hey everyone! My pup Finley is about 9 months old now, and rambunctious as ever. That being said, she rides in my car a lot with me and lately she's become a huge hazard lol. She is overly-excited when we ride, and if the window is down she's manageable, but she loves trying to sit in my lap (which is definitely not good) and she also enjoys screaming in my ear, which gives me anxiety and hurts my eardrums ha. I've tried the pet hammock, seat belts, and even one of those pet barriers (not the metal bars, but the mesh/tough fabric type that goes around headrests) and all of those have pretty much worsened the behavior as she's figured out how to ruin each item or jump over it. I have a mazda 3, aka no trunk area to install one of those metal bar contraptions that would prevent her from jumping the seats. It seems they don't make items like that for regular cars. Crating her is not an option, as my car is too small and she is too big to crate every time we drive, which is multiple times per day. if anyone else has had this issue and solved it PLEASE tell me how. I try to work with her on her behavior, but it's hard when physically driving haha. I'm open to anything!

I use the kurgo harness with a tether going to the child seat anchors on the rear deck under the windshield (husband says its called a hat rack - who knew )

I've seen metal mesh barriers similar to this one for cars:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Adjustable-Pet-Barrier-Vehicle-Dog-Fence-Cage-Gate-Safety-Mesh-Net/391948688976?epid=1500208221&hash=item5b41f65e50:g:PZ4AAOSw-jFaNIjW

If you don't mind pricey, here's a custom solution (I just guessed the year of your mazda 3)

https://www.travall.com/en-us/mazda/3-5-door-hatchback-bm-2013

Sadly mine is a sedan, not a hatchback so that second one wouldn't work, even though I would LOVE to have the extra space, ugh. I used to have her in a harness with a seatbelt, but that caused her to whine and yell really loud which was horrible. Then she chewed through the seatbelt lol, crazy girl I just bought a wire mesh on amazon after seeing someone with a sedan rig it to fit behind the front seats. We will see how it goes!

Megan - I don't know if you noticed but that site custom makes the barriers to your car model - I just chose that one guessing on your car model.

Whaaaat! I didn't even notice..well luckily the one I ordered came today and it works PERFECTLY! I was soo happy, thank you for sending me that though if this one ends up failing somehow I'm definitely going to check that one out