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How Dog Car Restraints
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What are vehicle round bars you ask?
Well, if you have young children and drive a car that was produced after September, 2002 you probably already know all about round bars.
If not… round bars are the designated strong points in a vehicle that are provided by the manufacturer.
They are easily accessed attachment locations for important accessory items like baby car seats and dog car restraints.
Most often they are located in the back seat of a vehicle where the seat back meets the bottom cushion.
It’s All About Providing
Safety For Your Pooch
Required by law, round bars provide a secure lower anchorage point for child, infant and dog car seats.
The lower a car restraint is attached, the less “play” or sudden movement there is in the event of a collision.
This is important for the optimal safety of your passenger. The less movement for your restrained pooch, or indeed a restrained baby, the less likely that serious injury will result if there is an accident.
As with a child car seat, it’s safest for dog restraints to be secured in the back seat, away from the main front air bag.
Their explosive deployment has been known to cause more injury than the collision in some cases, even with dog restraints.
In case of an accidental collision, a good quality dog vehicle restraint will keep your dog secure and protected from impacting on objects or other passengers in the vehicle.
And most dog car restraints are designed to distribute the force of impact across your dog’s physically stronger areas. Which also helps minimize the possibility of injury.
What If My Vehicle
Doesn’t Have Round Bars?
If you plan on using dog seat belts in the back seat of your vehicle, round bars are the perfect anchorage point.
But if your vehicle doesn’t have round bars you’ll need a dog car restraint that’s designed to work with a standard vehicle seat belt.
Some manufacturers offer convenient features like quick release tethers that easily attach to an existing passenger seat belt.
However, this solution does have one disadvantage… aggressive chewers have been known to chew through vehicle seat belts. And the factory installed seat belt of your vehicle is usually more costly to replace than a dog car restraint.
But if the seat belt method is your only option… the safety of your dog and all your other passengers should always be your first concern.
With some extra attentiveness and a little training with dog treats… your dog should safely settle into a seat belt attached dog car restraint with no trouble at all.
And if you plan on securing your dog in the back of an SUV look for anchorage points in the cargo area.
If your SUV is a newer vehicle (made after September 2002) you should have no problem finding a convenient anchorage point in the cargo area.
