Safety of travelling dogs in the boot.

[Greyhorses]

I have been wondering about this after reading a few other travelling threads today!

I have two GSD. When I only had one and there was just me and the dog he travelled on the back seat in a harness. I travel up and down the country with work and dogs come with me on a daily basis. Most of my driving is motorway so high speed and long trips.

However, now there are two dogs, two adults and hopefully in the near future children to consider and I am thinking about putting them in the boot (no way would they sit still with people/children on the back seat without squishing them!)

I have an estate car currently so plenty space but I am paranoid about a rear end crash and them being squished after reading a story where this happened and 3 dogs were killed. Is there any way to make it safer for them? I can't afford a fitted car guard at the moment but they would be harnessed.

How do you transport dogs safely when there are already people in the car?

[MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig]

In the boot. A rear end crash would be awful, yes, but not likely. Also you could run into someone in front of you, or someone could pull out of a side road and go straight into the side of you. Anything could happen. But it's not very likely. So don't panic.

[SunnyL]

The biggest danger of untethered dogs is actually to the driver. A dog will break the neck of a driver in an accident as it flies through the car. If you don't want to use harnesses long term get a dog guard. I have a generic one which cost about 20 quid.

[Cheerfulmarybrown]

crash tested crates

[tomatodizzymum]

There are six of us and a large labrador. We got a Dodge/Chrysler Grand Voyager/Caravan. It is one of the largest people carriers that doesn't look like a minibus. The boot is large enough to accomodate Ddog but boot travelling is dangerous for anyone as there is no crumple zone for the rear passengers. In our car there is room for Ddog to go in the middle back seat or (as he prefures) lying down between the two middle seats.

I think generally, in the UK, the accident risk is low. We are not in the UK though the roads are a lot more dangerous. Think mountain roads, idiots and problems with corruption meaning the money that should be put into the roads is not. Things are changing rapidly and a lot of the country now has motorways like Europe, just, the road that links our town to a major motorway is piss awful single lane truck nightmare (all one word!) .

[westcountrywoman]

In all honesty, the risk from unsecured dogs is not to the dogs themselves, but to the driver and other passengers in the car. I once read that in a 70mph crash, a box of tissues flying from the back parcel shelf can hit the driver with the force of a brick. Imagine what damage a hefty dog could do to your kids. I'd get a crate I think.

[tomatodizzymum]

Actually when I asked our local police (who do weekly stop checks on cars in and out of town) why it's illegal to have an unrestrained dog he said it's for two reasons. One is because the dog can injure the other passengers (crates need to be strapped down with a crash tested tether or they can become an over 1000kg projectile as well) but it is also, in his experience, for the safety of emergency services on the crash scene. Dogs can often survive impact with injuries and trauma that can make them aggresive and they then try to protect their family from getting the help they urgently need .

[Greyhorses]

Thanks everyone.

They would both be secured by harness in the boot and I would also put up a dog guard, currently they are harnessed on the back seat but they love to get tangled up with eachother and cause chaos!

[Koalafications]

Is it illegal to have an unrestrained dog in the car tomatodizzy? I did not know that. DDog just sits on DH's lap when we are in the car.

[Koalafications]

But I've just realised how incredibly stupid that is, we have airbags...

[tomatodizzymum]

No it is in Brazil, at least in my state it is.