Scary episode with two of my dogs on backseat harnesses

First real road-trip with my 3 hounds. Rented a beach house for the long weekend. 5 hour drive with one in the rear cargo area and two in the backseats. The girls in the backseat were both wearing chest harnesses with a safety strap connected to a grab handle D-ring.
They were great on the ride up… no problems at all. We pulled into the driveway of the Airbnb and I put all the windows down so I could check out the place before letting the dogs out.

3 seconds after I snapped this pic, Ellie (my 6 month old pibble pup), jumped out the window and tried to hang herself. She flopped against the door pretty hard and I about shit myself seeing her suspended about a foot off the ground. As I was rescuing Ellie, my other pibble jumped out the passenger side window and did the same exact goddamn thing.

I’ve had well trained dogs my entire life and really got caught by surprise. No one was hurt and we all learned a valuable lesson.

Now I need to order a paint pen to touch up all the deep scratches in my rear doors.

 

I'm glad they're ok. No matter how well trained we think they are, can never let down your guard. They are still animals. Touch up paint is the best outcome. Just enjoy your time with them.

When I finally had to say goodbye to my best friend pit bull after 16 years. i honestly said to him " how the f did you make THIS far?" Because of him doing stupid mess like this throughout his life

 

Awww, adorable! I love land seals.

I have a black lab mix, he NEVER gets full window because I'm afraid of shenanigans like that.

 

Dang Gina
Glad your pup is ok
I just got my 4Runner and thankfully it has a cargo net in it to keep my dogo from jumping around

I’m super stoked at having the roll down rear window for her will be fun when I can take her for a ride

 

My 1yr old(bday today) pup did the same thing in our SxS while I was loading up some stuff. Thank God I was there to save her.

 

I’m afraid of the same thing with my pup. I found that tying her leash to the child seat safety tether hooks between the seat rest and seat bottoms is best. She’s little, so it lets her move around, or stick her head out the window a bit when she wants. But with the lower attachment point and by adjusting the leash length, it guarantees she cant go over the top of an open window.

 

At least its a good thing that OP was stopped!

Personally, I never fully open the windows when my dogs are inside (driving or stopped). They’ve never tried to jump out but it’s one of those “better be safe than sorry” situations I don’t want to happen despite how obedient they are.

 

For my dog, any car trip not spent with her nose out the window is a car trip wasted. I keep the window at half-mast.

 

I am not even a dog person, but I’ve always known every dog has a natural-born right to have its nose out the window, speed sniffing everything that goes by .

Well, I am a dog person now. It’s pretty embarrassing having to hear me talk to that little cutie patootie.

 

Yikes glad theyre ok. Gotta tighten up those tethers so they just can get their nose to the window when fully extended.

 

Their tethers were both set at only 18" or so. I have used both the seat belt receptacles and my grab handle d-rings as fastening points for the tethers. With two dogs on the backseat it's a challenge to balance safety and comfort.... all while trying to minimize tangling. Thank God I had the full chest harnesses on them when they jumped out. If they were just wearing collars it could have been much more traumatic. Get a 3rd dog! It will be fun they said.

 

that pic looks like more than 18” of tether length if they can get that far out

 

No, it's only about 16-18". I tried to trace it's length in green below.

 

Either your anchor point is too high or that tether is longer than you think.

my 38 lb blue heeler mix uses a body harness with a 16” tether anchored down by the passenger rear seat belt clip and her nose just touches barely the glass. She can also sit up or lay down easily with that set up.

 

The guy in my picture once jumped out of the bed of my moving (25-30 mph) pick-up truck going after a squirrel. I saw a flash in the right side mirror and stopped, he was ok, he never did that again.

 

That’s why leashes shouldn’t be used when animal is riding in car.