I travel with my dog in the car often, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that.
Owen has always been a good traveler and has never gotten in my way or been a distraction when I drive. However, I still decided early this year that I would get him a car safety harness. The reasons for this are: to protect him if I'm ever in an accident with him, to protect me if I'm ever in an accident with him since he could become a projectile, and to keep him restrained in the car (even though he's never been a distraction before).
Car harnesses are not all created equal, though many have gotten better over the years since testing of them was first initiated.
Zip-line restraints and some booster seats are not crash-tested. Some harnesses that claim to be crash-tested don't say if they passed those tests or not. The market is not regulated so one must be careful when selecting a harness.
The harness that I selected for Owen is one that passes those tests and has been tested multiple times (the tests are based on child safety seat tests in the US). I feel safer and know that he is also safer when he wears his harness. I selected the PetSafe Happy Ride Safety Harness in size medium. This harness has passed safety tests since it was first launched and is now a safe harness for dogs.
While I have not had to use customer service at this time, the company will replace a harness from ANY company if you are in an accident with your pet with that harness, because they believe that harnesses should be replaced after an accident due to the forces on them.
One thing that you must also do is ALWAYS use the harness. If you get into the habit of not using it because you're "just going down the street" or something like that, using it won't become a habit and it won't help you because you'll use excuses to not have it on your dog.
So, to keep your dog safe, consider getting a car harness!
PetSafe Happy Ride Safety Harness ratings:
