Solution for pet riding on passenger's lap?

[Skookum]

Hi all. We have a 17lb terrier mix who is 12 years old. He cannot / will not be crated. He is anxious in cars, but seems at home in the RV -- so long as he is riding on someone's lap. We adopted him when he was 3, and we have been attached at the hip ever since.

I am fully aware of the safety issues at hand here, but see few other options. My passenger stays belted while we are going down the road, and the truck is of the era ('06 c5500 Kodiak) where it has a passenger side airbag switch. The passenger airbag stays off for this reason.

The problem we have is comfort for the passenger and the dog. We use a pillow two on top of our legs so the dog can lay there and see over the dash and outside the passenger window. But the pillows eventually slide or sag between legs. This becomes tiresome.

Has anyone concocted any comfortable lap-aides for relatively small pets? I was thinking of something like a TV-tray that could sit over the passenger's legs, or a big block of foam that wouldn't sag, with a pillow on top. Any ideas would be appreciated. We also have a huge area between the front seats, but he wants to be attached to someone, so a console setup won't quite work!

 

[HappyWanderer]

We finally put an end our dog riding on my wife's lap after 10 years. We simply placed his dog bed from home on the floor between the front seats of the motorhome, and put him there every time he tried to jump up. He complained for a few hours, then settled in.

 

[darsben]

The dog can be trained, maybe you do not want to see the dog in discomfort in the short term rather than thinking of safety in the long term.

PUT THE DOG IN A CRATE or use a harness and seat belt him in somewhere do this frequently even when you are not moving/traveling.

Train the dog

 

[Ex-Calif]

The dog can be trained, maybe you do not want to see the dog in discomfort in the short term rather than thinking of safety in the long term.

PUT THE DOG IN A CRATE or use a harness and seat belt him in somewhere do this frequently even when you are not moving/traveling.

Train the dog

This thread can easily be a "pick on the PO" thread but I am compelled to also chime in.

OP will never be able to hold the pet in a crash - One would not let a 17 pound baby sit in a lap in the front seat of an RV. It is not cruel to a dog or a kid to train them to be happy in a crate or carseat respectively.

Or at a minimum in a dog harness attached to a properly sized and secured tether.

As long as OP is eyes wide open on this I would consider this compromise.

Assuming the co-pilot seat has armrests, I could see rigging up a plank/board shelf, attached to the arm rests. The pet would be in a harness with a short tether secured to a D ring on the floor or tied into the seat mount.

At least the dog won't end up missiling out the front window. Note that this does not account for the risk to the co-pilot in a roll over accident with a 20 pound object banging around the space.

BTW - I have a personal bias that pets/dogs are not people or kids. They need to be trained to behave like proper pets - To me that's not cruel. It's actually kinder in the long run.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I dunno.  At some point it's more hassle to train the pet than to deal with the lap situation. Our cat is the same - needful of a person to comfort here while in a vehicle.  It's not ideal, but the world rarely is.

 

[Roy M]

We had a similar problem with our toy poodle. We tried tethering her in the rear seat but she cried for 3 solid hours. I finally got a short leash that clipped into the center seat belt buckle, my wife and the dog objected but after a couple of trips to the floor in a sudden braking situation they both got over it.

 

[jackiemac]

Don't know the layout of your vehicle but could you concoct something that is of the same height next to the seat that he could lie on safely and be harnessed to?

The concern I have with Ex-Calif's plank suggestion is that if it goes across the passenger and there is some kind of accident, that could end up being nasty.

Best thing would be if you could get him into his bed next to the seat and with some form of harness.  Safer for everyone.

Hopefully you will sort it out.

 

[Pugapooh]

Our rescued pug is a restless rider.  She is usually on my lap with a pillow,which gets Old after about 10 minutes.  It?s not so bad if she settles in but she still gets heavy.  She doesn?t do well in a crate.  We suspect she was kept in a cage to just crank out puppies so I?m not going to push the crate.  Sometimes she will ride on the console between us but tries to climb on the drivers lap.

I did buy a harness that buckles in to a seatbelt but haven?t had a chance to try it.  That would,I hope, reduce injuries in a sudden stop,at least. 

Say what you will,but,she is deaf,mostly blind and if being on my lap is less stressful for her,I?m going to do it. 

 

[LarsMac]

We had a tray for a walker rigged up in the car that allowed our Chihuahua, Pitstop, to ride with the Mrs.
Like this. With a pillow on top.


It took a bit of Georgia engineering to make it work, I was working on adapting it to the RV when Pitstop passed (she was a week short of 19 years old)

 

[Skookum]

Thanks for the replies so far.

I am fully aware of the safety issues at hand--eyes wide open (I spent my younger years as a first responder). I need to spend some more time on a design, but I would like to get him next to the passenger seat if possible. He already wears a harness and a leash, the end which ties in with the seat belt anchor.

Trauma is an awful thing and for pets, as in humans, there are some things that cannot be "trained" out. So we learn to live with these things and live to the best of our abilities.

Unfortunately there is only "safer" in an RV...no such thing as safe. Especially light and medium duty chassis cabs. But I do believe in statistics...