Just like traveling with a child every dog owner should consider the safety of their dog when traveling in the car. When traveling with a young child that child is put into a car seat, the same holds true for your dog. There are only 2 safe ways of traveling with your pet:
- With a safety harness that clips into the seat belt.
- In a dog crate secured so it won’t roll or move around the vehicle.
It pains me when I’m driving and I see a dog sticking it’s head out the window, I know the dog is not secure because if it was the head would not be out the window! An unsecured dog in a car is endanger of being injured when you stop short, or quite possibly cause you to have an accident by jumping on you while you are driving. Allowing a dog to stick it’s head out the window is endangering the dog as well, small stones and other debris can cause injury to the dog, if the window is low enough the dog could jump out of the moving car. This happened to a neighbor years ago while traveling down the highway. Luckily for the dog my neighbor’s quick thinking to grab the tail saved his dogs life, I know of other dogs that were not as lucky.?? Allowing small dogs to sit in your lap while driving is also asking for an accident, the dog blocks your control of the steering wheel and if you should be in an accident the deployment of the air bags could kill your dog. If it’s not safe for a small child to be in the front seat do to air bags think what they can do to a dog!!! Keep in mind the toddler rule while driving, would you let a toddler stick his or her head out the window while driving? I HOPE NOT! You may say “But my dog likes it” So what, as a responsible pet owners we need to make the decision on what is safe for our dogs, riding with the head out the window or in your lap is not SAFE.
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I think Best Friends Animal Society is one of the best animal welfare organizations in the world. Best Friends primary goal is to help animals in need, which they do by helping the animals and not pushing their own personal political agenda like the HSUS. When Katrina hit in Louisiana Best Friends was one of the first on the scene and one of the last to leave. Many larger groups pulled out of the area with in a few months but not Best Friends who still had staff in the area almost a year later. When the Sara Whalen the founder and President of Pet’s Alive Animal Sanctuary in NY past away earlier this year the board of Pet’s Alive realized they were way over their heads with over 200 animals to care for. They ask Best Friends for help and Best Friends said Yes, sending both staff and equipment to aid in the care of the animals. Whether it’s 1 animal or 200 animals in need Best Friends will offer their help, it may just be by emailing other animal welfare volunteers or by taking the animal into their sanctuary in Utah. In a recent Best Friends newsletter they write about their efforts in Peru yet again helping out with the animals after the earth quakes. The government of Peru had planned on Euthanzing the stray dogs and cats to help control a rabies scare, instead Best Friends offered a spay/neuter plan along with Vaccinations to control the spread of rabies and Peru agreed to the plan. Best Friends has also stepped in to help with a rescue of over 600 cats in Nevada, to read more about it and other Best Friend endeavors go to Bestfriends.org
My friend read all the Dog boarding information I put up and what she took away from it was that she would be unhappy if she sent high quality cookies to a kennel and then found out that her Dogs were getting treats of a lessor quality.?? Having spent a great deal of time in Dog kennels I can say with authority that any treat your Dog gets is the best thing in the world to them.? This doesn’t mean that they are being deprived but that having someone give them a snack is the best thing *ever* to them and that is what you want to have happen with them while you are away.
This is why most kennel workers love to see boxes of treats come in with the Dogs.? Kennels won’t spend the money for erroneous Dog snacks but almost all of them love to hand out cookies to the boarders.?? I love to walk the kennel every night before I leave and give every Dog a biscuit to remind them that they are special.?? And believe me, they all get that message before they go to bed for the night.
So send your Dog or Dogs off with treats to share.? This is one of those rare situations where it’s not about the quality but about the quantity.
