Taking your dog along for the ride sounds perfect, but safety comes first. Learn how to protect your furry friend in the truck bed or inside your car.

Now that the days are sunny and nice again, many of us want to take our dogs with us on the go. Dogs love a good car ride when they can catch a snout-full of fresh air and new scents, explore new places or visit old favorites. However, traveling with our canine companion brings with it a handful of safety concerns.  

Allowing your dog to ride loose in the bed of a pickup truck is both dangerous and illegal  (Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 46.61.660).  Some dogs will be perfectly content to behave back there, but even the best-behaved dogs may jump or possibly fall out. Additionally, letting dogs run around loose inside the car, in the driver’s space, is also unsafe, either being a cuddly distraction or actually getting in the way of the vehicle’s controls. Both of these scenarios pose risks to man and beast.  

I’m not here to tell you that Fido has to stay home and miss out on spring and summertime fun, but I will make some suggestions so dogs and people can be safe and comfortable.

For Truck Dogs

• Tether your dog so that he cannot reach the edges of the truck bed.
• Keep the pooch in a well-ventilated kennel or crate. (This should also be secured to the truck bed) or put a canopy over the truck bed (be sure any windows are open for ventilation).
• Be aware of the temperature of your truck bed. A good rule of thumb is if it’s too hot for your bare hand it’s too hot for your dog to stand or sit on.
• Additionally, a mat or spray-in bedliner will help give your pooch some traction.

For Car Dogs

• Teach your dog to stay in their own seat and space.
• Get your pup a seatbelt (yes they make them!).
• Set up a pet barrier to keep your hound in the back.

It’s Heating Up

Even when it’s 70 degrees outside, it can reach over 100 degrees inside a car after a mere 30 minutes. This happens even faster as the mercury rises outside during these days of late spring and early summer. 

If it feels cool outside or we find that parking space in the shade, we still cannot prevent the interior of our car from turning into an oven. Sometimes this only becomes obvious when we get into our sauna-like vehicles and promptly burn ourselves on the steering wheel. Truck beds too will get hot in the sun, and beds with canopies will also mimic this sauna quality.

Pets and kids alike are in great danger when left for even a few minutes in this climate.  Please plan ahead so that no one gets left behind or trapped in those miserable conditions.

No matter how you travel with your pup, some basic care items are essential for his care while “on the road again”:

• Water, and a bowl. Leaving the water in the car could cause it to become very hot; check its temperature before serving it. Offer it at every rest stop, or more often if you notice your dog panting.
• Potty bags. Any time your dog makes a mess away from home, be a responsible owner and clean up after your furbaby.
• Extra leash and collar, or a rope slip lead. You never know when equipment failure could happen to you. 
• Identification on your dog, in case the unthinkable happens and he escapes.
• Food. Having an emergency supply of food with you when traveling will minimize stress on everyone, and make delays tolerable

If you wanna take your pup along, extra planning is required to keep everyone safe. But the benefit of your dog’s companionship makes it worth every moment of preparation!

For more information about RCW 46.61.660 go to https://dpgazette.com/4661660

Sources:

• Washington State Legislature. “RCW 46.61.660: Carrying persons or animals on outside part of vehicle.” WA.gov, App.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=46.61.660. Accessed 20 May 2018.