sedan as greymobile

[Remolacha]

Not sure that is the best title, but what I am asking, if you carry your grey in the back seat of a sedan type car, do you fill in the foot wells? What do you use to keep them on the seat? I am not explaining this very well, but most things I see are hammock type things, and I don't think that will work.

[Time4ANap]

You could fill them with slumber balls....

We use a sling and it works fine in the Camry.  There is enough tension on the sling that falling into the leg wells isn't an issue, but this will vary based on the size of the car and the sling.  You might look at some of those cheap dorm room type ottomans sold at Target, WalMart, At Home, etc... that are mostly foam. There should be some that would be firm enough for Val to stand on.  Also, we went back to our old fake sheepskin sling.  All of the "improved" and "waterproof" slings were way too slippery for the hounds to have good footing. 

[Remolacha]

I hadn’t thought of those foamy ottomans, that might work. I think the hammocks might not be stable enough for Val, any movement would spook her.

[MerseyGrey]

Buddy wouldn’t settle on the back seat of my car either...so I bought a new car. I’m not saying he’s a spoilt dog or anything, but we had already bought an estate (station wagon-type) to transport him!

I bought a Honda HRV because I really liked the flexible seat arrangement, and it meant that I could either have him in the back seat space or in the boot - the seat pads lift as well as the seat backs coming down, so it’s easy to have him in either space, but in reality he still prefers to be in the boot because he can see out of the windows better. Even more, he prefers to be in the Volvo estate because his view is better still.

 Since changing cars I found that such a device as a footwell filler exists 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pet-Ego-Extender-Inflatable-Platform/dp/B0029TSPLQ

which I really wish I’d discovered beforehand because I loved my old car so much more than I like this one! And I could have saved the money I’m currently shelling out on a car I don’t love to buy more toys, dog beds, and silly Christmas outfits for the Budster. Oh well.

[BatterseaBrindl]

I have a hammock, but it is a bit slippery so I keep a couple of blankets on it, which help.  Also having the footwells filled does help stabilize the hammock.

[Hubcitypam]

For long trips I used dog beds and pillows to fill in the well and tossed a comforter over the whole thing.

[cleptogrey]

for decades i only had small sedans including a 2 door!  never ever had a problem with the foot wells. as a matter of fact it seemed as if there was one dog or another hanging out in the well sleeping. all of my dogs loved sitting on the seat with their legs/paws in the well. when we did shows and schlepped them we filled the wells with boxes or luggage and leveled off the seat. a non skid rug on the seat protected it. sedans are easier for the dogs to get in and out of, better to squeeze into a tight parking spot. i love my honda crv and odyssey but with our antiques we were forced out of sedan life due to safety issues but i miss my civic!  omg, we looked like a circus act unpacking for a show!

[EllenEveBaz]

I had a Corolla and now a Camry.  At first I didn't fill in the footwells, but sometimes I'd have to make a hard stop and there would be loud THUMPs from the back as the dog(s) hit the backs of the front seats.  So at first I filled in the footwells with stacks of newspapers, covered with rugs.  That worked fine except for the lump in the middle.  So following a GT suggestion I got a big sheet of 3" or 4" foam from a fabric store and, using my best bread knife :), cut 2 pieces for each of the footwells, perfectly level with the rear seat.  Then cut a piece to cover the middle hump, sized to tightly wedge with the footwell pieces.  Then a sturdy cheap rug to cover everything.  Still the same setup today with the same foam pieces.  Someone gave me a dogseat cover, which is good for covering the back of the rear seat.  And now I use dog seatbelts, which hook to the human seatbelts, to delude myself that hound bodies won't go flying through the windows in a crash but give the hounds lots of room to stand up, lie down, etc.  

[LaFlaca]

I have an Honda Accord.  A backseat hammock covered with a blanket and these in the footwells -  Tuffut Luxx™ Seat Extender - works like a charm.

[MandysMom]

I use a Kurgo bridge. Sammy wigs out with hammocks and I got the Greyhound Scream of Death when his foot slipped into the footwell that was stuffed with blankets and other soft stuff. The bridge is great. It's stable and easy to remove. I do put a crate mat and quilt over it.

[Jerilyn]

I have lots of experience with hammocks. They are not all the same! You need to get one that is fleece, not nylon, and I even find canvas to be too slippy. And it needs to have "anchors" that go inbetween the seat and seatback to hold it in place. With those features, it doesn't really move around.

That said, that Kurgo bridge looks great!

[Remolacha]

1 hour ago, EllenEveBaz said:

I had a Corolla and now a Camry.  At first I didn't fill in the footwells, but sometimes I'd have to make a hard stop and there would be loud THUMPs from the back as the dog(s) hit the backs of the front seats.  So at first I filled in the footwells with stacks of newspapers, covered with rugs.  That worked fine except for the lump in the middle.  So following a GT suggestion I got a big sheet of 3" or 4" foam from a fabric store and, using my best bread knife :), cut 2 pieces for each of the footwells, perfectly level with the rear seat.  Then cut a piece to cover the middle hump, sized to tightly wedge with the footwell pieces.  Then a sturdy cheap rug to cover everything.  Still the same setup today with the same foam pieces.  Someone gave me a dogseat cover, which is good for covering the back of the rear seat.  And now I use dog seatbelts, which hook to the human seatbelts, to delude myself that hound bodies won't go flying through the windows in a crash but give the hounds lots of room to stand up, lie down, etc.  

I have some 4" furniture foam I used on the couch after I took the cushions off for Conner (to lower the couch seat to make it easier for him to jump on), I can try cutting that to fit.

[Remolacha]

1 hour ago, LaFlaca said:

I have an Honda Accord.  A backseat hammock covered with a blanket and these in the footwells -  Tuffut Luxx™ Seat Extender - works like a charm.

Yes, that is exactly what I had in mind! I will try cutting up the foam I already have first (cheaper!) but good to know this is available if my red neck fix doesn't work.

[Remolacha]

38 minutes ago, MandysMom said:

I use a Kurgo bridge. Sammy wigs out with hammocks and I got the Greyhound Scream of Death when his foot slipped into the footwell that was stuffed with blankets and other soft stuff. The bridge is great. It's stable and easy to remove. I do put a crate mat and quilt over it.

I saw this and liked it, but wanted something under it for support.

[Remolacha]

Thanks to everyone, this have given me some great ideas. I do still have the minivan (gold standard for houndmobile) but really want to sell that and just drive the smaller car.

[rsieg]

I had Logan and Max riding together in the back seat of a Chrysler 300 (the new, bigger sedan version) over about 3 years. What I initially did was fold the back seat down, but that leaves an opening into the trunk, which they would slide back into, so I filled that with some blankets. Still not the best, but then I just removed the back seat entirely (there are bolts that can be undone to do this), dropped a small bed mattress into the rather large space now left by removing the back seat entirely, and padded it up with blankets. Its about as good as a small minivan that way, but of course you no longer have a back seat (or rather, the back seat is in the attic rather than in the car :-)

With only Logan now, he rides fine in the back seat of my current Ford Fusion (2016 model), without folding the seat down or removing it. I took a piece of carpet extra and tied it to the baby seat clasps at the top of the seat backs, and the carpet then droops down over the back and seat bottom of the backseat and has stayed nicely. But Logan is pretty easy, he gets in the back seat and immediately lays down most of the time.

Basically, if you have only one dog you can almost surely make it work with a sedan. Two dogs, depends on how they ride and how well the get along.

[MarcR]

For short trips, I never worried about the foot wells.  When I had three, one of the hounds actually chose the foot well as her spot.  My hounds would almost always settle on the back seat.

[cometdust1]

I use the hammock and I also bought a seat extender, which makes a nice wide even space to slide his rectangular bed into. The seat extender did bend over time so i still use it but stick either boxes or milk crates under it in the foot wells to keep it flat.

[LaFlaca]

4 hours ago, Remolacha said:

Yes, that is exactly what I had in mind! I will try cutting up the foam I already have first (cheaper!) but good to know this is available if my red neck fix doesn't work.

I made a DYI seat extender with a foam bolster cut in half.  It worked well for a while until the Florida sun turned it into powder.  Maybe if I had known how to sew a cover it would have lasted longer.  

[cleptogrey]

Annie Sez, "And you expect me to sit here the entire way to Canada?" talk about filling the foot wells and then some.  And Felix just looked out the window trying to figure out what she was talking about 

[Remolacha]

Poor Annie Our temps are supposed to drop down below the triple digits for a few days next week, I will tinker with the footwells.