Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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I'm not sure if this is the proper area to post this question but here goes 🙂 My 60 lb rear leg tripawd rides in the car on the floorboard behind the passenger seat. His foster mom would transport him to the dog park like that since he was comfortable with it. He is not a fan of cars and has only been on 2 car rides with me since I adopted him. I have a grandma car sedan and I move the passenger seat all the way forward to give him enough room. I put a yoga mat down and a thin dog bed so that he has cushioning. He sits with his head resting on the console and is able to turn around and get out of the car. We are still working on building trust since he's only been with me for a few months and being picked up is not cool with him right now. Although if I had to pick him up in an emergency, he would have to make do 🙂 Most of our regular car trips would be a 10 minute car ride at the most so for right now, this works. I'm just curious if any other pet parents have suggestions or if they find that this manner of travel works well. Thank you <3
Emily and Dudley (The Dude)
Hi Emily,
This is a great place to post it. I think the way you've set up the back seat is as good as it gets for a sedan. He does sound comfy back there.
Car riding safety is so important. I just had to transport our Nellie in my mom's sedan today, in the back seat. My sister loaned her a seat belt restraint leash but I could tell it wasn't the most heavy-duty thing that could hold a 65 pound dog in an accident. Normally we transport her in our big Dodge truck, where she is safe in the back on her dog-platform that came with the truck.
We were just talking about this subject here. And here are some links to older discussions:
https://tripawd.....;include=1
https://tripawd.....m/#p116388
The problem for most of us is that it's tough to find a crate to fit a grandma car sedan, or anything other than an SUV and van that can accommodate the size of a crate. Even our big Dodge doesn't have a cab area big enough for one. To be safe, a car restraint is the best way to go but the most of them are not crash-tested so we're all on our own with how well they work if they had to. I love the hammock idea, and if you can find a seat belt restraint for dogs, even better.
What are other folks doing for car riding safety?
The Sleepy Pod Car Harness is the best alternative when you can't fit a crate. It doesn't use a tether like most dog "seatbelts", which are easy for the dog to get wrapped around a leg or their neck. I would also encourage you to look at soft crates - you could probably wedge one in the back seat (please see the recent thread that Jerry linked - I provide more info there).
Sleepypod is awesome. They are the only company I know of that invests significant amount of time and money into studying and crash testing their harnesses. I just wish they sold a harness that also had a top handle, and could double as an assistive device and car safety gear. We talked about that with a company rep several years ago, but so far our dream product hasn't come out.
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