Car safety - Part One

Lucia riding with a Wonder Walker harness - not safe!

How does your dog ride in the car? Do they ride loose, sitting in the seat beside you or the backseat? Do they sit in a plastic or wire crate resting on the seat? Are they strapped in with a harness? What would happen if you got rear-ended, T-boned, or rolled off the road - how would your dog end up?

Recently an event occurred that shook up the dog-sport world when Elicia Calhoun (http://www.waltzingpaws.com/), a famous agility trainer, had a horrific accident in the Arizona desert. When a semi-truck pulled onto the highway she didn't realize the low speed it traveled and didn't slow down until too late. She tried to get on the shoulder but her vehicle clipped the back of the truck and she rolled down an embankment multiple times.

Source: http://www.ohmidog.com/tag/elicia-calhoun/

She had six dogs riding in the car with her, five in the backseat and a young puppy named Tsunami in a crate strapped into the front seat with bungee cords. During the roll over several of the dogs were thrown from the vehicle and the puppy's crate burst open, flinging Tsunami.

She retrieved three of the adult dogs immediately but three of of them, Tobie, Tsunami, and Nika, were missing. Tsunami's body was located not far from her vehicle. She later found out that Nika was hit and killed on the highway, but fortunately she was able to reunite with Tobie. This horrific accident cost the lives of two dogs and immeasurable emotional trauma both for her and her dogs. 

There is no justifying this sort of accident, and there certainly is no sense in laying blame on Elicia, the truck, or fate. None of it matters - what matters is learning from this loss and preventing it in the future as much as is possible. What would have happened if you had been in this crash? What would have happened to your dogs?

Inca riding in a crate in the front seat after his neuter - also not safe!

From this tragic experience many dog lovers came together to share knowledge about car safety and brainstorm the safest way for our pets to ride in the car. This started with the Facebook page originally set up to help Elicia find her missing dogs. This page has evolved into an ongoing discussion about car safety as well as a place to spread the word about lost dogs around the nation.

Elicia made a podcast talking about the crash and what she has changed about how her dogs ride. You can watch it here. She talks about the crash and search for her dogs for the first 50 minutes, and the last 7-8 minutes she takes questions and tells how she changed how the dogs ride in the car.

My wonderful friend Toni has compiled a wealth of information on car safety that I am sharing below along with my own comments. Credit goes to Toni for researching and compiling this information, including the information shared by Elicia..

Cricket and Sasha harnessed in Toni's car - very safe!

The hardest thing we had to realize is that there is no perfect answer for the best way for a dog to ride in the car. It depends on the type of accident, the car, the size of the dog, and probably other factors. What we have learned is that there are two main ways of travelling safey - crates and harnesses.

Crates: Most crates are not safe in crashes. Wire crates are not sturdy enough to withstand the high velocities and can twist and snap. They can even impale a dog, or trap them with the door unable to open.

A wire crate after an accident that caught fire. Facebook

Hard-sided plastic crates aren't much better. The plastic can become brittle over time when exposed to sunlight (as in a car!) and it can shatter on impact. If the crate is held together with plastic screws instead of metal screws, it may pop open and eject the dog. 

 From Toni: There are 2-3 really high end metal crates on the market (like $800-$2000/crate) and then there are rough crates.  Many of the thousands of people who followed this saga and who can afford to have changed to ruff crates. http://www.rufftoughkennels.com/ 

Clean Run is importing crash tested metal crates (due in this fall) that meet European Safety Standards – the US doesn’t have any.  They will run about $800/crate.

Ruff Tough Kennels

A note for small dog owners about the Ruff Tough Kennels - they don't make them very small. The crates need to be small enough that the dog won't be tossed around inside, and this means making the crate big enough for the dog to lay down in and stand up in a crouched position. This requires the crate being so small that it would be inhumane to leave the dog in there for several hours at a time, so the dog will need frequent breaks to stretch their legs after riding in a crate. Personally my dogs are all too small to be able to ride in a Ruff Tough Kennel.

You also want to consider how the kennel is secured in the vehicle. Will it slide forward during impact from behind? Will it stay in place if the vehicle rolls? Consider getting ratcheting cargo straps to secure the crates, or at least some form of heavy tie down. Examine your car to determine the most secure place to attach the straps, whether it be looping it around the seat or attaching it to the child safety seat connections. If possible you may also wish to push back your front seats to reduce the amount of space the crate has to move around between the front and back seats.

 Part two will cover harnesses and non-containment items you may wish to keep in your car.