Driving With The Dogs: Safety For All

This is Mae & Nubbyns. I love my dogs. I love my dogs so much that last year I spent more after veterinarian than I did at the pediatrician. Or on insurance for my daughter and myself. Or on food. WellŠ that last one is not true. My dogs love me, they love each other, they love protecting me ( as much as you can protect if you weigh 12 pounds or 5 pounds). I even have documentation of how fierce these dogs are because the other day I took a break from writing on my computer using my MacSpeech voice-activated software and didn't silence the microphone. Here is what was recorded when my dogs saw a suspicious looking tamale seller rolling her cart down the sidewalk while I was out of sight:

and a a room and and and a man and and and and and and and and and and and and and in in an and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and a US and a day and a this is

I guess that the incomplete sentence at the end was me returning to the room and interrupting them; they didn't want me to know that they actually speak words that are in human dictionaries.

One thing I really love is taking my dogs to the beach, to friends' houses for play dates, on road trips and quick errands when I know I won't be getting out of the car. Luckily my 1999 BMW Z3 Coupe has a nifty feature that suits us perfectly while on the road: these touring cars were designed to hold luggage, go fast and be safe and the netting between the backspace and where the driver sits is the perfect barrier to keep both the dogs and me safe.

For one thing, if Mae had her way, she would be driving. That is an unsafe distraction that could lead to accidents and hurting me, my passengers, others on the road and Mae because my airbags would hit her 5 pound frame so hard.

According to one article that I found, in driving tests it was determined that a 13 pound dog sitting in the backseat unsecured would hit a passenger in the front seat with 396 pounds of pressure. At the moment of impact that means a dog's weight multiplied by 30 would result in a 70 pound dog hitting you with 2112 pounds of pressure. The chance of a dog surviving that is very low and for humans in the car? It would not be pretty.

There are seatbelt style restraints designed for dogs but the best solution, to be absolutely certain that no one would be unnecessarily hurt in the event of an accident, is to make sure that the dogs are in a confined space or a crate secured to the seat.

My dogs may not like when I leave them at home if I am in a car other than my BMW but knowing we are all safe is better than traveling in a pack.

Miss Motor Mouth

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