Make every trip safer and more comfortable with our dog travel and car accessories. Seat belts, car seat covers, travel bowls and more help protect your dog and your vehicle on the go. Perfect for vet visits, road trips and everyday outings.
🚗 Travel + car
In Ireland, the Road Traffic Act requires you to keep your dog under control in a moving vehicle. An unrestrained 30 kg dog becomes a 1,000 kg projectile in a 50 km/h crash. Here are the four real options that pass crash testing — plus the gear most owners buy that does nothing useful in an accident.
Brands tested by Centre for Pet Safety (CPS) or TÜV: 4Pets ProLine, MIM Variocage, Skudo. Goes in the boot of an estate/SUV. Replaces the boot floor as the safe zone. Pricey (€400–€1,500) but lifetime use across multiple cars.
Sleepypod Clickit Sport, ZuGoPet Rocketeer, Kurgo Impact — all CPS-rated. Most "car safety harnesses" sold cheaply are NOT crash-tested. Check for the CPS or ECE-R17 certification before buying.
For dogs under 10 kg. Goes on the back seat strapped in by the seatbelt OR in the footwell. Much safer than letting a small dog roam. Petmate Sky Kennel + similar.
Stops the dog jumping into the front. Does NOT prevent crash injury — your dog still flies forward. Combine with a crate or harness for actual protection.
Protects upholstery, doesn't protect the dog. Useful in addition to a harness restraint, useless on its own. Don't buy a hammock and call it "car safety".
Road Traffic Act 1961, section 52 requires drivers to keep passengers (incl. animals) under control. Garda can fine + add penalty points for an unrestrained pet in a moving vehicle. Practical effect: any vet, court or insurer treating an unrestrained pet at fault in a crash will assume gross negligence.
A "safety harness" without a CPS, TÜV, or ECE-R17 certification has not been tested at impact speeds. Most cheap clip-to-seatbelt straps SHATTER on impact at 50 km/h. The sticker matters — ask the seller for the test report.
Looks fun, causes ear infections from wind, eye trauma from grit, and outright catastrophe if you brake suddenly. Nose out the window for 30 seconds while parked = fine. Head out at speed = no.
Even at 22 °C outside, a parked car hits 35 °C in 10 minutes and 50 °C in 30 minutes. Cracked windows do almost nothing. Heatstroke kills dogs in under an hour at these temperatures. Take the dog with you or don't bring them.
Stop every 2 hours for 10 minutes — toilet break, water, short leg-stretch on lead. Don't feed within 2 hours of departure (carsickness). For very car-sick dogs, ask the vet about Cerenia.
Our travel & car accessories range goes live as we vet suppliers — we won't list anything we wouldn't use ourselves. In the meantime, our calculators, breed guides and AI vet tools below are free and don't need stock.
Yes — Section 52 of the Road Traffic Act requires drivers to keep passengers under control. An unrestrained dog has been the basis of fines and court cases. More importantly, your insurer is unlikely to support a claim where an unrestrained pet contributed to an incident.
Don't feed within 2 hours of departure. Lower the windows for fresh air (not for the dog to stick its head out). Aim for the back seat (forward-facing dogs vomit less than side-facing). For severe cases, your vet can prescribe Cerenia (maropitant) which prevents motion sickness specifically — far better than human sickness tablets.
The harness provides safety; the hammock provides cleanliness. They're not in conflict — pair them. Just don't rely on the hammock as a safety device on its own.
Back seat or boot. Front-seat airbags can kill a small or medium dog in a collision. Even a small dog should be on the back seat in a carrier or harness. Big dogs in a crash-tested boot crate are the safest option overall.
