I just thought I'd take a minute out of our day to encourage everyone that reads and follows us to use Dog Seatbelts or harnesses when transporting your puppies in a vehicle. It's not just safe for our dogs, but safety for us humans too.
Most people are not aware but in the event of an accident having 1 person, or in this case a pet, not secured properly can be fatal to the other occupants inside a vehicle. Many crash tests and real-life circumstances have shown that 1 unsecured body can seriously hurt others in a car. That's why we feel it's necessary to use some sort of restraint for our dogs even if an auto accident is unlikely. Better to be safe than sorry in our opinion.
I've written before about dog harnesses and restraints and posed the question on this blog, “Do Dog Seatbelts Really Protect your Dog?” Studies have shown that dog seatbelts are not quite as effective as you would hope since there are no industry-wide standards for dog harness testing. Test conducted in collaboration with the Center for Pet Safety, a non-profit advocacy group, and Subaru have shown that many of these dog seatbelts fail to perform properly.
While I appreciate the studies that the Center for Pet Safety and Subaru conducted and I believe that there should be some industry standards for pet harnesses, I still feel safer if both Cody and Sierra are secured in the car. At least we have some safety mechanism in place and this makes it so that they can't roam around our car while it's in motion. This can be distracting and dangerous for us.
That's why we use Dog Seatbelts and we encourage others to use them as well if you are inclined. We'd love to hear people's thoughts about dog seatbelts and dog harnesses though. Do you use dog seatblets? Why? If you don't have a dog restraint system in your car, have you thought about buying one?