I met Lindsey Wolko, founder and CEO of the Center for Pet Safety (CPS), at a BlogPaws conference where she shared her passion for pets by promoting the use of effective pet safety harnesses. After she was in a car accident with her dog Maggie, and the harness failed, she became determined to improve safety for car riding dogs. Since my own Magical-Dawg would drive if he could, this is a concern I share.

Pets loose in cars can interfere with the driver, cause distractions and potentially cause accidents. During an accident, they may turn into furry projectiles that injure other human passengers as well as themselves, becoming seriously injured, paralyzed, lost, or killed.

Safety Standards for Pet Harnesses

Currently, the United States has no standards or any tests at all for pet travel products, yet many manufacturers advertise claims of successful testing. Since there are no requirements that testing be done, Wolko says she applauds the manufacturers who make the effort to do any testing. But without a standard of testing, you need to take such claims with a large grain of kibble.

"Distraction protection is very different from crash protection," says Wolko. "Owners want crash protection."

Michael McHale, director of communications for Subaru of America, says almost half of Subaru drivers also own dogs and they want owners to know that choosing the wrong harness for your dog could be as bad as not using one at all.

That’s why Subaru partnered with CPS to study the effectiveness of pet safety harnesses. CPS found mixed results among some of the most popular pet products on the market touted to provide pet car safety.

In September 2013, CPS (which is NOT affiliated with the pet products industry) collaborated with Subaru to independently test a number of products and publish the reports, to give pet parents a better way to choose the best products for their fur-kids. NOTE: No living dogs were used in these tests, all were conducted with “doggy test dummies.”

Choosing Test Harnesses

The study chose commonly available dog harness products to test. To be included in the tests, the harnesses had to be available in the Small, Medium and Large sizes that fit the specially designed “dog static test” dummies. These stuffed dogs were a small 25-pound terrier conformation, a medium 45-pound Border Collie and a large 75-pound Golden Retriever, chosen to best mirror the conformation and weight of living dogs.

Further, the harness had to advertise claims on the packaging, website, and/or YouTube of “testing,” “crash testing” or “crash protection.” Ultimately, eleven products were selected and each of the manufacturers had the opportunity to be present during the tests to ensure proper fitting.

Independent Testing

MGA Research Corporation, a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) contracted test facility in Virginia, performed independent, third party testing of the harness products. MGA staff members performed all harness fitting per manufacturer instructions. They designed the tests based on crash tests that measure child car safety products, in order to highlight the importance of driving safely with pets. A CPS representative was on-site to witness testing of all harness products.

The eleven products were first tested to ensure all three sizes—Small, Medium, Large—met the same level of performance. A minimum standard applying a predetermined amount of stress (based on size of harness and weight of dog) checked for potential “catastrophic break” in fasteners or the integrity of the harness structure itself prior to the “crash test” phase. If a harness failed in this preliminary phase, it did not move on to the “crash” phase of the testing.

Four companies' harnesses failed to meet the preliminary test requirements and did not move on to the crash test. Of these, some worked well only for the Small and Medium size and failed for the Large size. These “tensile” tests measured the strength of the material and fasteners.

Seven harness products passed this preliminary test. They moved on to the crash test phase with the “dog test dummies.”

The Crash Test

The crash tests uncovered serious flaws in many of the popular pet restraints currently on the market, and many had catastrophic failure. It appears that manufacturers often test only one size (often the 30-35 pound dog size) which may, indeed, pass their safety test standards—yet the harnesses designed for larger/heavier dogs may fail those same tests.

Child car safety tests only require one size child for the tests, says Wolko. But since dog size varies enormously, she felt it important to test for a range of sizes and weights.

"Most accidents don’t occur the way we test," says Wolko. The protocols were purposely created to result in a worst-case potential for injury. For instance, positioning the test dog dummy in a sit position increased the rotation/force in the crash. "The primary goal was to see if we can keep the dog on the seat."

The “crash test” takes into account the potential “launch” of the dog from his perch on the car seat, rotation force, as well as how well (or not) the harness prevents doggy injury. Some tests not only resulted in catastrophic failure of fasteners and caused severe harness deformation/stitching failure, but also launched the test-dummy dog, stripped off the harness, or hung/strangled the test dummy. Shedding of the harness/leash also leaves the dog open to escape/becoming lost immediately after the accident.

The Best Car Safety Harness?

Only ONE of the eleven company’s products passed the test with a five-paws-up ranking. The Sleepypod ClickIt Utility Harness received Top Performer of those products tested. It controlled both launch and rotation of the test dummy dog in all three Small, Medium and Large product sizes.

Michael Leung, Sleepypod co-founder and product designer, notes that the company researched and crash tested pet safety restraints for six years, and that effort has paid off in keeping pets safe. Subaru will also be offering these harnesses for purchase through its Subaru Gear catalog and at dealers in the near future.

Compare Sleepypod Clickit prices here.

"The RC Pet has a simple to use harness," says Wolko, "and even with their hardware issues, their products kept the test dog on the seat in two of the three sizes. The extension tether was the failure on that, because it let the test dog to fly off the seat."

Compare RC Pet harnesses here.

German-based KleinMetall “AllSafe” harnesses received “exhibits integrity” rating in these trials as well, but the adjustable tether allowed the dog dummy to launch off the seat. The German Auto Club tested the AllSafe Harness, with performance measured against the criteria established in the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and crash tested with a 50lb dog dummy at speeds up to 30 mph.

It's important that harness products prevent dogs from launching from the seat. And the better products also prevent rotation. Harnesses that have catastrophic failures of hardware and/or strap deformation could translate into a severely injured human and/or a dead dog.

What's Next?

"It’s vital for people to understand this is the first of many studies we need to do," says Wolko. She hopes that the information gathered as a result of these tests will offer guidelines to the pet products industry to improve and provide safety products for our pets.

Companies unable to attend the tests were provided with their test results, and CPS says several already have begun to make improvements and enhance quality control. To make your own decision and chose the best safety harness for your pets, view videos of the test and the full study results here.

Travel Safety Tips for Pets

For puppy owners and those who have small adult dogs and cats, the absolutely best safety tip I can offer is to secure him or her inside a carrier and seat belt the carrier into the back seat. Wolko recommends placing the carrier on the floor in the back seat, which works well for the smallest carriers. As with harnesses, there are no required tests or standards that define "safe pet carriers." Plastic can shatter, metal can buckle, so conduct due diligence in choosing your puppy's carrier.

Remember that air bags that go off have enough power to crush and severely injure or kill a small pet. I understand that SleepyPod also has pet carriers crash-tested for safety, and makers of the AllSafe harness have a crash-tested MIM Safe Variocage.

For the bigger puppies and adult dogs that won't fit in a carrier, car pet barriers and harnesses may do the job to keep your pet out of the driver’s hair and from underneath the car pedals. Right now, the only safety study we have on pet car harness restraints comes from CPS, so take a look at the study, and do your homework. And travel safe!