If you love taking Fido anywhere you go, chances are he’s a frequent car “rider”. While having him stick his head outside the window, ears flopped back, taking in the overload of smells is reminiscent of canine freedom, I’ll have to hit the “buzzer” button right about now.
The Danger of Unrestrained Dogs In Cars
Did you know that unrestrained dogs who are allowed to roam around freely inside a moving car pose an incredibly high risk of distraction? Any driver who has to tend to a dog barking uncontrollably or climbing around in the car is accident prone.

It is simply impossible to keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the steering wheel, AND keeping track of your dog’s whereabouts at the same time.
One of the worst distracted driving situations is the one where Fido sits on your lap in the driver’s seat, maybe even has his front paws on the steering wheel, or stretches himself in direction of the window.
Here’s some truly crushing news: Should an accident occur right then and there, your lap dog would get crushed by the deployment of the airbag.
If you had to hit the brakes suddenly, Fido would become a first class projectile and go flying through the car, possibly even through the windshield depending on his size and the speed you were traveling at, and face serious injuries, or even death.
Some unrestrained dogs have been known to jump out of crushed car windows and follow their flight instinct ~ in other words: Take off, most likely in a puzzled and disoriented manner ~ which may get them hit by another car, or cause them to get lost for an uncertain amount of time.
Precautions to take to keep your dog safe in the car
Thankfully, as with most things in life, precautions can be taken in order to avoid the super scary scenarios mentioned above!
The safest way of going for car rides with Fido is placing him in a well secured, sturdy crate that is secured with tie-down straps. The securing and sturdiness factors are really important, because a generic plastic crate will NOT survive a crash.
Sturdy aluminum crates are the safest option. Unfortunately, they are also the most expensive and will cost several hundred dollars.
The ProLine Crash Tested Crate I found on Amazon.com costs a hefty $749 – it is, however, tested by the German TÜV (Technischer Überwachungsverein), an association responsible for performing security checks.
It is created by swiss engineers and also made in Switzerland.

The Heavy Duty Gunnar Kennels performed great in the Subaru Car Safety Test, and are a little less expensive than the ProLine ones at $500.

Unfortunately, the crate option for larger dogs is usually only feasible if you drive an SUV. There are good alternatives, however, such as the Ruffwear Load Up Harness which attaches to the seat belt buckle.
According to the Ruffwear website, their Load Up Harness “has been successfully tested to withstand the rigors of a vehicle crash test.“
I have to admit that the harnesses I currently use have not been vehicle-crash-tested, which worries me and will therefore be replaced with the Ruffwear ones very soon.
Update 2019: I have since then purchased a Ruffwear Load Up Harness.

It is also a good idea to have an extra set of leashes and collars on board, in case your regular ones break or get torn for whatever reason. They also come in handy when spotting a lost dog while out and about 🙂
In addition to having a human First Aid Kit in your car, you should also consider having a K9 version of it. I invite you to come check out my post about what it should consist of!
Other things to consider when traveling with your dog
Make sure your dog is up to date on his vaccines and look into the climate and its potential health risks you are traveling to. If you travel to the northeast and upper Midwest of the US, you may want to consider vaccinating your pup(s) against the tick borne Lyme disease, as those regions harbor ticks that carry the disease.
Always be considerate of others and pick up after him, so pack a sufficient amount of poop bags, and remember to bring along enough water & his regular food, as well as his favorite toy(s).
Also have copies of vaccination records in the car, as well as pet insurance info and a current picture for identification purposes should Fido get lost. Make sure that he’s wearing his ID tags at all times.
Bottom Line
Riding around with an unrestrained dog in your car is asking for serious trouble sooner or later. It may even be prohibited by law depending on where you live!
That’s why I recommend to keep car adventures safe for all parties involved and to invest in a car harness/seat belt attachment for your pup, or to keep him safe in a travel crate.
What’s left is to enjoy a safe trip with your pack!

How do you keep your pup(s) safe when traveling by car? As always, we’d love to hear from you in our comment section!
16 comments
I think the very safest dog boxes are the ones mounted to the vehicle itself. But you are talking big bucks for those.
I hadn’t considered that option, but it sure DOES sound like the safest option! Who would mount the box to the vehicle? Or is that something we’d have to do ourselves?
There are companies that fabricate and do the mounting. Here is one down your way. http://www.mtck.com/ there are others. Either the mounted boxes or the trailers are very safe options, but expensive. We had a trailer until we sold it last year. With our senior dogs being retired from hunt testing we did not need it as much and someone wanted it so we sold it. Held its value. We sold it for what we paid for it. 🙂
Oh wow, I just checked them out & watched a video from a happy customer: https://youtu.be/fH2-nnNzr7Q
Now this really takes safe car rides with your pooches to a whole other level. I love it. And it’s wonderful that the trailer held its value. I can see why.
LOl the video is of Bill Hillman. He is a professional trainer. We took a seminar and trained with him once. 🙂 The other nice thing is that they are insulated so keep the dogs nice and cool in the summer heat. Our trailer was actually from another manufacturer and had a fan system.
Lol, I had no idea – well now I know who Bill Hillman is 😉 Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. I can only imagine how expensive these custom boxes must be!
Most people are in serious denial about how dangerous cars are. If they weren’t, we’d probably save tons of energy.
My pet peeve is people who drive with their dogs in their laps. Talk about a distraction!
I completely agree – I constantly see people driving around with their little pups on their laps! Makes me cringe!!!
We’re going to have to check out the Ruffwear Load Up Harness. Linus has an older harness that we got before organizations like CPS started doing crash tests. Do you have any other recommendations for a good car harness?
We got our current harnesses from Baxter Boo for less than 10 bucks about 4 years ago. Granted, they still work, but we also haven’t had any accidents, and I really want a harness that’s been crash-tested now.
I have also heard good things about the Kurgo car harness (this one has also been crash tested): http://www.kurgo.com/harnesses/enhanced-strength-tru-fit-dog-car-harness/
I have to admit, I haven’t been good about always securing Haley when in the vehicle. She always stays in the back of the SUV but if we were to be in an accident, I would hate to think what might happen. I’ve thought about harnesses, but most are not rated or safety tested. Thanks so much for the Ruffwear model recommendation. It has a lot of good reviews and I think it would work really well for Haley.
My pleasure! Yes, I liked the positive reviews in combination with the fact that the harness has been crash-tested. AND I’m a sucker for Ruffwear products 😉 Here’s to safe car fun for Miss Haley!
Just bought a new crate for destructo dog Freighter. Actually we bought two of them for the back of the truck. http://zingerwinger.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16523&cat=380&page=1
Wow, thanks so much for sharing. Just looked at those crates, and they look like the perfect fit for Houdini dogs 😉 You spent some serious cash on those. They better last – but they sure look like they will!
Yeah they were pricey but we needed something for Freighter. He is a wild thing at tests. If I ever get my blog fixed, I will share a story about what he did at the test last weekend. lol
Completely understand – quality has its price. Just took a peek at your blog, and I like the new look! I remember running into several glitches when I switched over to my new theme. Thankfully I got them resolved within a few days, but they were a major source of frustration while they lasted. Ugh. I hope you’ll get yours fixed quickly because I DO want to hear about what Freighter did at the test 😉