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| Always think Safety First when traveling with your Cairns and other dogs! In addition to suffering serious injury from a sudden impact accident, any loose dog in the car can accidentally open windows, lock doors, activate wipers, and even put a car in gear – it just takes a few seconds of human distraction for any one of these things to occur, triggering a range of consequences! |
Restraining
our Cairns and
other canine loved ones in the car is always a matter of concern, whether we
put them in crates or car seats or other type of harness restraint. There is much evidence that many of these
devices are not, in fact, safe when put to the test, so the answer to how to
best keep our dogs safe in the car is not all that simple.
One key safety factor, whatever
method you choose, is to make sure you install and use the restraint absolutely
properly. In this very informative video, Robert Cabral
of Bound Angels, explains why proper restraints are so important
and he demonstrates the harness that he now uses (AllSafe) for his dogs. He is
not selling the harness, and does not even mention the name, but he gives a
thorough explanation of elements you should consider when choosing restraint
equipment for your dog, as well as proper placement of your dog in the car. Excellent food for thought…
Here is a link to the
Small AllSafe Harness:
Amazon Review of
Small AllSafe Harness:
I have a Westie who is 17 pounds and this is a
little loose in the shoulders, but it works fine. She seems to be comfortable
in it, and I feel it would protect her in the event of a crash. Nothing is 100%
sure, but I feel this harness is fairly well thought out, and uses crash tested
materials, so its way better than most all thats out there. It takes less than
a minute to get on - I just unbuckle ONE of the buckles around her belly, and
pull the other leg through the hole, and slip it over her head. No big deal.
The problem I have, is getting it on. Since I had to cut the long straps
shorter to keep them out of the way (which they tell you is ok to do), the end
that I cut is UNRAVELING terribly, and its hard to get it through the buckle on
that "reverse" move where you thread it back through the buckle a
second time. Really? After all that testing, and thoughtful design, you don't
use a webbing that won't unravel??? NOTE: The video by Robert Cabral shows
exactly how to prevent this problem.
