No Doggie Seat belt....You get a ticket

[FizzGiggs_Mommy]

A good friend of mine got pulled over by a police officer for a out tail light but instead of giving her a ticket for that he gave her a ticket for her boyfriends dog not wearing a seatbelt. I think this is a NJ law now. It is good to see this happening because now dogs will be just as safe as humans in a car. I always have my boys wear a seatbelt when ever we go any where.

What is your oppionion on this? I think it is a good thing..... it should be the law everywhere!

[ramanth]

Kia has a seatbelt. Dad mentioned to me that he had heard some states were making it a law that dogs had to be secured in the back seat. He wasn't sure what states though.

Looks like NJ is one of them!

[Kfamr]

I haven't heard of this, what do they mean by a seatbelt?
I sometimes put the seatbelt through their harness and strap them in that way.

I wonder if that would abide by the law?

[FizzGiggs_Mommy]

Kfamr Thats what I use The Harness that has a strap that slip[s through the seat belt. I am sure this is what you are suppose to use.

[Amber]

hmmmm, we don' use seatbelts. The only time the dogs are in the car is when we go to the vet. They usually just sit in my lap.

i wonder if its for Ohio

[heinz57_79]

When we first got Chloe we got her a doggie seatbelt thingy from PetsMart cuz we wanted her to be safe in the car. Unfortunately, we couldn't use it. chloe flipped out when she was strapped in. And Charlie, who's kennel shy, couldn't handle being confined in it either. I wonder if I had a note from a vet they'd excuse it...... hmmm...

[binka_nugget]

Tough luck about the ticket but I think the law is a great idea! Kai has a harness made for car rides. It's made by "Daba Doo" I think. It has a little strap on the back that the leash goes through. I'm still looking for one for Kaedyn though..

[joycenalex]

[i]Originally posted by Amber ... i wonder if its for Ohio B]

dear amber, i don't think so. last summer i was out with the wonder dog, he was strapped in his harness to the seatbelt and the columbus city cop who was next to me at the light, asked ...is that dog wearing a seatbelt?... . he thought it was kinda funny, but the laws of physics apply to unbelted dogs in cars too, just as they do to unbelted humans.

[Amber]

okay, Thankyou!

[Aspen and Misty]

We have a seat belt. But Nova will NOT wear it! I've tried a billion times to get her to and everytime she does she twist the seat belt around her paw and screams. Which causes me to swerve and turn around and look at her. It is MUCH more dangerouse to ME, the driver, for Nova to be belted. We are going to try to re-teach her, my dad will be driving and I will sit in the back with her and give her treats while she is on the seat belt. I hope it works!

Ash

[ramanth]

Well Kia's seatbelt is designed that it doesn't make her sit up against the seat. She wears a harness and there is a strap that connects to the seatbelt and the harness. I can adjust the length of the strap to either keep her in sitting position or to give her more room. Kia is able to sit up, lay down, and walk a little around the backseat.

When I bought it the woman at the store said one customer was in a rollover accident and her dog lived. Police said the dog would of been thrown from the car had it not been secured.

Some weeks later after buying my seatbelt, I was rear ended and Kia was thrown forward but kept in the backseat and was okay.

The other great thing about it is that it doubles as a regular harness. Kia can't jump out of the car when I open the door. I clip her leash to the harness and then unclip the strap.

[ParNone]

I have a seat belt harnass for Oz, that he does wear, but truthfully it's more for my driving safety then his. If he doesn't wear it, he plants himself on the middle console and puts his big ole Collie schnoze right in my face. Makes it very hard to drive, trying to see around his nose. So the seat belt makes it to where he can only get his front feet on the back of the console. He can poke me in the ear with his nose, but he can't get it in front of my face. Course if I need to look to my right, I have to push him back off the console. I'm really afraid he's gonna break a leg too, because he always manages to get a back leg wrapped up in the seat belt. And if I ever had an accident, although it would prevent him from being thrown through the windshield, it's not going to prevent him from slamming into the back of the front seat. So the seat belt adds some safety for him, but really not a whole lot.

Gully's still small enough to ride in a crate, but once he's too big for that, it's gonna be real interesting to see him and Oz trying to fit on that back seat together. I may end up having to buy a bigger car.

Murph it depends. Sometimes he's crated, sometimes he rides in my lap and sometimes on the front seat next to me. I know he should be crated everytime, but if I take him to like Taco Bell with me, the fun part for him is getting to greet the people at the drive through window.

Par...

[Logan]

This is interesting. I have to "rescue tie" Zipper in the back of my Jeep, because otherwise, he would be in my lap. We have a short strap that hooks to the car and to his collar. He can lie down, but he doesn't have room to jump the seat or to jump out of the car. The others ride in the back and never even attempt to leave that spot. Wouldn't I have to put them in the backseat, rather than the very back of the SUV to abide by this law? We have no such laws in SC.