A cute little poodle mix is one lucky dog even though she did get hit by a car. The driver saw her run into traffic and hit the breaks. He thought he’d missed her when he didn’t couldn’t see the dog in the road behind him, so he kept driving. He didn’t see the dog because she was wedged in his car’s grill. After another driver alerted him, he drove to a police station where the dog was removed almost unharmed. She really only had a concussion and a bruised bladder. Amazing!
The sweet dog is microchipped, but her information isn’t up-to-date. Don’t forget to keep your pets’ contact information current! I need to double-check our furred ones’ contact info. myself and make sure the phone numbers are current.
When a passerby saw the black lab staying near her dog friend who had been struck and killed in traffic, he set up orange cones to warn motorists and filmed the remarkable dog while waiting for help to arrive. The black lab, now named Grace, remained by her friend’s side despite the heavy traffic. She didn’t have tags or a microchip and has actually already been adopted. I hope she is kept safe and happy from now on.
I love our Roadie harness! Every time our dog Saffron rides in the car with us, she’s in her Roadie and buckled in in the back seat. If you’re taking your dog in your car, you’ll both be much safer if your dog is secured by a strong car harness and seat belt. Find out why you should always buckle up your dog. If you have a dog who is nervous about riding in the car, a harness can make them feel more secure because they’re not constantly trying to keep their balance. RuffRider used to have different models of harnesses, but have trimmed down to one, which I think is just fine because that one model is awesome and WAY better than all the other car harnesses I’ve seen.
The Roadie isn’t just a regular harness. It was designed specifically to keep a dog comfortable riding in a car and safe in the event of an accident. It was independently tested and can withstand over 6,000 lbs. of force. (The Society of American Engineers standard for human seat belts is 5,000 lbs. of force.) Unlike a lot of car harnesses, the Roadie doesn’t have any buckles or clips that could fail in an accident. That does mean there is a certain way to put the harness on, but once you understand how, you’ll have no problems. You can check out their instructions. It’s easy to secure your dog in the car by threading the seat belt through the loop on the back of the harness. Or you can use a carabiner to clip the harness in.
It’s important that if you use a carabiner, get one used for rock climbing with a strength rating of at least 23 kN. We use a Black Diamond Dynotron which is rated 25kN. Don’t use some crappy carabiner you get at Wal-Mart—it isn’t strong enough.
(Note: I have no connections to RuffRider, I just really like thier product!)
Protect your dog. You wear a seat belt, your kids wear a seat belt, your pets should be belted in with a harness.
Protect yourself. If not restrained, your dog will become a projectile in an accident and cause great injury to the human occupants—at 30 mph, a 60-pound dog can cause an impact of 2,500 pounds.
Protect emergency aid workers. A terrified or injured animal is unpredictable and could keep paramedics from helping or might even injure them. Police might choose to shoot your dog if they fear for their safety.
Keep your dog from running away after an accident. An unrestrained dog could run off in fear or run into traffic and get hurt.
Prevent distraction of the driver, blocking of the driver’s view, or interference with operation of the vehicle.
Prevent your dog from being ejected from the car or jumping out the window.
Prevent your dog from jumping out when you stop and open the car door.
Prevent car sickness and stress. Your dog will feel more secure and won’t have to keep bracing himself for the movement of the car.
Prevent your dog from sticking its head out the window where it could be injured.
Prevent damage to the interior of your car from an uncontrolled dog.
Ely himself owns a dog and says he feels compassion for Fester’s family, but thinks they should be held responsible for the accident. And on the surface, I agree with him. But, I also see pets as part of the family and it’s hard to imagine someone suing a family for damage to your car if you struck and killed their child through no fault of your own.
A Minnesota driver struck and killed a