Do you buckle up your dog? At our house, seat belts are a top priority whether we are driving one mile or one hundred miles. My mom has been a seat belt nut since she was a kid, Gramma told me that, and then she was a flight attendant for eleven years…to fasten your seat belt, insert the flat end into the buckle… To top it all off, Mom lived in Germany for ten years where she enjoyed driving 150-180 miles an hour and at those speeds, seat belts are really important! Yes, us dogs rode along and we loved that fast stuff! One reason I am posting this is that after my last seat belt post several readers asked where to get a seat belt like we have, and I did not know. Now things have changed and I have a lot more information.
Here in the US, people are getting pretty good about buckling up but they are not doing the same for their dogs. We are so tired of seeing old ladies trying to drive with their Great Dane on their lap or the business man with his Poodle jumping back and forth over the seats! Our rule is simple, if Mom buckles up, the dogs buckle up. We have been buckling up since we were puppies. Just as learning to walk on a leash is a learning process, so is wearing a seat belt, but we learn fast. An older dog will also learn, so no excuses there!
At BlogPaws Mom spent some time at the pet safety booth and was shocked to hear that there are no tested and approved seat belts here in the US. Our seatbelts are from Germany and are ADAC and TUV approved. Now if you don’t know much about Germans, you should know that quality is their focus. Passing an ADAC or TUV test is no easy project. Not only that, but dogs are required to be restrained in a moving vehicle, so they must have reliable restraints. Until recently, we had not been able to find our particular seatbelts for sale here but now we have. The brand that we have is called Allsafe Dog Car Harness.
Just to give you a quick rundown of how safe our seat belts are, we lifted this verbiage from the 4×4 North America website:
“The AllSafe Harness is the seat belt for dogs. The German Auto Club tested the AllSafe Harness at their ADAC Technology Centre. Performance was measured against the criteria established in ECE R17 and crash tested with a dog dummy at speeds up to 30 mph. The AllSafe Harness was also crash tested by MGA Research in the USA using the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 213 for Child Restraints. We have also tested the AllSafe Harness using the standards adopted by the Center For Pet Safety. AllSafe is one of the only crash test certified dog restraints currently available in the U.S. and Europe.”
The harness seems a bit bulky at first but that is the heavy padding on the inside that actually makes it more comfortable for us dogs. There are two rings on the back side, the lower one is for the actual car use and the middle one is for use as a walking harness. The first time we wore our harnesses, Mom fit them on us and since that day, she only unbuckles one of the four buckles. We know how to put our paws in the front end, then she buckles up that one buckle on the back and we are in. It takes about one minute to get both of us dogs strapped in.
Another great feature with these seat belts is that you can move them easily to any vehicle. They are easy to install – takes less than a minute! You can adjust the length of the strap depending on the size of the dog and the area of the car. You will also notice the large reflective strips which provide added safety in the event of a crash or at nighttime. These seat belts may seem expensive at an average price of about $100 but they last forever and they keep your pet safe – something all those other supposed dog seat belts don’t do!
Here is a short video on the seat belt and the crash tests.
We purchased ours through Zooplus.de in Germany but we have found them now at:
In the US at Mighty Might Dog Gear
In the US at 4×4 North America
We have no affiliation with these companies and only have them listed because they appear to sell these seat belts online.
In other news…don’t forget to guess how many pages are in my new book – win yourself a copy! Deadline is midnight on Saturday. See my post yesterday for details. I also received my Sony Action Cam that I won from Pet Content! No more complaining about Mom’s video skills, now I can shoot my own video…once Mom figures out how to set it all up! What a pawsome prize to win! More on that another day!
Since I am following up from my Monday post and with a few other things, I’m joining in the follow up Friday blog hop hosted by Heart Like A Dog and cohost Sand Spring Chesapeakes.
I have a seat belt like that. We think every dog should have to buckle up. We see them jumping all over the car’s when they are going along. So dangerous. If you break hard, what happens to the poor dog, get’s flown through the windscreen. Some dog owners need to be more responsible . xx00xx
Mollie and Alfie
Right on!
We agree buckle up at all times. We so ditto Mollies points. Have a fabulous Friday.
Best wishes Molly
Such an important thing that so many pet parents just don’t do!
OMD Emma, thank you, thank you for this post. We’ve been looking for a safety system for our dogs but so far we haven’t found one we liked. I’m going to show this post to Hubby for him to check it out.
Thanks for joining the blog hop and I hope you are having fun at Barkworld!!
I’m not at BW. Didn’t win and was really frustrated with the way BW was doing things, so we did not go. Mom is really busy with work right now and my book too, so we stayed home but we feel like we are missing out. Try the seat belts, they are great! The only sign of wear and tear is from when I was a baby and I ate the label off Katie’s harness,otherwise they have so many miles behind them and are still like new!
Definitely going to check out these seatbelts. Most I’ve looked at so far just haven’t convinced me that they’re safe! And really looking forward to your new videos 🙂
I want to do lots of videos of me looking under pine trees for wabbits but Mom seems to think I need to video other things…what does she know? These seat belts are awesome…Mom has had one since she got the first one almost eleven years ago.
The Germans do not mess around when it comes to engineering! Eko has a seat belt that he is happy to put on because it means we’re off on an adventure. However, I think I might have to upgrade to the Allsafe, it looks great.
Mom is so excited she can order one over here if she needs one because we think they are great and we used them on the autobahn all the time…never had a crash test, thankfully 😉
Yeah, most of the seatbelts here are just harnesses with a clip on them. Glad you found something safer! We use plastic crates for travel with our crew now. I don’t think I’d trust one of the flimsy metal ones in an accident either.
Crates are better than running free in the car but they can move or get crunched causing them to open too. We are happy being belted in.
I’ve looked at the AllSafe for my business and am still considering them. I love how thorough their testing appears to be. Although, it is not true that there are no tested harnesses here in the US. There are lots of tested harnesses. There just isn’t any current testing standards for dogs. The ECER17 claim from AllSafe isn’t a standard for dogs either. In the US, a non-profit organization called The Center for Pet Safety is conducting studies and is in the process of establishing those standards. One thing this non-profit organization did mention is that you want the connecting tether to be as short as possible so the dog doesn’t come off the seat in the crash.
Thanks, Emma. I look forward to your adventures every day on Fb. I had been looking for a car safety attachment when I heard the warnings about the US devices. We also own 3 Boston terriers. Three years ago Maggie (my PBGV) and I were is an terrible wreck that totaled our car. We both survived with injuries. I had my seat belt on and Mags rolled all over the front passenger area. I could not believe she survived, and she is now 13. Thanks for the tip, and I have already ordered 1 harness. 🙂
Awesome! So glad you both survived! At first Mom thought these were too bulky (that was before my time), but Katie adjusted quickly and since we rarely walk with them, the padding doesn’t bug us and it keeps that seat belt material from rubbing on us. Safe travels!
Oh, I’ll definitely look into those. I admit, we have a car harness, and we tried it with our last dog – a tripawd. She would get so hyper in the car, bouncing around, and there was enough slack that she’d end up tangled up. I was so worried she’d get tangled enough that she’d hurt her lone front leg, so I stopped making her wear it. Then when I heard they were all failing the safety tests, i figured, well, there’s no point in making Rita wear the thing anyway. But that is cool that you have one that really works! I’ll have to get one – and then start trying to convince Rita that it’s better to be in the harness than having the run of the back seat!
I think it is in the presentation. Put it on, walk a block or so and then get in the car, ignore any pleas to take it off. Do that a few times and she will associate it with positive things. We can lie down or sit up with them, we aren’t allowed to stand unless we are repositioning. Strict car rules for us but that’s okay, we get to go along and are safe.
Emma, this is great. I was shocked when I heard that none of the current restraints in the US for dogs passed the crash test. It is worth the extra money to know that we can get one that actually works. We’ve been bad about not using restraints, we don’t travel a lot but I know that’s no excuse. I am going to look at these for sure. With Kobi having problems with his footing I know it will be much better for him to be restrained also, so that he doesn’t fall over in the car. Thanks for doing the research so you could let us know about this!
Seat belts are such a big thing with my mom. We aren’t allowed to stand either. To stop that behavior go to a place without traffic and drive slow, as soon as the dog stands, brake just enough so he loses balance. Do this several times and he will learn not to stand and no one gets hurt in the process. You don’t say “no”, just light brake so he understands that standing is scary. If the dog has been doing it forever it may take a bit longer to train but it works.
Great info! Safety is just so darn impawtant!
That is right! If Mom is buckled, we are buckled.
We think this is very impawtant too, and we’re grateful that our mom is a seatbelt nut like yours (no offense!). Thanks for sharing this! Purrs…
My mom is nuts when it comes to seat belts, so no offense taken there!
Interesting. But watching that video, I am not sure a dog would not be severely injured using a restraint. I guess there is no sure way to protect a dog in a wreck.
I would rather have my dog injured in the restraint than thrown out a window or onto me or another person. Nothing is 100% but we are pretty happy with this one. Thankfully we have no personal crash experience.
But do they make any where the dog doesn’t fall forward as much? Something that would keep them on the seat?
You can adjust the length of the strap between the dog and the seat belt. The problem with dogs is that if they sit it needs to be real short but if they want to lie down it needs to be a bit longer. Mine usually lie down as rides are usually longer than a few minutes and especially Katie won’t sit for that long.