Hi, I searched the site, but couldn't seem to find a topic on seat belts for dogs. I was wondering if any of you use them or have any experience with them? do they work?

Mya has never been one to just "sit" on car rides. She doesn't stop pacing the back seat or trying to jump to the front of the car. We've corrected her 10000000 times, but she still does it. She just gets too excited.

When it was just her we could deal with it, but now that we have Kody it's almost impossible to take them both in the car. My husband drives so I have to sit in the back with them to keep control. Kody wants to move around just as much as Mya and since she's still getting used to him she gets upset when he goes to her space, but then again she wants to come to his..LOL.

I would like to take them out a lot more often, but it's more frustrating than anything. Don't even mention when it's time to get out of the car. AHHHH!!! Kody is getting bigger and the bigger he gets the worse it will be! Plus, all I need it back seat fight!

So, today I thought...hmmm doggie seat belts. I found these two:

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2755199

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4092374

I'd go with the second link you posted, the Kurgo Tru-Fit harness. I've heard nothing but good things about them and a husky owner on another forum uses them both for car travel and also as a walking harness.

We have a Champion Canine Seat Belt System from USA K-9 Outfitters.

http://usak9outfitters.com/CCSS.htm

It totally rocks and keeps Nikolai in the back seat, safe and sound. I highly recommend it!

Awesome!!! I'm going to check it out...thanks!!! It's impossible to ride with them both not strapped up!

I personally prefer Kurgo. I use all their products.. Koda is really good so I don't need the zipline or anything, but here is Koda with the harness in my car:




You'll notice the 2nd picture I clipped the seatbelt thing on his collar, not the harness, woops, my bad! I just threw him in to take a pic of how cute he is in his backseat.

Al

Heatherlee wrote:

I personally prefer Kurgo. I use all their products.. Koda is really good so I don't need the zipline or anything, but here is Koda with the harness in my car:




You'll notice the 2nd picture I clipped the seatbelt thing on his collar, not the harness, woops, my bad! I just threw him in to take a pic of how cute he is in his backseat.

Al

First of all let me tell you that Koda is gorgeous!!!! What a total stud he is!! Kurgo was one of the first ones that I ran into, but I wasn't too sure how it worked. So you put the harness on and hook the loop thingy to the seat belt, right? How much mobility does it give them? For now I would like it to be fairly limited since both Mya and Kody both don't stay still in the car. Mya is worse though. I would like for them to get used to it and then start giving them a little more room to move around. We don't have an SUV so it's important to me that they stay still. Thanks for your input!

I have a couple of pictures I can share, too:

ccss2 by CoffeeK8, on Flickr



He looks sorta hogtied and tossed in the car, but really, he's OK - the photo just sorta cracks me up. Anyway, one thing I really like about the harness is that the front sort of "floats" so the buckle on top can go to either side a bit without pinching his shoulders or making him uncomfortable (since he NEVER actually sits on the seat with the buckle/D-Rings toward the seat and tie-down being straight).

ETA: He looks sad in these pictures because this was after an 8 mile hike and he was tired and grumpy about leaving "the wild!!" So... yeah. (He really is a happy dog, has a good life, I promise we don't abuse him...)

Thanks for the compliments, Koda is my pride and joy! As for mobility, it is just a thing that you slide on the seatbelt so they will be limited just as a seatbelt would. Koda doesn't roam much, I mainly have it on him just incase of an access, wide turn, or if I want him to have window access. But the little loop comes with the harness. If you want something that can keep them in the back in the addition to this, look at Kurgo's zipline. It'll limit them to staying in the area it's hooked up in. Then when they both are calmer you can just do the seatbelt deal.

http://www.kurgo.com/products/azl.html

Heatherlee wrote:

I love this face! Mine do it all the time. It's the "are you serious? Really? UGH." face.

Kate, you can tell that he's a spoiled baby...If he wasn't he wouldn't be going on 8 mile hikes and have such a cool harness for the car! =) They all put that face when they're getting taken away from something that they like.

I have to purchase one of these by this weekend in order to meet up Kristina at the doggie park =) It's about an hour drive from us and NO WAY that I can deal with them like that for more than 10min. I'll have to go to Petsmart and cross my fingers that I find one!

I don't harness or seat belt Koda because he misbehaves in the car though. I do it strictly because if an accident were to happen I want him to be as safe as I am, and also when I have the windows down I don't have to worry about him if he's secured in (though he never has indicated wanting to jump out). Koda's always been good in the car- he was just like a human baby. He would be a brat at home and not chill out, so I'd go driving with him to calm him down and make him fall asleep haha.

And Kristina, he does this face so much it's ridiculous!

Heatherlee wrote:

I don't harness or seat belt Koda because he misbehaves in the car though. I do it strictly because if an accident were to happen I want him to be as safe as I am, and also when I have the windows down I don't have to worry about him if he's secured in (though he never has indicated wanting to jump out). Koda's always been good in the car...

I don't harness Ginger and she's really good in the car too, but maybe I need to get something for the car to keep her safe, especially when driving in the mountains during the winter! She may not like it, but it'll keep her more safe.

In addition to keeping him as safe as we are, it keeps him from pacing like a wild thing and jumping out the window (he's tried - once). I'm a big fan of harnessing him in... makes life just *so* much easier for all involved, even if he does give me the stink-eye. Hahaha...

My last two huskies rode "free" in the car. I used a dog barrier to keep them in the back of my SUV, but I was always somewhat worried about their safety back there.
With my new husky, I am using his crate for super long trips and a 3-1 Vestharness for short ones. He is safe and happy riding in both.
Well somewhat. I think if I left it up to him, he'd be playing soccer off the roof the car while I drove.

wow, your huskies actually behave in the car! I'm so jealous..lol. Mya has never tried to jump out of the window, but does try to come up front and now with Kody it's hard with 2 unstrapped doggies. My main issue is getting out of the car though. Mya jumps to the front and on me to get out. Before i could control her, but once again with Kody isn't NOT EASY. Plus she attacks him if he goes into her space or trys to get out at the same time. It's already been a month and 2 weeks since we've had him and she's still not too happy with him. Fingers crossed that it gets better!

For now, definitely need to get one of these things! I checked Petsmart and they ones they have don't seem too great. I will check Pet Supermarket after work and hope they have one that's decent. I would order online, but I need it like now =\

Well, if anyone orders from Kurgo online, most sibes could fit in a medium, as you can tell the large is huge on Koda's chest and he is bigcheated.

Heatherlee wrote:

Well, if anyone orders from Kurgo online, most sibes could fit in a medium, as you can tell the large is huge on Koda's chest and he is bigcheated.

How much does Koda weigh? Mya is a bit on the sibe chunky side (but shhhh don't tell her..lol). I think i will have to order from Kurgo because I didn't have any luck =\

Hey gang,

So I found this old post and still had a question, hope you can help.

We let Sierra ride in the back by herself yesterday (Daddy would sit with her before). All in all she does travel rather well, except when we first head out. We currently have a harness that has a loop you slide the seat belt through. This works pretty well when she is relaxed, however, she did get tangled up in the seat belt one time.

I know I have found a "lead" that has a seat belt buckle (appears to be pretty popular in the United Kingdom). I has the connection like a leash on one end and a seat belt connector on the other end. Here is a pic that I found...



Has anyone used this type of device and do you recommend it?

Thanks,
Sonora

I've never seen something like that but it looks like it would keep them in the backseat but I'm not sure about in the case of an accident. I can just imagine them being bounced pretty good like a tether ball. My Shadow had to do the "turn around 3 times" before laying down thing. What worked great for her was something similar to the above picture but was looped around the seat belt. The swivel clip kept her from getting tangled, but because it was attached to the belt it would "grab" in the case of a hard stop like it does for humans.

I think regardless you're going to get tangles. I remember the first time Mishka was in the bed of the pickup... We got to the park and she had wound herself so tight in her leash from squirming and turning... They learn to just relax.

Kenzi is a head hanger. She likes to have her head out the window feeling that breeze and I was wondering how much movement seat belts allow for the dogs? She rides well. Doesn't jump around or cause issue, just likes to hang her head out the window, but we have a lot of really stupid drivers around here and on more than one occasion in less than two weeks we've almost been hit. My car is very small (mustang) with a near non-existent back seat so she doesn't have much room to travel if I slam on the brakes, but if something were to happen our luck she would find that one little gap between the front seats and shoot right into the windshield. I don't want that, but I hate to take her head hanging days away as well.

TwisterII wrote:

Kenzi is a head hanger. She likes to have her head out the window feeling that breeze and I was wondering how much movement seat belts allow for the dogs? She rides well. Doesn't jump around or cause issue, just likes to hang her head out the window, but we have a lot of really stupid drivers around here and on more than one occasion in less than two weeks we've almost been hit. My car is very small (mustang) with a near non-existent back seat so she doesn't have much room to travel if I slam on the brakes, but if something were to happen our luck she would find that one little gap between the front seats and shoot right into the windshield. I don't want that, but I hate to take her head hanging days away as well.

I got a kurgo tru fit harness for ami - don't like the harness for anything BUT as an attachment to car. It does, however go on very easily (stainless steel nesting buckles one). As long as dog is 60 pounds or under - I hook the tether to the child seat attachments on the rear deck of the car. Then I bought and extra tether from walmart to go from the kurgo carabiner to the harness. I leave the tethers permanently attached in the car, put on his harness, leash him to the car, he hops in, attach the swivel snap to the harness, remove his leash. I have the lenght adjusted so he can lay down, see between the seats, can barely get his hose out the crack in the window (I lock them now, twice he has accidentally put the windows down  ) I bought the harness from auto anything - very cheap, free shipping.

I'm guessing you could use different harnesses with my set up - the important part is a heavy duty carabiner to the child seat attachment and and adjustable tether from the carabiner to the harness. Works wonderfully for us, so far.

I don't have attachments on the deck of my car. It's essentially a lap belt setup so that may change what kind of harness I can get. I guess whatever I get I could run an extension so that she could still hang her head out the window but at least if something did happen she wouldn't go through it or the windshield. As it is she flies about 3 inches and hits the back of the seat...

My Camaro is the same way with the backseat. Honestly, I just use our Webmaster harnesses with the girls and attach them with a carabiner to a fastened seatbelt. We have to do that with Shadow, her balance sucks and she'll fall off the seat otherwise. I don't trust most of the commercial seatbelt harnesses anymore after Ghost slipped one at a rest area off of I-57 and started to run towards the interstate...