Hi there! Sophie is 13 weeks going on 14 weeks and since I got her at 7 weeks, I have been taking her in the car with me to go through drive thru restaurants, to do curb side pickups, drive by a mail box, and to go for field trips for socialization. She has been riding in a crate in the back seat of my car with a toy and for the most part has been pretty happy in there. The last 2 weeks, I think she's getting too big for that sized crate and she's okay for 15-20 minutes but then starts whining and barking pretty loud. The next size up crate will not fit in my car, and a crate will not fit in the hatchback (boot) of my SUV. Is her age too young to just use a seat cover and attach her to the headrest with a seat belt style harness? Does anyone have any creative ways for transport and are they working for a puppy this age? I fear she will chew the back seat of my car but I also do not want to stop taking her in the car as a puppy. As an adult, I plan on taking her with me on lots of road trips and adventures in good Wisconsin nature areas!
Our 12 week old is always super calm in car and we have used a harness clipped in to the seatbelt. She either lies down to sleep or sit and look out the window. We went for this option over a crate as we plan on getting a small camper van where she would need to be on the backseat.
Definitely go with a seatbelt attached to head rest and then harness. You could even open the window a little bit so fresh air comes in
I bought a harness that tethers to the seatbelt in the back seat, you can adjust how much leeway they have by varying whether you attach it to the shoulder belt or the lap belt. He can move around but not enough to be unsafe. I started off doing short trips 20-30 min - he didn't like the harness at first but is quickly getting used to it. I did a 1 hour drive this weekend to visit friends - he whined for a bit but then settled down quite nicely.
