Basically, after a near miss the other day (dog wasn't in the car at the time, but spurred this thought on), I need something suitable for my Springer Spaniel to make sure he's safe in the Fabia. It also needs to stop him from sitting on my lap as I drive because I don't want and/or require a face full of Springer when he causes me to land in the car in a field. He's not big for a Springer, but he's not that small either. 

 

Do any of you people with dogs who they keep in the back seat have a decent brand of harness for keeping him in the one bit keeping him and I safe.

 

Have a photo of him just for filler.

 

56 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

Do any of you people with dogs who they keep in the back seat have a decent brand of harness for keeping him in the one bit keeping him and I safe.

We did a lot of research on this very topic for our two Springers and came up with the system we still use now for our Border Collie.  We chose it for control of the dog when travelling whilst allowing enough movement that they won't fret, together with good support for the dog and with particular attention to how the whole setup would both restrain and support the dog in the case of a rapid decelleration in the event of a "Code Brown" moment.

 

I'm not being deliberately mysterious but it's too dark for decent piccies and I can't remember the brands, so I'll take a proper look tomorrow and post FYI.

 

5 minutes ago, MikeTheThinker said:

I'm not being deliberately mysterious but it's too dark for decent piccies and I can't remember the brands, so I'll take a proper look tomorrow and post FYI.

 

Cheers Mike!

 

5 minutes ago, MikeTheThinker said:

restrain and support the dog in the case of a rapid decelleration in the event of a "Code Brown" moment.

 

One of those with an old dearie in a Peugeot doing a right hand turn in front of a 55mph Fabia (mine, 55mph to 15mph in a split second. Car and I are fine, but brakes were well used) happened the other day and spurred on said thoughts about a dog harness.

Edited 24 October, 20214 yr by AnnoyingPentium

55 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

One of those with an old dearie in a Peugeot doing a right hand turn in front of a 55mph Fabia (mine, 55mph to 15mph in a split second. Car and I are fine, but brakes were well used)

You might want to investigate washable seat covers, too!

 

9 minutes ago, MikeTheThinker said:

You might want to investigate washable seat covers, too!

 

Good idea, more for me than the dog. 

3 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

Good idea, more for me than the dog

There's a serious point to consider, here, in that a dog relies on being able to grip onto the surface under them in order to avoid being thrown around by the car's movements.  We've found that the usual protective seat covers available aftermarket are great at keep muck and wet off the seats but provide little or no grip for el pooch.  Our answer was to always add a towel and/or blanket over the liner which improves things - although it's not a perfect solution as the towel/blanket can slide on the waterproof liner ...

 

I'm looking into a way of securing the cloth cover somehow - probably by fitting some press studs to the liner.  Not today's project but I will report back when some progress has been made.

 

Just now, MikeTheThinker said:

Not today's project but I will report back when some progress has been made.

 

Let me know how you get on with that. I can live with cleaning the seats currently and remain thankful that they're not Fabia vRS spec seats. 

2 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

they're not Fabia vRS spec seats

I have a set of mk2 VRS seats surplus to requirements.  Nice washable leather

 

3 minutes ago, MikeTheThinker said:

I have a set of mk2 VRS seats surplus to requirements.  Nice washable leather

 

Thanks for the offer but my black cloth seats are ideal for my uses.

I have chest harnesses and full-length MOLLE coats, both with D-rings to which is affixed an adjustable strap that clicks into the seat belt buckle. They're the easiest and most convenient for three medium-large dogs.

The wife has her CRV's entire boot padded, with a guard cage.

Just now, Ttaskmaster said:

I have chest harnesses and full-length MOLLE coats, both with D-rings to which is affixed an adjustable strap that clicks into the seat belt buckle. They're the easiest and most convenient for three medium-large dogs.

 

That would do my Freddie. He's a wee springer but quite solid for a wee dog.

 

1 minute ago, Ttaskmaster said:

The wife has her CRV's entire boot padded, with a guard cage.

 

We've got one of dog guard things on the Dacia Duster as the dog can clear the headrests easily as he could do the same on the Toyota Auris. My Fabia only has the two headrests in the rear so it's a dawdle for him, hence why I'm considering a rear seat harness as he likes to see where he's going and gets panicky when he can't see. When he gets panicky like that then it's a case of how much you like the dog or any pieces of fabric/plastic trim. 

We got Kurgo harnesses for our Border Terriers for use in the wife's car, they're actually crash tested, once adjusted they're easy enough to fit, however I don't use them for walks as they were a bit restrictive/bulky. We got them from Pets at Home,  but you can buy direct 

https://kurgo.uk/products/enhanced-strength-tru-fit-dog-car-harness#videos

 

We got a rear seat "hammock" from Amazon that allows the seat belts to be used for the harness and also comes up the back of the front seats and rear doors.

 

 

28 minutes ago, Cakemonster said:

We got Kurgo harnesses for our Border Terriers for use in the wife's car, they're actually crash tested, once adjusted they're easy enough to fit, however I don't use them for walks as they were a bit restrictive/bulky.

 

I'll look into one for Freddie. I have one for when he goes a walk anyway (one of those ones that stops him from taking my arm out of its socket) so that's not an issue in my case. I just need something that'll go into the middle seat and it can live there permanently as I don't ever carry more than four people anyway, including myself of course.

Having lived in a dog household almost all of my life I've seen or tried most of the in car dog offerings at one time on another.  Our current preferences came about from an investigation into the actual situation of a dog in the car - what freedoms are allowed, what happens in the event of emergency braking or a collision, how comfortable is the dog and how safe are the car's passengers from the dog in normal driving or in a rapid slow/stop. I also checked on the legal position which both mandates and advises some constraints.

Our initial findings were thus:

1) The law says the driver must ensure the dog (or any pet) in a car is retrained in such a manner as to prevent interference with the driver {1}.
2) The law advises that the dog is put in the back seat and not in the front (see {1} on interference with the driver).
3) The dog will need to be able to move around whilst in the car (a hard strapping down would be stressful)
4) We will usually want to limit the dog's free movement to that area of the seating which we have protected appropriately.  If you're OK with letting them use the whole back seat that's between you and your other half
5) To encourage us to use whatever setup we've chosen (and not to get frustrated with it as too complicated and thus not use it) the attach/detach actions should be straightforward and easy to use, especially in the light of post-walk pooch who could be wet/muddy/sandy or whatever.
6) A restraint attached to the dog's collar (as opposed to a harness) provides only limited restriction of movement (see 1,4 above), may not be effective if put under stress by rapid braking and is also at risk of causing the dog harm in the event of an emergency stop (dog flung forward and held by the neck).
7) Following (6) a harness is the most effective as a restraint and the least likely to cause harm to the dog.  The harness should support the dog at the centre of mass (thus minimising the risk of "flailing" and associated injury), be adequately padded to distribute the restraint load across a wider area of the dog to minimise injury and concentrate primary support on the dog's breastbone.  It should be easy to fit and remove, be attachable via a D-ring or similar (see 6) and made of materials which will function equally effectively when wet/muddy/sandy etc.
8 ) The most common attachment point for any dog restraint are the either seatbelt female buckles or on the seatbelt itself.  
9) ISOFIX points might initially seem an attractive attachment point {2} but see my diagram below about directions of restrained motion during emergency braking.

 

Diagram indicating the differences in forward motion of restrained dog under emergency braking (no, I can't draw dogs).

 

 

With the above considerations in mind we went looking for solutions and at the time (ten years ago) the Trixie harnesses looked to best fit our needs for our Border Collie.  They were hard to find then but have since become much more widely available {3}.

 

 

In order to address the issues in the diagram above (see (7)) we looked for a better way to attach to the seatbelt and came up with a device from Truelove to safely clip to the seatbelt and support safe but easy attach/detach of the harness {4}.

 

This definitely helped but still meant the attachment point to the seatbelt was too low as the clip tended to slip down the belt under gravity.  More hunting came up with a seat belt clip (many types available) to hold the Truelove clip at the same level as the D-ring on the harness so in the event of rapid braking the restraint acted as per example 2 in the diagram.  Note the seatbelt clip doesn't have to do anything under load, it's simply there to stop the Truelove clip from slipping down the belt. {5}

 

 

 

Links to candidate suppliers below.

Caveats: no commercial interest, other brands available, YMMV

 

{1} https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/rules-about-animals-47-to-58
{2} https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHua2ODPGjI
{3} https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trixie-20411-Premium-Harness-60-90/dp/B000WFDN66/ref=sr_1_5
{4} https://www.truelove-uk.co.uk/accessoires/60-truelove-security-clip.html
{5} https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adjuster-Seatbelt-Stopper-Comfort-Tension/dp/B08MTGV9RV

 

 

 

 

Edited 26 October, 20214 yr by MikeTheThinker

2 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

 

I'll look into one for Freddie. I have one for when he goes a walk anyway (one of those ones that stops him from taking my arm out of its socket) so that's not an issue in my case. I just need something that'll go into the middle seat and it can live there permanently as I don't ever carry more than four people anyway, including myself of course.

I've just had an email from Mountaindog they've got them on offer, at £30 

(No affiliation, used them for dog coats)

I have purchased one of the harnesses from Mountain Dog in red, to match the car obviously. 

 

I shall report back as to how Freddie and myself get on with it.

Well that went well...

 

 

He calms down quicker in the back instead of the boot as he can see where he's going now with relative ease.

11 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

Well that went well...

 

 

He calms down quicker in the back instead of the boot as he can see where he's going now with relative ease.

I'm unsure from the post, was it a positive experience.... fingers crossed it was...

7 minutes ago, Cakemonster said:

I'm unsure from the post, was it a positive experience.... fingers crossed it was...

 

Positive since my wee dog travels well now and in safe style, less positive for my upholstery...

28 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

 

my wee dog 

Quite literally then....😜

 

Glad it worked out for you and the pupster!

He's loving life with this harness!