Car restraint for Shih Tzu

[Flinkyflonk]

Hi there,

I've been googling today, looking for a decent carrier/restraint for my DDs Shih Tzu, but there are so many!!

I've never had a dog so don't know anything about good makes, products etc.

Currently, he sits on her passenger seat when she's driving, and she has his lead round her wrist, but I don't feel that's very safe!

He's 1 yr old and weighs about 6kg, and likes to see out of the window.

Can someone help me choose something suitable?

TIA

The safest place for a dog is to travel in a crate in the back of the car! (There are crates that can be strapped down with the seat belt on Bach seat ... Or use a special harness.)

By law the dog has to be restrained while driving - so what your daughter is doing is dangerous and illegal!

You're right that the current set up isn't safe, either for him or potentially other occupants of the car.

If the car has a passenger side airbag then it's not a good idea for him to be on that seat.

Either a decent crate in the boot or properly crash tested harness/carrier on the back seat are the safest options.

Sleepypod harnesses and carriers consistently score very highly on safety tests. There are test videos for their carriers here and for their harnesses here and here.

You do need to be careful with car harnesses as many of them are designed only to stop a dog moving around in the car, not to offer any kind of protection in the event of a crash. Even some marketed as being safety devices aren't fit for purpose when properly tested.

I prefer to have mine in the boot and use a Variocage from Safedog which has performed well in crash testing.

The driver having the dog's lead on her wrist is downright reckless and could cause a serious accident. She needs to stop that right now.

There are various options for crates and harnesses - with different advantages. Obviously the more freedom a dog has the happier he will be during journeys. Restraint options that give the gog more freedom are less likely to actually protect the dog in the event of a collision. From a human safety point of view the minimum requirement is to ensure you don't have a panicking dog being thrown back and forth loose in the car during a crash, and some harnesses and crates will achieve this without protecting the dog that well. I don't have a dog myself so won't make a specific recommendation but your DD needs to choose whether to prioritise her dog's happiness during incident-free journeys or safety during an actual accident as she can't have both.

I must admit to being when she pulled up to show us the dog and took it out of the front seat. I did tell her she'd need look into a proper travelling solution asap, but had some time on my hands today so thought I'd look myself.

Cornflake I'll check out those sleepypod products, thank you. Her car boot is shut off from the rest of the car so a crate in the boot isn't an option.

I'm still looking for something for my dog. I can't use a crate and he has to be in a front seat. He uses a doggy seat belt attached to his harness to meet the letter of the law. It gives him too much leeway to move around though and doesn't offer him any protection. The Sleepypod system looks great but isn't suitable for my car either.

Definitely gaps in the market at the moment

We used the ezydog harness in the car initially for our dog. It comes with a very small strap that the seatbelt loops through before being fastened, rather than the type that clip straight into the seatbelt buckle. It doesn't give much movement as the seatbelt will lock if they move. We moved to a crate in the boot as ddog preferred it but the ezydog did seem to do the job.

A friend had liked on their facebook feed.

oops4 Thank you! The harness won't work in my car (the seat belt auto locks so you're held in your seat without needing an impact to initiate it) but the seat restraint might! It won't protect the dog but it will at least keep him in the seat whilst travelling. I've just ordered one to try

Thanks all!

That one in the video looks amazing Lacuna but it's quite expensive. I like how the dogs are properly restrained and can't fall about.

Will check out all the others too, I appreciate everyone's input.

www.ezydog.co.uk/drive-car-harness

We use these for our two dogs, they clip into the seatbelt and they're really simple to get on and off, and very adjustable. They seem very sturdy too, I'd recommend them :)