Letting Your Dog Drive the Car

Esther’s writing prompt: February 11 : Drive

Click here or here  to join in.

A photo of a Leonberger puppy wearing a red scarf.
This is a photo of our Leonberger Bronco when he was three months old.
Our Leonberger dog is standing on a red leather sofa, and he is leaning over to give me a hug.
Bronco our Leonberger dog was a very affectionate dog.
On the left is our yellow Labrador Baylor and on the right is our brown and black German Shepherd. They are both lying down and looking into the camera.
Our Labrador Baylor and our German Shepherd Baby. Photo taken at the same time as the top photo above. However, we couldn’t get Bronco to sit still between Baylor and Baby.
Bronco is standing at the kitchen entrance, and our new little dark brown and white puppy is sitting in front of him.
In this photo our Leonberger dog Bronco is eleven and a half years old, and we had acquired a new puppy, a mini-Australian Shepherd by the name Rollo.

One thing all our dogs loved was going for a car ride. The big dogs loved sticking their heads out the window and feeling the wind in their faces. The little dogs loved going places. And they all loved looking at the passing scenery. Oh, the things you can see when you’re “ridin’ in the car, car,” as the Woody Guthrie song goes!

There were some sights that got the dogs especially excited. They would bark if they saw people working on roofs or riding bicycles, for example. They would become even more animated if we got close to a dog park or a McDonald’s drive-through window. (That might have been because sometimes we bought them snacks at the McDonald’s drive-through.)

One time when I was taking Bronco, Baylor, and Baby to the dog park, a car passing me slowed down and started driving right next to me. I looked over, slightly annoyed, and saw that the people in the car were pointing at us and laughing. I was thinking, “What is their problem?” Then I glanced back at the dogs and realized that we did look funny. Bronco was sitting in the front passenger seat with his head close to the roof, looking majestic. Baylor and Baby were sitting in their own seats in the back. They probably looked like human passengers from a distance, but as the people in the car got closer, they realized that the heads weren’t human heads but dogs’ heads and burst out laughing.

I can add that most of the time we put the dogs in the back of our van or SUV but since they preferred to sit on a seat like humans do, we started letting them sit on the seats. If you let them sit on the seats you need to attach them to the car seat latch using dog safety restraint (dog seat belt). Sometimes, the dogs wanted to drive but it is difficult to get a driver license for a dog in Texas. In the picture below Rollo did not really drive the car. I used that photo for an April 1st joke.

Our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo is driving a car. He is coming back from a visit to grandma and grandpa.

From Pete Springer (see comments) I got this YouTube video featuring 13 funny and cute Subaru commericals showing dogs driving cars.

My Other Responses to Esther’s Prompts

Is it difficult to get a dog driver license where you live ?

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

59 thoughts on “Letting Your Dog Drive the Car”

  1. We’ve never owned a dog who didn’t enjoy riding in the car, especially when they got a chance to stick their head out the window. I imagine you have seen the Subaru commercials with the dogs, Thomas. Some of them are hilarious.

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  4. Ours have all enjoyed being along with us rather than the vehicle itself; most of them just fell asleep. One in particular though loved sitting in the back row of our big truck but with her head right between the front seats (she was a very tall girl; a husky cross of some sort with very long legs) so that she could watch the road through the windshield. She loved to just sit on the front step of the house and watch the road, too. The ad collection is delightful, Thomas!

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  6. Java Bean: “Ayyy, oh boy, let’s go! First we’ll drive to the park, then to Petco, then to PetSmart, then to the butcher shop, then to the park again … Hey, do you cats want to come?”
    Charlee: “Go for a ride in the car with you driving? Hard pass.”
    Chaplin: “It’s bad enough when Mama and Dada take us somewhere.”

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    1. Java Bean, there are som many fun places to go with the car. I am sure Dada can take to all of those places and maybe bring Charlee and Chaplin too, if they accept it, but it doesn’t like they want to come.

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    1. Wow 30,000 miles in less than two years is a lot. I am sorry to hear that she got carsick. It is an issue with some dogs. Luckily we did not have that problem and Rollo does not get carsick. On the other hand we tend not to drive so far with our dogs.

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      1. We were househunting so were glad to find something to help her. I remember one night she stayed awake all night growling gently to keep the rats away on a campsite. Not much fun in all the rain living in a tent, but we managed, then invested in a small touring caravan. She was brilliant throughout.

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          1. We were on the road like that for three months. Maggie was amazing. After the rat guard night, she slept for almost 16 hours apart from meals, drinks and wees. We miss her still. Maya is a good dog in her own way and we have truly been blessed with her too.

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              1. Thanks Thomas. We were devastated when we lost Maggie, but had to do what was best for her, and it still hurts so very much. Maya is a good dog and a credit to her breed and breeder. We have been so lucky to have her, Maggie and Barney before her.

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  12. When we shopped for our last two vehicles we had to make sure they would accommodate our dogs. We always said Trooper our Leonberger was “unreliable behind the wheel” as there were too many squirrels to distract him.

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    1. Ha ha that is a great story. In fact we let our Leonberger Bronco pick out the car for us. We let him sit in the cars and let him pick out what he seemed to like the best. He picked a Subaru Forrester. The car salesman told us that it was OK, and not weird at all. He started telling to us about a woman who actually thought that she could talk to her dog and the dog responded by sending her his thoughts. We weren’t sure what to think about that.

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      1. When Trooper was 11 years old, we bought a Honda Odessey minivan because it was low to the ground, the second-row seats were removable, so we took them out, so Trooper had plenty of room to get in and out and didn’t have to get up on a seat. It worked out really well. We just replaced it with a, Ruby and Ranger friendly, Toyota Highlander. 🙂

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  13. Fun commercials and a fun post! Marley LOVES to “go” for a ride anywhere. I’ve known many dogs and only one who did not like to ride in a car. David’s spaniel mix, Oreo, had anxiety issues. When he brought his pack of 3 from CT to move in with my NC pack of 2 in 2011, David said Oreo did not lay down the whole 11-hour trip, even with meds. Poor guy. He was a sweetheart as long as he could stay in the house.

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    1. Thank you so much JoAnna. Anxiety in dogs complicates things. It must been hard on him standing for 11 hours. Our Rollo has anxiety issues too but not to that degree and he does love going places with the car. I hope Oreo will feel more comfortable as time passes.

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      1. Thanks, Thomas. Oreo might have sat down occasionally during that trip, but he slept well once they arrived. He crossed over the rainbow bridge a few years after that with a heart condition when he was close to 10, the first of our five pack to go. He had a good life overall. I miss them all.

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          1. Thank you, Thomas. It’s been a while, though I still miss every dog I’ve ever loved. Oreo’s picture showed up in my SoCS gallery today. I used him in the meme about loving the dog your with.

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