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Ears in the wind, bugs in the teeth :)


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Joking aside, you guys have any cute pictures of your babies enjoying rides in the car with head sticking out the window?

Looking forward to seeing how your BC's are making the most out of their car rides! :rolleyes:

 

There're a couple of Ouzo enjoying the spring weather at 40 mph :D

 

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All, just to make sure everyone is aware: My husband was driving while I was holding him by the collar. I would not let him do this unsupervised, I am well aware of what could happen if the breaks are slammed or if he would decide to jump out.

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I'm lucky. My truck has a camper shell and both have "go through" windows. So when we are cruising I open them up and Jackson will sit on the seat with his nose stuck up through the window! He gets the smorgi board of smells and the wind, but no fear of jumping out, and very unlikely of getting a bug in the eye. Although I have never heard of it happening I guess anything is possible.

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RaisingRiver and Kat's Dogs, thanks for the thread. It shows I've been a member of this board for not too long!

OK, so there is no reason for me to feel bad about my dog occasionaly sticking his head off the window. He's not the first and, by all means, he won't be the last dog to do that :rolleyes:

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Sorry to rain on your parade, but I think that practice is dangerous due to risk of the dog getting hit in the eye by a flying insect. In southern Maryland there are "carpenter bees" which are like a large bumblebee. One of those hitting a dog's eye at 40 mph would undoubtedly blind that eye.

 

Yes, dog's like riding with their head out the window but is that worth the risk? Definitely not, in my opinion. Dogs don't understand about large bees. Humans do.

 

One other risk is an airborn small rock, kicked up by a car tire. Have you ever had your windshield cracked by such a rock? I have had that happen occasionally. I have a rock-caused ding in the windshield of my truck now.

 

The dog's head should always be IN the car, IMHO.

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Here's one of Speedy enjoying a car ride! He actually prefers the air conditioning to air coming in though the window.

 

He's not hot from being in the car here - he had just finished a herding lesson and hadn't cooled off yet!

 

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Scout is always in his "crated" area in the back. Yeah, it is not as much fun for him, but I attended a funeral last fall of my cousin's husband's mother. She and her husband were in the car and were hit. Both had their seatbelts on, but they knocked heads. He was ok, but she had a brain bleed and died after several days in a coma. She never woke up. She was a nice lady.

 

This really opened my eyes to possible projectiles inside a car. Everyone was always buckled, but this made me look more carefully at dogs, groceries, cats in carriers, etc. Any of those things at 30mph could kill at least a child.

 

It was a really sad funeral.

 

There are a WHOLE lot of things in life that are really super fun, but just not worth the risk. Seen too many of the outcomes.

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Annie loves to ride in the car, while Missy tolerates it. As far as sticking the head out of the window, however, the vet won't tolerate it. In addition to the risk of debris getting into the dogs' eyes and possibly blinding them, the vet said that high-velocity winds dry out and damage the eyes. So we open the windows just enough to let the air in, but not enough to let them stick their heads out (although they will occasionally stick their noses out to sniff what is going on).

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Well if I spent all my time worrying about what bad can happen in life there would be absolutely no time to do the things that are fun, Tbolt enjoys his head out the window and he has a good tuck so if you roll by wave and it doesn't bother me or him what the opinions of others are .

 

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Heh heh, ain't it the truth? It is impossible to keep safe at all times. I know people who bungee jump. People die doing that, yet, people still do it. Mountain climbing, skiing, racing, off-roading, etc. etc., you will find horror stories in them all.

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Riven earlier today when goin to meet Lothlorien. We were goin about 25 mph, and I was holding onto her :rolleyes:

 

We dont let her stick her nose out if we're goin much faster, she tends to get too excited and paces between the 2 back windows continually sticking her nose out. She barked at some guy walking by the car the other day and scared that guy and us half to death LOL .. she rarely barks.

 

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I think everyone is born with their own level of risk tolerance. I have a LOW risk tolerance, but still manage to enjoy life a lot. Unfortunately, a few too many traumatic events happening to me personally or close family members has lowered my risk tolerance further.

 

I am not judging those who have a high tolerance for risk. At times, I am a little jealous of you, or at least your luck in not suffering consequences of those risks. In my family, seems you can hardly do anything stupid and not get caught!! Brother- drive drunk, brain injury with a week-long coma and numerous broken bones, back and skull, Niece- sleep downstairs and leave a door unlocked, serial rapist gets her, the list goes on... see what I mean?

 

The world would be a far more dangerous place without you risk-takers! You guys are the firefighters, police officers, adventurers who expand our horizons, famous scientists, etc. And, you all would be a lot more dead without the low-risk crowd always noticing the dangers that lurk around every corner and ruining all your fun, LOL.

 

A balance in everything, that is the key. Assess risk against benefit.

 

I share my warnings to those who are low-risk tolerance and don't realize the dangers involved in a seemingly fun event.

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Tammy, I'm so sorry about your brother and your niece.

 

And you do have a good point about projectiles during wrecks. A friend's husband was killed because she, sitting behind him, wasn't wearing a seat belt and crushed the back of his skull with her face. She of course is permanently disfigured. Somehow I never really thought about how that would apply to dogs, though, so your warning is well taken.

 

Having said that, though, I'm afraid Violet always rides in the back seat unrestrained when we're in the truck. I can't fit her crate in the cab, and I don't like the idea of securing it in the bed for some reason. I know it's a risk - I was rearended once and had my little toy-sized dogs not been crated I'm sure they'd have been seriously injured. But it's the only accident I've ever had (knock wood) in almost thirty years of driving, so I expose Violet to what I hope is a minimal risk because otherwise she wouldn't get to go everywhere with me as she does now.

 

I'm too big a chicken to let her stick her head out the window, though. A chow I knew took a header out a car window at about 40 mph - amazingly she survived (chows being tough little beasts) but she did tear a ligament in her knee and required some pretty expensive surgery.

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Actually, my brother and niece are not so bad off, at least they are alive and my brother is working and doing well!!

 

Have you ever used a doggie seat belt? Our golden did really well with it, but we trained her with it from puppy days. Scout is in the way back of our van with a gate for the van top of the back seat. I hate having him all the way in the back, vulnerable to rear-end collision, but the rest of the van is full of kids!

 

That is so sad about your friends. It is absolutely appalling the number of freak accidents out there. You do what you can, but of course, you can't prevent everything and hiding in your house all the time wouldn't even help, as that is where a ton of accidents happen! So you just do your best, that's all you can do.

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Wow, what a turn this thread had. How different from my initial intention...

From having fun to how sad things turn out. I am very sorry for everyone's losses and hope that no one will get hurt in the future.

 

There are some things I do not agree with, for example people driving on the highway with their dogs in the bed of their truck. Either the dog is not tied up and can simply fall and be hurt by incomming trafic, or if they are tied, they can strangle themselves (I had a friend that witnessed such a horrible accident). That's just irresponsability!

 

I agree with IronHorse, I respect your opinions but at the end of the day I am responsable for the actions I take and even though I am not a huge risk taker (I work as an operations project manager, therefore all my actions are calculated and thought ahead), however life is about having fun and not obsessing over "what if" questions.

 

I'll sure wave next time I see a BC with his head off the window :rolleyes:

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if it hot out I just crack the window and let the dogs stick their noses out, I am not worried about debris and such, I just have so many dogs and not all of them are as relaible as Happy is, I dont have 5 hands, I cant hold onto all the dogs at the same time, so I just crack it and they can sit on my lap and get the breeze. when its only Happy along I roll he widnow down alittle farther, she just sticks her head out for 10 seconds then leaves anyhow lol

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