Dog car seat

[newpupper]

I'm getting a bit overwhelmed with dog car travel options and I'll have a puppy to collect soon. I don't like the idea of him in the boot, especially when he's so tiny. I was originally thinking a car seat like this one, but I don't have a harness for him yet. I'll wait until he's here and measure him, then get a Perfect Fit one. I could get a generic harness to pick him up but neither that nor the perfect fit harness are crash tested, and the crash tested harnesses are so expensive, and I think it will be a faff to have to change between a car harness and a walking harness. Obviously tethering to his collar is a non-starter. I also don't know how robust the clips from the car seats are, even if the harness is properly rated. My current thinking is a crate like this one which can be strapped in, and has a reinforced metal frame. I can put in a waterproof bed and some blankets and a chew toy to make it cosy. Is this a better option? Am I massively overthinking? How do your dogs travel in the car?

I don't think I said, but he's a toy poodle, so even though he'll grow, hopefully the solution will last all his life, as he won't outgrow the backseat

I’ve travelled all puppies in a crate on the back seat tbh. I worried if there was a crash, or I had to break suddenly, that a belt attached to them would put too much force on them whilst they were dinky tots.
Once they go too big for the crate, they have a belt with a harness in the back. One of them is 42kg, so the crate wouldn’t fit in the back 😬😬

A toy poodle could remain in a crate though for transport- it’s a pretty safe option.

Wow 42kg!!! Which dog do you have? Mine probably won't get to 4kg Is a soft sided crate like this one from Amazon the kind of crate you mean? I worry with a metal crate that in a crash impacting the side of a hard crate would be more damaging.

We advise all our new pup owners to use a crate in the car- either on the back seat or in the boot. If your dog is loose it can invalidate insurance in the event of an accident, you can also potentially be fined for them causing a distraction while you're driving.
For a toy poodle a small soft travel crate should suit forever, or at least until you choose to use a seatbelt or car hammock.
Also just because toy poodles are little doesn't mean they can't be destructive. We have a miniature who is almost a year old and she can still chew as well as a Labrador 😁
Good luck with your pup.

That’s very similar to the one I had- good to have a top flap and a side one for the door. The only issue is, they are not chew proof. Went through three with the last puppy, but the fabric ones are very very handy to fold up and down and get in and out the car.

He’s an absolutely enormous show type labrador. He wasn’t supposed to be that big 🤣🤣🤣😬😬😬😬 just kept growing until he was about 2. Towers over my other two.

(Disclaimer I know nothing about dogs but a bit about car crash forces)

If I understand correctly none of the dog harnesses on the market are actually crash tested in terms of preventing harm to the dog. They are only tested to ensure that the harness doesn't break and cause the dog to become a hazard to the humans. Some of them don't even have this.

A crate probably would be the most protective thing, you could put some kind of padding on the inside of the front of it, perhaps? Children's car seats usually have polystyrene or memory foam underneath the cover to absorb energy - if you could get hold of an old mattress topper or something. The problem with a soft sided crate is it won't have any restraining function in a serious crash so you'd need a harness/seatbelt thing as well.

In terms of child car seats and seatbelts the first thing they try to do is restrict movement as much as possible, because the less the person moves the less seriously they are injured.

I personally wouldn't use a soft-sided crate in the car as they'll provide absolutely no protection if you have an accident.

A crate in the boot is best. You can get crash tested ones.

Thanks for your reply, I’ve seen your posts on child car seats and stored them away for future children! Do you think a crate strapped in the attached image would work to secure the dog and crate properly with cushioning/ memory foam in the forward facing direction. Or would this no work for some reason. There are no ISOFIX crate which just plug in, and I don’t know enough about seatbelt tensioning.

Like this Bertie

Just a word of warning about a soft crate - my puppy soon learnt how to undo the zips from the inside and escape which wouldn’t be good in the car. I had a small metal puppy crate that I used until mine was big enough to go on the back seat in a harness and clip.

When mine was a pup I had the Kurgo Booster Seat. It has a lead attachment inside that's fastened to the seat but it also splits off into two other directions so one end can be attached to the harness and the other end can be secured to the seatbelt (you have to have the car seatbelt fastened then you can tie the lead around crossed over part of the seatbelt) it also has another strap that loops over the headrest.

I had my tiny (under 2kg) pup in it from day one, the are sides pretty high for a small dog so it feels safe, the bottom/sides are thick strong fabric but all the framework is metal. It feels nice and sturdy.

My dog would still be using it now if it wasn't for the fact she's ended up with a long skinny body and legs for a CKCS. She only weighs 6.5kg and it'd be fine for short journeys because she can curl up to nap or sit and look out of the window but it'd be no good for her on the long journeys I sometimes do because she can't lay down and stretch out.

I just watched a few videos (don't - they are mostly grim even though it's just a dummy not a real dog!) and those kind don't seem to stand up very well to crash forces, the zip rips out and the mesh gives way, even with a small dog (the model they tested with was the 25lb one). I was thinking of a metal crate though I don't know how practical those are on the back seat.

I did find through doing this though that there is something called the PupSaver which is very expensive but appears to be a rear facing car seat for a dog and it looks as though it works too!

In general all the anecdotes I've seen just now searching this seem to suggest that some kind of solid barrier, whether a metal crate or a dog guard, are much better because they are sturdy. Although the dog is likely to slam into the front of the crate if you crash, it's better that they do that than fly through the air and slam into something else. Hitting something a short distance away is less harmful than travelling and then hitting something - similar to why you brace on an aeroplane. Basically you either want to be restrained so you don't hit anything at all, which is what seatbelts and car seats try to do, or you want to be as close as possible, ideally touching the surface you hit, which is what bracing and rear facing car seats do. For humans at least the rear facing car seat does a better job because it keeps the head and neck lined up.

Thanks, and it does make sense about trying to stop as soon as possible. So outside of the rearfacing dog seats (which do look great though super pricy and I'll keep my eye out for them in the future), the best option is a metal crate, I assume either in a footwell or a boot pushed against the back and secured (somehow) so the crate can't move as well. And potentially with a memory foam layer on the forward travelling surface of the crate to cushion a potential blow (based on crash helmet theory, sudden stops are generally bad), ventilation allowing.

Also wondering if a hard plastic crate would be better, worse or equivalent. I think, and happy to be corrected, most car seats are hard plastic but assume that's to make them lighter and the plastic is well tested, but for an untested metal vs untested plastic crate metal would be a surer bet, Like these pictures. I'm such an over thinker!

Also concerned about dog being in the boot if we're rear-ended, which is why I'd rather have him in the cabin in the first place. But
*strapping a seatbelt over a crate is a bad idea (could crush crate in impact forces)
*looping the belt through the bars on the edge of the crate touching the seat is an unknown (don't know enough about how and when seatbelts tension to hold the crate in place or if the bars, or whether the bars would stand up to impact force
*having the crate wedge in the footwell would mean the crate couldn't move around, but would the forces from all sides cause more damage - seems the best option though for the crate in the cabin.

I've just said to DH why not buy a cheap baby car seat and tether him in there on a very short line. It was a joke at first, but getting less jocular more I think about it. Even the cheapest car seats (even if I wouldn't put a baby in them) will have been crash tested and have more than the guess work I have now with the dog products. Something like this or this. He'll be rear facing (safest), a more cushioned surface (than the bars) which is designed to take impact, in the part of the car designed for passenger safety, the seat is strapped in as advised, and he's a toy size so will never outgrow the seat by weight. Is that a total non-starter. I'm just typing as I think here.

Look at Transk9 boxes - they can go in boots, or maybe put your back seat, or one seat down and use their anchor straps.

I meant to add this too, but if the carseat isn't Isofix, then something like this (my car has Isofix and top tether points) could secure the dog in place and stop him wandering, and the seat would stop him being thrown too far forward. https://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/kong-ultimate-safety-tether-dog-seat-belt

I have a Mini and it says they have nothing suitable unfortunately.

That's a shame. I currently have a Barjo cage in one car and Transk9 in the other. I think it is DTboxes who are similar to TransK9, never used them though so do not know much about them.

I do know Barjo make cages for mini as friend has one for her terrier.

The only thing I would say for Transk9 is if you have just looked on their website, give them a call, it may be as it will be for such a small dog, a much smaller box for another car may work. I have always found them helpful.

I used a soft crate for the first few months for my Shih Tzu and then changed to Kurgo Car Seat, I just used a normal harness with it, he is now on the back seat with tether