Restraining dogs in Motorhomes

Harrietliberty

Harrietliberty

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Hi, we have just bought (picking up on 17th July) an Ace Capri motorhome which is 2 berth with 2 seats. We currently have a nearly 2 year old Golden Retriever and we are getting a Golden Retriever puppy in August. In our cars, our dog has been restrained with a harness and lead which plugs into the seat belt holder. We won't have a spare seat in the motorhome so how do we restrain them? There are 2 clips attached to the back of the bench seats (one either side) should we use these with a harness and shock absorbent lead? Any help gratefully received
 
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I use a medium folding metal crate for my two medium-sized whippets in my VW T5 van. It takes two seconds to erect or fold away, and has the added bonus that I can put them in it on a site if needed. They are never crated at any other time, but adapted to this way of travelling as if they’d done it all their lives. I should also say that I stop the crate moving around in transit via two dog leads secured round the base of the front seats and threaded through the sides of the crate.
 
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tonyidle said:
But that's my point. The dogs, either inches behind me or in the passenger footwell, pose much less of a threat than poorly attached furniture. I'm not being clever or suggesting there's no risk from the dogs it's just that they're the last thing to worry about. There's a crash test of a motorhome somewhere on the internet that demonstrates the dangers. If any weighty object is close to the driver or the dashboard it can't move far enough to develop any momentum and is in a relatively safe place.
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I disagree I was very lucky. Anything not tied down is going to fly. A 30kg dog is going to kill you if it hits the back of your head. A dog lying behind the seats is going to come over the top in a sudden stop, such are the forces.
 
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tonyidle said:
My three are on the floor between driver and passenger, in front of passenger, and on the bench behind the driver. And unrestrained.
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Mine will be on the floor, or in his bed (on the floor) unrestrained. In an accident he would slide forward to the back of the chairs. He won’t be flying at my head, that will be the job of my oven, or cooking extractor.
 
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we don't have a dog but have been involved in accidents, from what I have read the protection of your dog(s) , none of them seem great , most humans with have a Airbag exploding to help prevent serious injury . I would have thought a proper retention harness and some sort of Foam/ cushions supported barrier in front of the dog( s ), thinking about the dog in a harness would need a tiny bit of movement , God help the dog the , even at 30 mph that hits a seat frame etc. if vehicle is involved in a accident. I been to a crash testing site many years ago and seen impact damage even using Dummies , don't forget 30mph you 30 mph coming towards you perhaps, you need specialist advice seems to me, perhaps from the RSPCA , or Thatcham Research thatcham.org may be able to help

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I've been reading all of these and contributed a bit, I'm quite worried that some of the posters think that being only a short distance from a 10kg flying dog is going to do less damage to the back of your head/neck than the same size dog that has travelled 1 to 3 metres. The dog's kinetic energy will still be effectively the same in an accident, consider that the vehicle will have come to a sudden halt at somewhere between lets say 20 and 60mph, you, the passenger/driver, will have halted at the same time and dissipated your body mass/ kinetic energy into the seat belt and it's fixings, the dog will still be moving at between 20 and 60mph and if the poor blighter hits you on the head/neck area then I'm sorry but that's a broken neck/ damaged spine/ dead.... the dog may survive because it transferred all it's kinetic energy into your neck/head as it came to a halt a nano-second after you did..... If you study crash test video footage then I think there is an argument that the impact speed and therefore kinetic energy of the driver/passenger and dog may actually increase, the passenger has stopped moving forwards because the seatbelt has restrained them, the passenger is probably actually moving backwards with a similar but lesser amount of energy and then meeting the dog that is still flying forwards..... Awful, but as Scottie said in Startrek, " Ye canna change the laws of physics Jim".......

Restrain the dog! Dog's lives matter!! :giggle:🐶

Cheers!

Russ
 
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I can't believe what I am reading from some of the contributors on here!A loop and a lead? Sitting behind you on a seat? And unrestrained? (also very illegal!)

If you have a dog on a lead and harness attached to a loop in the floor, firstly the dog will fly! It will either hit whatever is in front of it with real force or will be brought to a halt momentarily by the lead (breaking many parts of the dog) and then onward travel into whatever hard things it can find!

Cheap seat belt attachments are just as bad. It covers you for the legal requirement to have the dog restrained, but doesn't cover the dog! Having the dog loose in the vehicle, either totally or on a lead so it can move about is also illegal and very bad for the dog and anyone it hits in an accident.

In my view, the best solution is a cage. If it can't be fixed it can be positioned against the front seats so there is no forward movement.Yes the dog (s) will still be thrown forward, but to a much lesser degree and there will be less chance of injury. We love our dogs as we love our kids (sometimes more!) Why on earth would we be using ways to circumvent safety rules to make us all safer?
 
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Harrietliberty said:
Hi, we have just bought (picking up on 17th July) an Ace Capri motorhome which is 2 berth with 2 seats. We currently have a nearly 2 year old Golden Retriever and we are getting a Golden Retriever puppy in August. In our cars, our dog has been restrained with a harness and lead which plugs into the seat belt holder. We won't have a spare seat in the motorhome so how do we restrain them? There are 2 clips attached to the back of the bench seats (one either side) should we use these with a harness and shock absorbent lead? Any help gratefully received
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You can buy seat belt buckles and attach them somewhere suitable then plug the harness in....
 
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Ive never been overly keen on the harness system as I worry about getting the lead wrapped round a leg and ripping it off in an accident cheery soul that I am 😊 You can get half tube sheets that they will just roll to the front of but no idea how you would fix it
 
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I stopped worrying. You can Over Think anything. Our dog is restrained. for her own safety and to stop her wandering around the van on the move. Her Place is behind the Passenger seat base. Anything that would cause serious damage or death to the dog, will likely be the death of us too. I just drive as if the rest of those who infest our roads need serious psychiatric care, has worked for the last 60 years nearly. (y)
 
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Sticking head above parapet...

our dog is lying in the footwell, on a lead held by my wife. There is nowhere for the dog to go I. Terms of forward motion if we had some sort of head on and my wife is in her seat belt. The dog is restrained by the lead if she did want to get up and move around but she spends the entire journey lying down.

it doesn’t seem too unsafe to me. We tried a cage but the dog wasn’t happy and I don’t think it was as safe as our current arrangement
 
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After a RTA last year that wrote off the MoHo, even at relatively low speeds (35mph max) we where lucky not to have had a dead dog or two. Surprised how much they traveled, one into footwell (was in wife's arms seconds before and had just put her down in her bed) the other hit the centre console and ended up under my legs (German Shepherd)

That's with all the other debris from every locker. We all escaped with just minor sprains

Second MoHo, dogs now secured with seat belt restraints and small cage

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Rumour and Innuendo said:
No insurance is an offence, so in the event of an accident, there are a number of offences you can acrue!
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First you have to drive without due care and attention because you're distracted. And that has to be proven. A bit like driving with two screaming kids in the back really - in fact the dogs are much less of a distraction.

One can take this sort of nonsense as far as one wishes. Would you drive a GRP car with no protection, no safety cell, no airbags, no driver aids? Would you drive a two wheeler? Would you go off on holiday in your totally safe motorhome with modern safety features, restrained dogs, then upon arrival in a foreign country remove from your garage the least safe form of transport on the road and set off on it with your partner on the back? In the end we all consciously or unconsciously assess the safety of our activities and behave in a way that's comfortable for us. In the case of dogs they aren't all the same and the positions they assume in the van can be made as safe as possible restrained or not. One of ours is terrified inside a moving vehicle. She is acceptably calm when very close to my wife. The other two, seeing her distress, need to be close too. What they do is acceptable to my wife and I and as such isn't a distraction - in fact it would take a lot more than anything they (or anyone / anything else) could do to distract me when I'm driving.
 
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tonyidle said:
First you have to drive without due care and attention because you're distracted. And that has to be proven. A bit like driving with two screaming kids in the back really - in fact the dogs are much less of a distraction.

One can take this sort of nonsense as far as one wishes. Would you drive a GRP car with no protection, no safety cell, no airbags, no driver aids? Would you drive a two wheeler? Would you go off on holiday in your totally safe motorhome with modern safety features, restrained dogs, then upon arrival in a foreign country remove from your garage the least safe form of transport on the road and set off on it with your partner on the back? In the end we all consciously or unconsciously assess the safety of our activities and behave in a way that's comfortable for us. In the case of dogs they aren't all the same and the positions they assume in the van can be made as safe as possible restrained or not. One of ours is terrified inside a moving vehicle. She is acceptably calm when very close to my wife. The other two, seeing her distress, need to be close too. What they do is acceptable to my wife and I and as such isn't a distraction - in fact it would take a lot more than anything they (or anyone / anything else) could do to distract me when I'm driving.
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So because we used to drive vehicles with no safety features, we still should? Don't be daft man! I travelled in a car with a hole in the floor when I was a kid, but would that be good now? Of course not. If you seriously would let your animals travel loose, then you shouldn't own an animal. And it is not just the injuries to you or the animal. Dogs are well known to emergency services after crashes. They can be shocked and scared and can actually attack those trying to help.

There is no excuse for animals loose in a moving vehicle.
 
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Rumour and Innuendo said:
So because we used to drive vehicles with no safety features, we still should? Don't be daft man!
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On occasions I drive two cars with no safety features. One of which has only three wheels. Not many years ago and long after ABS, airbags, and crumple zones became commonplace, we used one of each as daily drivers. I ride a motorcycle. Many motorhome users do so or ride scooters. All those things are an order of magnitude less safe than having calm dogs unrestrained. Incidentally whilst restraint may solve the distraction issue I've yet to see anything that would prevent any animal (or worse parts of it) becoming a missile in the event of a serious accident.

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Started another thread but it has gone missing and I'm not going to start a thread on that :doh:

What do others do the restrain outside? We have a corkscrew for campsites, but if stopping for lunch etc and sitting outside want to have dogs with us.

Last MoHo we used towbar at times, but new MoHo is longer, has anyone fitted an external point near the habitation door?
 
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tonyidle said:
On occasions I drive two cars with no safety features. One of which has only three wheels. Not many years ago and long after ABS, airbags, and crumple zones became commonplace, we used one of each as daily drivers. I ride a motorcycle. Many motorhome users do so or ride scooters. All those things are an order of magnitude less safe than having calm dogs unrestrained. Incidentally whilst restraint may solve the distraction issue I've yet to see anything that would prevent any animal (or worse parts of it) becoming a missile in the event of a serious accident.
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So what you are saying it that because we used to HAVE to drive vehicles with no regard for safety, we should still be doing it? And because we used to allow dogs to roam freely in vehicles being driven, we should do now? Does it also follow then that because we used to have kids of a tender age working in factories, we should now?

Most of us have moved on and are thankful for the safety devices we now have. Also thankful that irresponsible owners are now required to restrain their pets. OK, you may not, but at least someone is making an effort to safeguard themselves and their animals. The choice to ride in or on any mode of transport is a choice. Dogs have no idea of choice and have no say.

"I've yet to see anything that would prevent any animal (or worse parts of it) becoming a missile in the event of a serious accident."

Our cage, attached to the floor behind and between the front seats is very secure. It cannot be moved. And in the event of an accident, it will stay put. Even if the van were inverted.

Your arguments are at best spurious and at worst downright dangerous. But I guess you post for effect.
 
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Rumour and Innuendo said:
But I guess you post for effect.
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Not really although there's always pleasure in seeing a response. I dislike it when I'm told how to assess my own and my pets safety under any circumstances. You use terms like "downright dangerous". I'd change that to say I take greater risks than you believe I should. You don't know me, haven't had my experiences (no bad ones I should add), and know nothing about how I drive or have driven in the past. All my dogs are very close to the front bulkhead or immediately behind the front seats. Two are on the floor. During the only emergency stop I've done in the last 20 years (which happened to be in the motorhome) from 65 to standstill as quickly as the ABS would allow nothing untoward happened. The dogs were mildly concerned, my wife was a little more concerned, but that was it. I cleaned my underwear and we carried on. Not remotely like hitting another vehicle I'll admit but as close the dogs have experienced.

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tonyidle said:
Not really although there's always pleasure in seeing a response. I dislike it when I'm told how to assess my own and my pets safety under any circumstances. You use terms like "downright dangerous". I'd change that to say I take greater risks than you believe I should. You don't know me, haven't had my experiences (no bad ones I should add), and know nothing about how I drive or have driven in the past. All my dogs are very close to the front bulkhead or immediately behind the front seats. Two are on the floor. During the only emergency stop I've done in the last 20 years (which happened to be in the motorhome) from 65 to standstill as quickly as the ABS would allow nothing untoward happened. The dogs were mildly concerned, my wife was a little more concerned, but that was it. I cleaned my underwear and we carried on. Not remotely like hitting another vehicle I'll admit but as close the dogs have experienced.

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Thankfully most people won't be in a serious accident, however I can tell you from experience that a full blown emergency stop is nothing like hitting the vehicle in front at speed. You stop a lot quicker.
 
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2x2camper said:
Thankfully most people won't be in a serious accident, however I can tell you from experience that a full blown emergency stop is nothing like hitting the vehicle in front at speed. You stop a lot quicker.
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Totally agree. It's also why I'm dubious of the value of dog restraints in a serious accident (as opposed to preventing distraction).
 
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I'm pretty happy with our set up (there's usually only two of us travelling so have fixed up a secure extension to the forward facing rear travelling seat and fixed leashes brought from Amazon to the ISO fix child seat points) but I couldn't find any proprietary leash which was load rated so like Peg Star's suggestion of using climbing kit - I think an upgrade may be due!
 
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