4 Paws!In my
ongoing search for a good, comfortable seatbelt harness for my dogs that was also strong, I finally came across the Champion Seatbelt System. Before that I had tried a Four Paws seatbelt harness, Petsmart harness, VestHarness, and Ruff Rider Roadie seatbelt. The Champion is the strongest-looking seatbelt out of all of the seatbelts I've tried, and it also is the easiest to take on and off, and has a padded chest strap for comfort. I attach the leash strap to the shoulder part of my car's seatbelt, so it is higher up and the dog does not get tangled very often.The harness attaches like a normal harness, and the strap part attaches to the harness using a bull snap (used to restrain large livestock) and to the seatbelt or cargo hook using a chainlink "quick link" which takes a few seconds to get on and off but is very secure when it is attached. The harness itself is made of 1 1/2" wide webbing (on the Large size) which is wider than the other seatbelts I've tried. It appears to be very strong. Unlike many dog seatbelts, this one does not rely on plastic buckles to secure the dog in the car. It does use very wide plastic buckles to attach the harness to the dog, however there are two large metal D-rings on the harness, one on each side of the buckle, which you hook the leash strap to so that even if the buckle were to break the harness would still be secured on the dog. According to the company, the Medium and larger harnesses can hold over 2000 pounds. The company also offers a special seatbelt system for dogs over 80 pounds, called the Survivor Big Dog Seatbelt System. The Champion Seatbelt is one of the few dog seatbelts on the market which has actually been safety tested to forces which it would be exposed to during an accident.
For information on how to use a Champion Seatbelt, please see "How to Use the CARE Champion Seatbelt System"
Note: Several people have reported problems with not recieving the product (after they were charged for it) when they ordered the Champion Seatbelt direct from the manufacturer.
For this reason, if you want a safety-tested dog seatbelt, I would recommend either the Ruff Rider Roadie seatbelt or the PetBuckle seatbelt harness. These are the only two dog seatbelts I know of which have actually been crash-tested.
2 comments:
Buy it at usak9outfitters.com -- I've ordered several times from them with excellent customer service (amazing how quickly I received my order). There is some history behind the ordering issues that Chicago Canine references, but now that USAK9 Outfitters has taken over operations, I've had good success. Give Sue a call before you order if you are concerned. She's been great to work with.
Mary in Tucson
I think the issues with the Champion Seatbelt System have been resolved (it was definitely a mess for a while back in 2009).
Try using USA K9 Outfitters. (http://usak9outfitters.com/CCSS.htm)
Call Sue there at 303-343-0406 first if you are nervous about ordering (that's what I did and she called me back within minutes of my message). Now that she took over operations, things are better. I ordered from her several times and got the order amazingly fast.
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