Gadgetory

now the first thing to know about getting your dog or cat ready to go in the car come on Duncan here we go it's not to do it all of a sudden on the day when you have to do to go to the vet er take a trip somewhere you got to ease them into this whole idea they don't know what this is get them used to going in the car in stages first by not going anywhere at all get your pet in the car front of the house then short little drives around the neighborhood rewarded with treats of course have blankets and beds in the car that they are used to that came out of the house I recognized the smell then later when it really matters they're not freaked out remember animals get used to things they don't understand like cars by recognizing patterns that don't threaten them over time so you've got to give them time to get used to this machine good boy now once you do get your pet used to going around in the car here's why it's important to secure them in there our 60 pound friend here weighs 2,700 pounds when a car comes to a dead stop from as little as 35 miles per hour that inertia can be very damaging to him to you and then you've got a freaked out animal in the car after an accident who if he's loose can be threatening first responders or running out into traffic getting himself hurt or causing another actor and I'm sure you've seen these sort of barricades that are used in wagons and SUVs and they're fine for compartmentalizing the vehicle but does this look like it's up to the task of handling 2,700 pounds of flying dog no and that's where these safety harnesses come in and get this whole padded sort of chest piece here and then it lashes over the back of their neck and underneath the front legs kind of goes on like this and this whole thing clips to a sliding tether that goes onto the shoulder belt portion in the second row away from those front row airbags dog should always be restrained in vehicles even if you're just going on a short journey but here's the problem a recent study done by the Center for pet safety in conjunction with Subaru because their owners loved when their dogs run on their cars found that a lot of these harnesses are crapped they gathered 11 of them in a recent survey one of them tested really well six of them basically broke on impact didn't work out well at all four of them were so bad that even bothered testing them one with the unlikely name of Sleepypod click it was the only one that held up well in this study it happens to be among the priciest as well at ninety to a hundred bucks but seemingly money well spent now when it comes to cats it's kind of like harry and Tonto my cat has to believe himself you're not supposed to have any animals on it they're always in a carrier on the road and then what you want to do is use the belts to at least lash this carrier in place again second row away from front row airbags you might also consider putting it down in the well between the two rows of seats that really kind of locks it in and some cats love being in little enclosed areas and look for a carrier that's got places for the belt to sort of snug in so it doesn't just slip off like this let's talk about dogs in the backs of pickup trucks a few states and a few additional municipalities have laws against it most do not the Marine Humane Society was actually at the forefront of introducing legislation to ban that there's dangers with dogs possibly flying out of vehicles if you get into a collision or if you have to stop short and we introduce that way back in 1983 eventually a couple decades later it became a state law in California here's what you want to do to use common sense get your dog into a carrier a rigid carrier in the bed then cross tether that so it's not sliding around fore-and-aft left to right in any kind of maneuver or impact if that's not a possibility then investing in some kind of harness would be another option and of course it should go without saying park the car take the pet like it's incredibly hot in a car on even a slightly warm day if you're stopping even just for an errand don't keep them in the car without any ventilation keeping your pets safe in the car it pays humane dividends to double-check that you've done it right