I am thinking ahead and need some advice on car travel for dogs.

I do not want to have a puppy loose in the car, but I want to keep him safe. I was thinking about some type of booster seat, has anyone tried any of them?

How safe are they?

Is the dog happy?

I got a outward hound booster seat for Cuba. I have a two door coupe and my seats are low and curvy so I needed something that went high on the seat.

Cuba is just getting comfortable on short rides after four months. Before the last few weeks, he used to drool profusely and he's thrown up multiple times. What helped with the booster seat is I got a crate pad to put inside. Without the crate pad, Cuba used to slide around in the seat because it was slippery nylon. I think that is part of the reason why he drooled so much although he would also drool when he managed to crawl into my lap befor ethe booster seat.

My booster seat has a hook that I can attach to Cuba's harness so it seems to be pretty safe.

I also got a harness that buckled into the seat belt buckle. That didn't workout so well because I wanted Cuba in the front seat and he would always just end up on my lap since I was about the same distance as the seat I wanted him to sit on.

Hope

I would suggest a crate to start with. I found trying to keep a puppy in a booster seat almost impossible.

I guess I am rushing too much. A crate is a sure thing, but I am talking about just a run to the pet store to get the puppy used to cars and traveling.

The crate doesn't work well in my car because it doesn't quite fit on the seat. I guess, I could put it in the back, but even those are buckets. When I try to put the crate in the car, I have to angle it and it still doesn't really fit and as a result slides around.

I soft carrier might work. I used to try that, but Cuba hated it. He would also have accidents in it so I stopped using it.

Esperanita,

Did you try the soft carrier when he was a pup?

I looked at the seat you suggested and that was one of them I have been researching. Good choice when my pup is older.

I have a seatbelt harness thing...it says up to 15lbs...but it is too big for Gracie even when I have it tightened to the smallest setting. I think it will be good when she gets a little bigger though...the seatbelt goes through this loop on it.

car seat all the way! my dog loves to sit high and look out the window while i drive, got to be impossible to handle inthe car, all over the place so i bought a car seat i think from in the company of dogs. anyways, you harness them in and out you go. take a few short trips to get them use to is but i love it and it keeps me safe too.

I got one of the Lookout II seats several months ago. (my Linus is 8 months old now and nearly 14 lbs). It works great, but I also saw stuff on a FidoRido seat---got one a couple of weeks ago as I wanted one in both our cars. I really like it too.
http://reviews.petco.com/3554/12523/reviews.htm
http://www.fidorido.com/
I don't know why these links didn't hypelink---but if you wanted to look at either seat--I guess you could copy and paste into your browser. Sorry--I was trying to make looking easy.....
Anyway, both get him up to be able to look out, have harnesses that seem safe and comfortable, and he can sit or lie down, chew toys, and not mess up the windows or stuff.
Good luck with your search. Aren't havs fun!!!
Suzy

I knew this was going to be like shopping for a baby! Lots of research in what works to keep the pup happy. Thanks for all the replies.