Best Way to Transport Your Dog in the Car

There are many ways you can transport your dog in your vehicle. We are going to review some of the different options there are for transporting your dog.

Obviously your dog can always ride free in the car, but the risk is they can become a projectile if there was a car accident or they can get loose from the vehicle if there was an accident. If you do choose to have your pup ride loose, try and create early boundaries of where you want them to be in the car. Some examples of boundaries you can set is establishing they stay on a particular seat and set early boundaries that they should "wait" for permission to enter and exit the vehicle.

Another option for transport would be a harness and seatbelt combination. These have mixed safety reviews on if they will actually hold in the case of an accident but I would argue some protection is better than nothing.

Ideally try and find something with a well padded harness and test the seat belt function by pulling hard on it and make sure that it holds. In testing one that a client had just purchased, the part that attached to the seatbelt simply slipped out with the slightest pressure.

If you have a small breed dog, they make car seat boosters for dogs that resemble a soft bucket with a clip to help contain your dog. These definitely help give your dog a clear boundary of where to be in the car but again its debateable how well the seat belt function will work in the case of a car accident.

Soft dog crates provide another alternative for designating a space for your dog and providing some level of confinement in your vehicle. These are great because they are inexpensive and they are easy and lightweight to maneuver. As far as safety, while they won't provide protection in an impact, they may at least keep your pet confined if an accident does occur.

Hard style crates come in a variety of materials. Wire metal crates would be another lighter weight material that do collapse which can be nice if you are traveling but offer limited protection in an automobile accident. Hard plastic kennels such as vari-kennels, Gunnar Kennels, Ruffland Kennels are all alternatives that typically have gone through some form of safety testing although not all are crash test rated.

The final style of crate would be a custom made aluminum or metal crate. These can be custom ordered from your car manufacturer, or from a company such as TransK9 USA, Rogue Custom Crates, TNC Crates, or Kustom Krates. At the OC Dog Ranch we use custom made cratesby Rogue Custom Crates (pictured above) in our primary transport vans, and a combination of Ruffland or Vari Kennels in our other vehicles for transport. With heavier duty crates, the primary consideration will be adequate airflow so adding fans (ryobi) is important if your car doesn't have rear AC vents or for road trip purposes.