Crash Tested Dog Crates
There are dog crates that claim to be crash tested, however this doesn’t really mean much. To say your product is crash tested, you don’t actually have to hit any requirements, hell, your crate doesn’t even need to survive the crash to say you’ve tested it. The good news is there is a company that provides 3rd party testing, and in 2015 they ran a study on the crate companies claiming to be crash tested.
http://www.centerforpetsafety.org/test-results/crates/2015-crate-study-results/
Well this study is great in many ways, it has major flaws that prevent me from fully trusting any of the crates or harnesses they certify as “safe”.
First, the dog they use during testing is a stuffed animal, which doesn’t accurately represent how a real dog would be impacted by the situation. Dogs move around within a crate, and are much heavier, meaning that they will hit the side of the crate with more force, so the crates that don’t break in the study may break in an actual crash.
Second, the crash tests a head-on collision, which is actually extremely unlikely. Most car accidents are not perfectly head-on, often one corner of the car getting hit harder, so the corner of the crate would take the impact, and the straps used to secure the crate would have a very different, and not evenly distributed force applied to them. The corners of a rectangle are weak points, so the tests are not accurate in the strength of the crate. This applies to the securing mechanism as well, as most accidents will have the force applied to only one or two straps, not all four.
Third, they don’t test how the dog is impacted beyond whether or not they are thrown from the crate, or if the crate is so mangled the dog would be injured. The force of the dog hitting the side of the crate can do a significant amount of damage, and is just as likely to kill your dog as them hitting the back of the seat if they are sitting freely. To properly test dog safety, they need to test the whether the impact of the dog hitting the side of the crate would cause harm to the dog (the dog stops moving, organs do not), the impact of the direction the dog faces (a dog facing forward would get it’s neck snapped on impact), and how the size of the crate affects the safety of the dog.
Yes, crating or otherwise securing your dog in the car is significantly safer, but you should always be aware that crash testing doesn’t mean that one crate is safer than another. Before you buy a crate, look at third-party crash testing, how the crate would fit into your car, the cost, reviews from actual customers, longevity of the crate (some can last for 20-30 years so the higher cost is worth it), and how it fits your dog. Don’t forget, harnesses are another option, and are often much easier as they cost less, take up less space, and also come crash-tested by a third party. IMHO, a crash-tested and proven harness is more similar to a seat belt and is generally a better, more cost-effective option.
