Traveling crate or harness? Please help..

There's nothing wrong with them, I just don't have a spare $800-900 laying around. They're pretty cool.
 
Ok, I'm going to respond to the one part of the thread regarding what is the best type of car restraint and travel crate for your dog.

I will leave off the discussion on when and how its appropriate for leave your dog in the car unattended to another thread.

For car travel (and boat travel, for that matter), I swear by soft-sided crates. They are light weight, do not scratch interiors, easily foldable and transferable. They are not intended for big chewers, of course, but for a couple of hours are perfect. And for a dog that is not a chewer, they are better than a wire crate because you can move them around the house so easily.
 
BarbV said:
For car travel (and boat travel, for that matter), I swear by soft-sided crates. They are light weight, do not scratch interiors, easily foldable and transferable. They are not intended for big chewers, of course, but for a couple of hours are perfect. And for a dog that is not a chewer, they are better than a wire crate because you can move them around the house so easily.
Click to expand...

I love my soft fold-up crate. My dog is not a chewer, so I leave it folded in my trunk at all times. It's perfect for agility trials or when I have Bailey with me and I stop by my boyfriend's house or a family member's house. I just whip out the crate and Bailey has a safe place to relax.

However, in my opinion I feel it the soft pop-up crated are the unsafest of all crates for car travel. I can't think of any way to safely secure it in a car and even if I did, they are so flimsy that it would probably just break off in an accident. If (heaven-forbid) there's a serious accident, I can just picture a dog & it's soft crate tossing around the car; possibly injuring the driver, passengers and the dog.

I just got a small sedan, so not much room to safely secure a crate inside. I use the snoozer harness that buckles into the seatbelt. It is supposedly crash-tested. http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=15789016&f=PAD/psNotAvailInUS/No
I really like this harness. The buckle is short, so Bailey can sit and lay down comfortably, but in the event of a dead stop or accident, she won't fly off the seat. I also like that she can't stand up with it on and bark out the window, (which she would love to do!)

She sits in the back seat, so she is far away from the rear crumble-zone. I do tend to let her sit near the door, which probably isn't the safest spot, but the middle of the seat has a little hump and she is less comfortable on that. Maybe I should put a blanket or something on there.

Now I don't know if this harness is safer or less safe than a crate or if it would really save her life in a serious accident and I hope I never have to find out! But I do like knowing that she is restrained & secure in the back seat and is comfortable because all she does is sleep back there.
 
Last edited:
Perhaps A Different Perspective

As I have said before, I have yet to find my companion (still looking). Plus, it has been a few years since my last doggy buddy, but I do think that I have some suggestions on this topic. As a semi retired individual with 4+ decades experience with the manufacture of automobiles and automobile safety issues, I have a few words of caution re selecting harnesses and/or crates primarily based on what worked for someone else.

Please remember that all crates, dogs and automobiles are different. With this many variables, deciding which equipment will work best for you based primarily on what worked for someone else can be very dangerous for your companion. You must look at how the equipment will work with your pet in your specific conditions. How is the harness/crate secured in your car? How much can your pet move in the event of a crash? Remember that many of the injuries from an auto accident are from what happens to the body when it bounces around the interior or reaches the limits of the harness or crate.

Input from other users is great, but it is only a tool to help you evaluate the specific choices you will make. You must look at how the crate/harness fits in your particular situation.
 
JLSOhio51 said:
Please remember that all crates, dogs and automobiles are different. With this many variables, deciding which equipment will work best for you based primarily on what worked for someone else can be very dangerous for your companion. You must look at how the equipment will work with your pet in your specific conditions. How is the harness/crate secured in your car? How much can your pet move in the event of a crash? Remember that many of the injuries from an auto accident are from what happens to the body when it bounces around the interior or reaches the limits of the harness or crate.

Input from other users is great, but it is only a tool to help you evaluate the specific choices you will make. You must look at how the crate/harness fits in your particular situation.
Click to expand...

I think this is the best advice anyone can offer!

We can all post what works for us, how we restrain our dogs, our experiences, and what we do or don't think might work, but in the end you have to use your own common sense and decide what you think is the safest way to transport your pets in your type of vehicle.

Every car is different, dog is different, crate or harness is different, experiences are different. There really is no true safety/crash tested crates, harnesses, etc, so all you can do is use your best judgement.
 
JLSOhio51 said:
Remember that many of the injuries from an auto accident are from what happens to the body when it bounces around the interior or reaches the limits of the harness or crate.
Click to expand...

I can second this, which is why I won't use a harness for my dog. When I was hit, the airbag deployed, and I hit the end of the locked seatbelt. For reference, I was in a Sienna, making a left turn, the other driver changed paths, ran a red light, and slammed into my passenger side front quarter panel at 40 mph.

I'll preface this by saying, I'm not an engineer. However, distributing the force, to me, seems the less ouchy way to go. I had no injuries from the big giant airbag (with the force distributed over a king size pillow area). However, I had multiple injuries, including a decent shoulder injury from the seat belt, which puts all the force on basically three points. In this case, my shoulder took most of it, but the bruising across my stomach and one boob was impressive. Anyone who has hit a seat belt can confirm this sucks.

My dog was in a large Collie sized crate in the back of the car, laying down. His range of motion was certainly more than had he been in a smaller crate. Other than being pretty much freaked out because I was freaked out, he was fine.(protip: when an airbag deploys, it smells like your car is on fire, turns out it wasn't really, but moment of panic) There were vets at the agility trial where I was turning into, and they went over him.

Had he been in the front seat in a harness or even chilling in the empty space in the back, I think he could have sustained injuries. Given how much space is in the front seat of a minivan, the range of motion is pretty large. It's smaller in smaller cars, but then dogs also have an easier time hitting the dash, so that's a balancing act.

So based on my experiences and basic knowledge, here are my "recommendations", take as you will:

1. Hard crates are better than harnesses for minimizing and distributing bodily impact (one can debate wire v. plastic, I happen to use wire)

2. If you are going to tie down a crate, please use objects in the car designed to sustain an impact. What stopped my dogs crate from moving was not the tie downs, but the fact that it was jammed behind the middle seat, which is designed to hold on impact (one would assume, anyway).

3. Bungee cords and cable ties are USELESS. Yeah, 500 pound test parachute cord is what I use now, and I'm still not sure it's enough.
 
I am so glad you offered this last post. I was in the midst of preparing questions for those of you that have experience with the harness/seat belt connection type of restraints. I can see great benefit with those in some situations, but my greatest fear has to do with what happens when the pup reaches the end of whatever type of tether system is employed (in the advent of a sudden stop). A sheltie seems to have such a fragile bone structure compared to many other breeds, internal injuries would clearly be a possibility.

I hope that this post isn't too lengthy, but a number of the comments you made, ClantyreSheltie, I think, deserve comments:

ClantyreSheltie said:
(A) I'll preface this by saying, I'm not an engineer. However, distributing the force, to me, seems the less ouchy way to go...

(B) (protip: when an airbag deploys, it smells like your car is on fire, turns out it wasn't really, but moment of panic)

(C) Had he been in the front seat in a harness or even chilling in the empty space in the back, I think he could have sustained injuries... that's a balancing act.

(D) 2. If you are going to tie down a crate, please use objects in the car designed to sustain an impact... 3. Bungee cords and cable ties are USELESS. Yeah, 500 pound test parachute cord is what I use now, and I'm still not sure it's enough.
Click to expand...

(A). That is precisely correct. Spreading out the impact over the widest possible affected area is what you should try to achieve.

(B). What people may not realize is that most (perhaps not all)air bags are deployed by the use of a tiny explosive charge which starts the process. Also, the bag is coated with a fine powder to keep the folded bag from sticking to itself and allows it to inflate totally. It kind of looks/feels like the car is on fire when you see the powder in the air and smell the charge. Many occupants experience friction burns on exposed skin areas (face, arms) caused when the rough surface of the airbag rubs against their bodies.

(C). Because of the air bags and the hard surface of the dash, I doubt that I will ever drive around again with a dog in the front seat (I have done that with all of my precious four legged buddies in the past). It is not accidental that most states have laws that prohibit children below a certain age from being restrained in the front seat. I'm thinking that this is a good idea for our dogs also.

(D). This is your best advice. Whatever system you use should be designed for the type of stress it is likely to experience. It is amazing what forces are involved in even small fender benders.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top