Puppy seat belt for car? Riding tips?

[Becca & Lucy]

I will get my puppy on the 13th. :) I need to get her a puppy seat belt for the car. Do you have any suggestions? She is a mini and the breeder is guessing she will be about 35 lbs. 

So I am guessing I will need to buy a few. Any specific ones that your lil wild doodle loved?

I want her to get used to riding in the car right away. Hopefully that will go well. *fingers crossed* Any puppy riding tips would be appreciated too! 

[Deanna & Desi & Cori]

When Sedona was first with us, she rode in the car in a travel crate - which she loved as she must have felt safe and secure. When she outgrew the crate, we bought her a Zoom II Dog Car Seat. If you're not familiar with that, it's basically a big, padded box that attaches to the car by a seatbelt. She wears a halter that attaches to the car seat but allow her to move around in it. It raises her up so she can see out but also gives her a cozy, secure place to lay. She loves going for rides and we feel good knowing that she's safe.

[Patty, Roxy & Spencer]

We used a wire crate for Roxy for about 6 mos. We knew at an earlier age she probably would have chewed a harness, so the crate was a better option. She also got car sick quite a bit early on. The crate helped us contain that also. Once she was tall enough to see out, she stopped being sick and rode in the back seat really well. About that time we got Spencer. We would put him in the crate and Roxy would ride next to him. We're still looking into the right type of harness for them. They both ride without the crate now and are really calm during a car ride. We haven't taken a long trip yet, and for that I would definately have them in harnesses or crates.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

I would wait on the seatbelt as others said - we got one when she got a little older (probably 4 months) - it is a harness and hooks into the actual seat belt clasp. So wonderful.
In the meantime, use a travel crate or your regular crate.

[Gail McHugh]

From the first day i put a harness on Roxy and hooked it to a thing that attaches to the seat belt. I have a bed for her to ride in with a non slip pad underneath it. She rides so good, will get up to stretch and thats it. It cost around $10 and hooks to my harness. Hope this helps

[Lynda Kamrath]

I also would recommend a wire travel crate for a puppy. They always love to chew and it is very disheartening to have your seatbelts and harnesses chewed apart. He will outgrow it (the crate), but maybe by then he will also have owngrown the chewing. We have our cars puppy proofed with wire cage materials, but our puppy managed to crawl under the wiring and chew the back seat armrest while we were in a studio during an art studio tour. It was less than 3 inches under the wire, but he managed to get his head and his whole body under the wire. Here is a photo of our car puppy area.