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OK, in my previous post on this topic, I covered the legal stuff to do with taking dogs in cars.\u00a0 Now we get to the fun bit: what sort of vehicle suits your furry friend.\u00a0 Or friends, as the case may be.<\/p>\nOK, in my previous post on this topic, I covered the legal stuff to do with taking dogs in cars.\u00a0 Now we get to the fun bit: what sort of vehicle suits your furry friend.\u00a0 Or friends, as the case may be.<\/p>\n
When I first started thinking about matching dogs to cars, I just about wrote sedans (saloons) off from the start.\u00a0 After all, you don\u2019t really want a dog on the back seat standing up where it can snuffle down the back of your neck while you\u2019re driving.\u00a0 Nor do you want to have scratchy doggy paws on lovely Nappa leather seats, because that would wreck them (the seat upholstery, I mean, not the paws!).\u00a0 However, I remember taking the Staffordshire Bull Terrier we used to have (RIP, old fellow!) in a sedan without any trouble.\u00a0 He was quite happy curling up in the footwell for most trips and didn\u2019t try to sit on people\u2019s laps (unlike the current bitzer).\u00a0 During longer trips, we also put him in one of those doggy carrying crates that sat nicely between my two children in the back seat of the sedan we had back then (probably a Ford Fairmont), which had the added advantage of stopping them hitting each other during long trips. \u00a0What\u2019s more, if you do have a sedan with leather seats in your possession already when you acquire a new puppy, there\u2019s no need to sell the car \u2013 you can put down a nice blanket or doggy bed for Fido to occupy during the trip.<\/p>\n
If you do decide that a sedan is the best for you, then I really do recommend one of those doggy carrying crates.\u00a0 They do stop your dog deciding to stretch his or her legs by bouncing all around the place inside the cabin on a long journey, and you can fit a snack for your dog in there.\u00a0 They\u2019re also easier to clean in the case of little accidents \u2013 meaning accidents of the canine kind, not car accidents.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s obvious where the dog will ride if you have a hatchback, station wagon, 4×4 or ute. But it\u2019s not quite as simple as that.\u00a0 There is a certain style that one has to consider and it\u2019s nice if you can find a harmonious match between the dog(s) and the vehicle.\u00a0 You don\u2019t see poodles or Chihuahuas standing on the deck of a ute (safely leashed, of course), bouncing up and down and yapping squeaky yaps at everybody going past.\u00a0 Jack Russell terriers and fox terriers maybe.\u00a0 But not poodles or Chihuahuas \u2013 or anything else small and fluffy (e.g. Bichons) or super-glamorous (Afghan hounds). The sort of dog that looks right on the back of a Toyota Hilux <\/a>\u00a0or a Nissan Navara\u00a0<\/a> is something rugged and tough and suggestive of the great outdoors \u2013 a farm dog (which aren\u2019t an official Kennel Club breed but we all know what they look like) or a Dobermann or even a Labrador. \u00a0Conversely, although a Great Dane might fit in the back of a little hatchback \u2013 if the back seats are folded flat \u2013 this is going to be just too much dog in one car.\u00a0 Besides, where are you going to put any passengers or your shopping where they won\u2019t get slobbered on?<\/p>\n To give you an idea of how this works, here\u2019s a list of the 10 most popular breeds in Australia (2017 statistics \u2013 the figures aren\u2019t out for 2018 yet) matched the most appropriate general vehicle type:<\/p>\n Labrador Retriever:<\/strong>\u00a0 Your Labs are medium-large dogs and although they can fit in the back of a hatchback or across the back seat, they look best in something larger.\u00a0 It\u2019s a clich\u00e9, but the suburban family SUV or MPV is a good match for the suburban family pooch.<\/p>\n Staffordshire Bull Terrier:<\/strong> A smaller dog that fits cosily into the back of even a 3-door hatch but doesn\u2019t look weird tied on the deck of a ute, so a Staffie suits all vehicle types. However, as a short-coated dog that\u2019s a big softy in spite of the tough looks, a Staffie would prefer to be inside the vehicle on a rainy day.\u00a0 A hatchback suits a Staffie just fine.<\/p>\n French Bulldog:\u00a0<\/strong> Compact, French and a little bit quirky.\u00a0 I have just described one of the smaller Peugeots but it applies to the dog as well.\u00a0 A match made in… France.<\/p>\n German Shepherd:<\/strong> A big tough dog that is probably just about smart enough to drive the car.\u00a0 Something with lots of space would do the job \u2013 maybe a nice long station wagon or a 4×4.\u00a0 Put a German Shepherd in the back of a white Commodore or Falcon and you might get mistaken for a K-9 cop.<\/p>\n Border Collie:<\/strong>\u00a0 Working collies go on the back of grubby farm utes.\u00a0 Show-type border collies are better suited to something classy with a hint of the outdoors \u2013 say, a Range Rover.<\/p>\n Golden Retriever:<\/strong> See Labrador.\u00a0 However, as this has longer hair, best to keep it out of the back seat of the MPV or any humans who later ride in these seats will be forever trying to get the dog hairs out of their clothes.<\/p>\n Cavalier King Charles Spaniel:<\/strong> Another breed that looks loopy on the back of a ute and is so small that it will get lost in the interior of a big 4×4.\u00a0 They love to snuggle up, so if the little hatchback is too small for you, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (big name for little dog) will be happy in a basket in a sedan.<\/p>\n American Staffordshire Bull Terrier (Amstaff):<\/strong> Like the regular Staffie but bigger, like all things American.\u00a0 A muscle dog like the Amstaff looks best in a muscle car like your HSV or FPV.<\/p>\n Miniature Schnauzer:<\/strong>\u00a0 A toy dog with a bit more fizz to it than a Cavalier etc., so not the sedan this time.\u00a0 Go for the hatchback of any type or the station wagon.<\/p>\n Rottweiler:<\/strong> Go big.\u00a0 This breed can cause serious damage to a little hatchback if it decides to jump onto the bonnet. \u00a0A station wagon at the very least; a 4×4 is even better but your Rotty will settle for an SUV.\u00a0 Rotties were originally bred for pulling carts as well as herding cattle, so make sure your SUV has enough towing power that it can pull more than the dog. http:\/\/credit-n.ru\/offers-zaim\/4slovo-bystrye-zaymi-online.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" OK, in my previous post on this topic, I covered the legal stuff to do with taking dogs in cars.\u00a0 Now we get to the fun bit: what sort of vehicle suits your furry friend.\u00a0 Or friends, as the case may be. When I first started thinking about matching dogs to cars, I just about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9103"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11140,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9103\/revisions\/11140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}