Dog Car Safety Tips

A friend of mine was driving about 45mph when a car cut him off. Don had to hit the brakes in order to avoid hitting the car that had pulled out in front of him. His dog, which had been riding in the back seat hit the windshield and ended up dying.

After Don shared this story with me, I decided to do a little research to see how often dogs get hurt or killed in traffic accidents. I found that if the dog doesn’t get killed during a wreck, they can hurt their owners by striking the owner when they go flying through the car. Another big problem during an accident is the dog being thrown from the vehicle and then getting hit by cars driving by.

Anther consideration is when you’re in a car accident and emergency personnel respond, your dog can get disoriented and appear violent. Emergency personnel’s main concern is your safety and therefore, have been known to shoot a dog in order to get the owners out of a wreaked car.

The best ways to protect dogs while they are in cars is with the use of crates, Seat Belt, or barriers that keep the dogs in the rear part of the vehicle. Even without these specific safety features, keeping dogs in the back seat rather than the front seat and not having them ride around in the back of trucks are ways to protect them from harm.

I have decided it is time to get Seat belts for Sadie and Rusty. I bought them the Kurgo TruFit Harness for Dogs.  This seat belt is adjustable and comes in four different sizes so I will not have to worry about making sure I have the correct size.

How do you travel in the car with your dogs? Have you had the misfortune to learn if pets are safe in the event of a crash?