Hi Jodi

I have to jump in here because that was a problem for me too.  I have a ramp for the old Lab and I tried to get Cemil to use it, but it must have felt like it was going to move and he refused to have anything to do with it.  Instead, I had a friend build a "step" for me, for him to use getting in and out of my little Toyota pickup truck.  It's like a box 32" x 36" x 10" high.  He can jump onto it and then into the truck, and the reverse going out.  So he's only stepping down 10 or 12", and then another 10".  That worked great for him.  And he's level at the in-between point, instead of headed downhill, like on a ramp.  Cemil is an Anatolian Shepherd, about 150#.  I would recommend the "step" rather than a ramp for a big dog.  Much more solid.  I thought of putting some of that anti-fatigue matting on it to cushion the step even more, but I haven't done that.  It's really fine the way it is. And I can just throw it in the truck and take it along, so it's always available.

To make it work for a different-size dog, just measure the distance from front foot to back foot when she's standing on level ground and make it about that long.  The width would need to be just enough so she doesn't feel like she's going to fall off the side.  I guess the height should be about half the distance from the ground to the vehicle door.

Have fun!

Mary

When I got Tazzie a ramp, the salesperson suggested putting treats along it to help him get used to it. That worked to get him to use a narrow ramp going into the house.

If Bailey wears a harness, you can hold onto that as he leaves the car, which might lessen the impact of his jump.

He sure does a lot more jumping than he did as a 4-legged dog (he never used to even jump into my little car, and now he does), which makes me nervous but is probably hard to avoid.

We have the Solvit aluminum ramp, and it has worked well.  We first introduced it in the house flat on the floor and used treats as Tazzie described.  We worked with it that way until they would be happy to just stand on it without any concern.  Then we put it from the floor to the sofa, and worked on going up and down.  Codie Rae now has no problem using it.  We used it with Wyatt while he was here and he would go down it easily out of the truck, but was hesitant to go up.

The latest we are hearing around GSRNC is that you should not let your dog jump up into or down out of a vehicle becasue of the possibility of injury.  Apparently that recommendation has come from vets at UC Davis and applies to all dogs, no matter how many legs.  You might consider using both the ramp and a Ruff Wear harness to help everyone feel secure.