During BlogPaws 2013 I learned a lot about the dog and pet blogging industry. Something about Dog SeatBelts quite frankly surprised and shocked me though. Do Dog Seatbelts Really Protect your Dog? The answer, No they will not protect your dog nearly as well as you think.
The Center for Pet Safety has done testing with various dog seatbelts, harnesses, and restraints. Their findings concluded that a lot of dog seatbelts don't provide adequate protection in the event of an car accident.
From the Center for Pet Safety‘s brochure they state;
many of the pet safety restraints currently on the market do not provide acceptable levels of protection to the animal and/or humans in a crash situation.
One thing to consider is that if a dog seatbelt or harness fails in your car it can hurt you and other passengers in the vehicle. Other things to consider ;
In the US there are no performance standards or test protocols for many classes of pet product. Manufactures are not required to test products before going to market!
Some manufactures claim to test their products, but with the absence of independently verified test standards, consumers are wise to cast a wary eye on these unsubstantiated claims.
This is a video of crash test conducted and you can view crash tests videos that the Center for Pet Safety here.
All the tests conducted were specially designed and mainly for larger dogs. (I assume this is because larger dogs pose a greater risk in accidents.) No animals were used in the testing and the crash tests conformed to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) specifications.
It should be noted that the Center for Pet Safety (CPS) is not affiliated with the pet product industry and does not endorse products. The CPS also does not want to reveal what products they used in their testings since they believe the restraingts and seatbelts, while not providing enough protection, are better than if you let your pet roam freely in the car.
While the findings of the CPS are a bit concerning it is good they are raising awareness. We personally use dog seatbelts with Cody and Sierra not only for their safety but ours too. We have gotten both of our dogs are used to wearing dog seatbelts but we have noticed the restraints don't always seem to work adequately. Cody manages to unlatch his seatbelt and make himself more comfortable.
Seems the companies that sell dog seatbelts and harnesses need to do mandate better testing on themselves. Probably not something they will do easily but they will if enough pet owners let them know they need to change. Kurgo, the dog seatbelts we have, will be getting a letter from us.
I will admit when we had our old dog, Roger, we let him roam freely in the car. We knew this was dangerous but he liked the freedom and in those days I don't even think they sold dog seatbelts or restraint systems. At least were we not aware of it. These restraint systems seem rather new.
I'm curios to know if you use dog seatbelts or harnesses does that make you feel more safe? What are your thoughts about the CPS findings?
Thank you SO much for showing this! Frankly their findings scare me–but something I noticed in the video: THAT system seemed to have an extender that relied on the clip alone to hold the dog in place. The ones we use on Vlad & Barkly give them very little freedom to move around b/c their systems have the whole seat-belt going through their harnesses like a child-seat.
I’ve thought about getting extenders, but now I won’t. They both have enough freedom to see out the windows but not enough freedom to move around very much or bug the driver. I’ve always figured that if I don’t get to move, then I’m not being unfair to them by not letting them move a lot.
Probably they used the extenders in the testing since a lot of people use extenders too.
Cody and Sierra’s dog seatbelts don’t allow for much movement either but somehow both of them manage to get around in the backseat a lot anyway. There is a whole dog hammock back there.
We are 50/50 on seat belts. We have a special (made exclusively for the car we have) rear seat dog cover that also serves a protection. We double checked with the manufacturer of the car and recently to our friend Dawn at PetAutoSafety. Having a big dog movement and comfort is important especially when traveling long distance. Thinking and been looking for the right seatbelt. Interesting video. Golden Thanks for sharing. Lots of Golden Woofs, Sugar
Didn’t know you could get a specially made dog seatbelt for the car you have.