The Right Car For Your Dog Part One: The Legal Bits
Come on, fellow pet owners: admit it. You’ve sometimes considered the needs of your furry friends (who you might refer to as your fur-kids) when purchasing a car. I’ve done it myself. I’ve said no to some lovely little numbers in the past simple because they weren’t compatible with our doggo. I haven’t gone so far as to sell a vehicle I already owned because it wasn’t dog-friendly – although I did do this for my children.
OK, now we’ve got that out in the open, so let’s talk about it. There you are: the time has come for a new set of wheels for whatever reason and you’re looking for a new car. You want to make sure that all of the family is happy, and this includes the four-legged members of the family. Meaning the dog, that is. Cats don’t always take too well to riding in cars – some do and some don’t, but dogs usually enjoy riding in cars. So what do you have to think of when choosing a car that’s compatible with your dog?
First of all, you have to keep the legal stuff in mind. Fortunately, the laws for travelling with dogs are a lot less stringent than the laws about children in cars. Here’s what you need to know:
- It’s illegal to drive with a dog sitting on your lap. Obvious in the case of a St Bernard or a Newfoundland that might weigh more than you do but it also applies to Chihuahuas.
- A dog (or any other animal!) has to be in an appropriate area of the car where your pet can’t interfere with the driver. This means that the driver’s footwell is out of the question Small dogs probably also shouldn’t sit on the bit behind the back seats in a sedan where they block the rear view mirror. It’s best if your dog is restrained but this isn’t a legal requirement – yet!
- Your dog probably shouldn’t be in the front passenger seat. The only possible exception would be a poodle or other teeny dog in a handbag. Anything larger could easily become a nuisance to the driver, either by whacking you with a wagging tail or putting a nose (or paw) onto the controls. A big dog will get in the way and a small dog would be badly hurt or even killed by an airbag going off in an emergency situation. If you feel you absolutely have to have your dog in the front passenger seat (e.g. in a single-cab ute on a nasty cold rainy day) then use one of those doggy seatbelts or Doggo will try to get all over you. Or at least my dog would.
- If your dog is on the back of a ute deck without a canopy, it has to be restrained so it can’t jump or fall off (or lunge at passers-by when the ute’s parked).
- Don’t leave your dog in the car – your dog can’t stay cool enough and can overheat very, very easily, which constitutes animal cruelty.
While we’re on the topic of dogs in cars, there are two things more that you need to know. First, opening the window a weeny bit doesn’t do much to cool down the air temperature in the car, and it’s cool air that your dog needs to stay at the right temperature. Leaving the A/C on or parking in the shade does something but not much. And giving the dog water does nothing because the water heats up inside the car as well. The only time that you’re probably OK to leave a dog in a car is if it’s a nasty cold rainy day, preferably during winter. Second, breaking into a car to rescue a dog that you think is suffering inside a vehicle is considered vandalism, breaking and entering. What’s more, if the dog in question isn’t suffering from heat exhaustion – for example, if it is a chilly day – the dog will see “strange person aggressively breaking into my property” and will react accordingly. Dear well-meaning person who tried to break into my brother’s Subaru (which was parked in the shade with the windows half open during winter) to “save” the pair of pitbulls sleeping on the back seat, you were flipping lucky that said pitbulls were a soppy pair of wimps and not at all like the stereotype pitbulls.
The answer to the question as to what to do with your dog when you’re out and about and need to nip into a shop where you can’t take the dog? Step One is to leave the dog at home but this isn’t always feasible. When I took my dog to the vet and I needed to pick up some bread from the supermarket practically next door, I did not drive home, drop off Doggo then go back to the supermarket! Step Two (which is what I did) is to have the right sort of car: either a ute where you can open the back door of the canopy, which does allow enough air to circulate, or something with nice handy spokes on the alloy wheels or else a towbar so you can tie the dog up outside the car. Step Three is to look for an alternative to tie your dog to. If you’re lucky, your local shops have a spot where you can “park your dog” outside. Failing that, a parking meter will do and it will keep your dog entertained with the doggy equivalent of social media at the same time.
OK, but what sort of car do you need for when you’re travelling from A to B with Doggo beside you for company? The breed of car will depend on the breed of dog – and that deserves a post of its own, so I’ll cover it in Part 2.
Level 2, 9 Help Street