Boom believes in safe travel and we have tried many types of restraint systems. His first was a harness that connected to the seat belt. He chewed his way out of it before we got on the highway (1 mile from my house). His Aunt Valerie can confirm, she saw it happen. Next, I bought a backseat sling that tied to the headrests front and back. The fabric was meant to keep him in the backseat and safe. On his second trip in the sling, Boom shifted his weight and ripped two (of four) tiebacks off the fabric. A few months ago, I found a new harness restraint system at the Humane Society website. Looked good and the money was going to charity. Bonus!
So Boom was wearing his fancy new harness restraint attached to a zip line that runs across the top of the rear seat. Keeps him safe in case of a sudden catastrophic stop, but still allows him to lie down, sit up, gaze out the rear window and sigh, etc. He seems to like it or at least, he hasn't tried to escape it.
Upon arrival, I got out of the car, grabbed my many bags and dog paraphernalia out of the front seat, and opened the back door slowly, prepared to unhook Boom and put his leash on.
Nope, not fast enough, Boom jumped out of the car while still attached to the zip line.
CRACK!
That was the sound of the grab bar ripping out of the ceiling of my car. You know, this thing:
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(ignore the dummy)
So is the force of Boom jumping out of a care more than the force sustained if I was in an accident? It would at least slow down his momentum, wouldn't it? Before, of course, the grab bar came loose and conked me in the head. Hmmmmm.
Can't wait to find out how much grab bars cost.
Tell all your single friends, I have the best of intentions and the worst of executions.
XO, JamieSmitten
3 comments:
We just bought Maggie one of these:
http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_id=482
from Walmart (though ours is blue & red). I used to have a leash tied to the back headrest and she had the whole back of the car (I have a wagon) to lay down/sit up in, but she kept trying to climb over into the back seats to be closer.
I still leash her in the back for short trips (like to the vet), but we used our new travel crate for a recent trip to the beach. She didn't like it much, but I think if we use it on a few more trips she'll get there. She still tries to take off from the car as soon as I open the back, but now she's enclosed and I can get a hand in the crate and latched onto her harness before she can get out the door.
Now, knowing how flexible it is, I don't think it would work for Boom. I could see it now - you open your back seat and there goes a travel crate running down the road, four legs sticking out through the bottom.
Good luck finding something that works!
Wow. I'm amazed that's a commercially available solution: those grab-bars are not structural at all. Fortunately, they're also not expensive (owing to their not being structural, ya know). Go to the parts counter, tell 'em what you need, and bring it over. No sense paying a mechanic for an hour's work to turn two screws.
We once had a dog who occasionally chewed through doors. Intention and execution pale before pure, unadulterated determination!
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