEM one piece (£75) rear screen due to having a rear dashcam fitted. I have Vanstyle shades fitted (£80) to the other rear windows (their rear sunblind is in two parts and joins right where the camera is).

With All the above in place it really only takes a matter of minutes to run a hoover and dash cleaner over the rear. Not forgetting a few squirts of AG Odour Neutraliser.

Hatchbags are brilliant and do away with the boot carpet fur problems. Complement with a decent guard, floor mat and boot lip protector you'll be set Telboy.

Also a valid point....no matter how clean you keep the pooch the car will start smelling a bit doggy....keeping the boot clean will help of course but there will be a general aroma from that day forward unless you take steps to mask it.

I dont personally wholly agree with transporting dogs in the passenger compartment unless there is no other option as I think being in the boot is generally alot safer for them and for passengers but its a personal choice.

+1 hatchbag

Rearguard boot protector too

Hatchbags are brilliant and do away with the boot carpet fur problems. Complement with a decent guard, floor mat and boot lip protector you'll be set Telboy.

Also a valid point....no matter how clean you keep the pooch the car will start smelling a bit doggy....keeping the boot clean will help of course but there will be a general aroma from that day forward unless you take steps to mask it.

I dont personally wholly agree with transporting dogs in the passenger compartment unless there is no other option as I think being in the boot is generally alot safer for them and for passengers but its a personal choice.

Harchbags, sounds like the best option if in the boot, out of interest where did you get your from and how much were they?

Direct from Hatchbag.

Price varies due to add ons; bumper protector, spilt rear seat, over rear seat protection, odour mat, rubber mat et al.

I was around £145, the only options I didn't tick were the rubber mat (I already had the Skoda OEM one) and the special pet mat.

Just got an email back from Hatchbag confirming they don't make one for the MK3 hatch just yet, back to the drawing board for now 

I used to put my lab in our Fabia

 

Using one of these

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Universal-Hammock-Back-Cover-Protection/dp/B0043E953M (Great photoshop here by the way )

 

It was only for occasional trips to the vets etc as we live in the country

There's some brilliant replies in this topic, i dont have an octavia myself, but i do have dogs, i ended cutting out a piece alumnium chequerplate to go in the boot to protect the floor then just stick a couple of blankets on there.

We transport or dog on the back seat of our current cars in a harness attached to a seatbelt and sat in a dog-bed.

 

22kgish medium sized hound.

 

 

Anyone use a convenient back-seat cover, or dog-hammock or similar?

 

I'd rather have him strapped in, than bouncing around in a collision...

I used to have an Octavia III hatch and had Rhino custom make me a interior cover for the rear seats so that my two Cairn Terriers could ride in style.

 

It has drop down sides that are attached by Velcro to protect the doors and a cushion underneath to raise the whole affair so that the dogs could see out (one of the dogs gets travel sick and distressed if he can't see out). There are slits to feed a seatbelt clip for the harness through. 

 

The Octavia is long gone but I still have the seat cover if anyone is interested 

 

Interested, yes.

 

I could in theory collect from Lincoln too.

 

How much would you like for it?

If Carling made car dog seat covers!