In this episode, I talk with Dr. Alisa Baer, The Car Seat Lady. She is a board certified pediatrician and car safety specialist. We discuss not only how to keep families and dogs safe in a car accident, but how to keep children and dogs safe when riding in the car together. In our discussion, we answer the very common question of where kids and dogs should sit when in the same vehicle and the safest way for families to ride together.
In this episode…
- Consider dog-child safety in the car and how to limit their interactions
- Consider crash safety for every living creature in the car
- Dogs should be restrained, ideally with a seatbelt harness or in a crash tested carrier
- Restraint in cars prevents objects, people and pets from becoming missiles in a crash
- Dogs should not be driver distractions. If your dog is unlikely to be calm, it should not ride in the passenger seat of the car.
- Restrained dogs can not run into traffic if they are injured in an accident.
About Dr. Alisa Baer, The Car Seat Lady
Dr. Alisa Baer is a board-certified pediatrician, nationally certified child passenger safety instructor, and co-founder of The Car Seat Lady. In her 22 years in the field of vehicle and car seat safety, Alisa has consulted with many of the leading car seat manufacturers in the design and development of their car seats. She has collaborated on programs that improve how children travel in urban environments (such as Uber’s car seat program in NYC), and personally installed over 15,000 car seats.
Alisa has been featured as a car seat expert in major publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and many more. She also develops the content for The Car Seat Lady’s website and popular social media channels, which empower parents worldwide with evidence-based research and recommendations on vehicle and car seat safety.
Where to find The Carseat Lady
- The Car Seat Lady and her page specifically on pets (it’s amazing!)
Resources
- Center for Pet Safety
- Recommended products for travel and car safety
- Volvo XC90 recommended by Alisa for safety in an SUV
- Honda Odyssey recommended by Alisa for roominess and flexibility for families.
Ask Question
If you’ve got a question about your kids and dogs, go to www.speakpipe.com/PoochParenting and record it there just like a voicemail. And I will include it in a future episode.
