Danny loves to ride in the car. He has his favorite seat (behind the passenger) and his favorite open-window head position (nose up, eyes closed). Rides in the car often mean treats at the bank, treats at the pet store, long walks in new neighborhoods, hikes on familiar trails, or just some time out of the house on nasty, rainy days.
I just read this (imperfectly transcribed) post, which excerpts part of the book Pup Parenting on training your dog to ride in the car. Danny needed some practice; he was a bit nervous at first, but he was a bit nervous about everything for the first six months he lived with us. He has never barked at dogs as we drove by, but he did make a break for the front seat a few times before we convinced him that wasn’t cool. At all. When we started out on our long drive to Eastern Oregon last summer, he tried to climb over the front seats. Not sure what he was going for there, but he was going.
That’s pretty much taken care of now. I can even buy bags of dog treats and fancy cheese and leave them on the empty front seat next to me without Danny trying to snatch them. There is an invisible barrier over the armrest; if necessary, there is also an elbow there.
I don’t use a special harness or crate for Danny in my back seat, though I do think about it sometimes. I leave a towel back there, half for easy laundering and half for better traction. Danny seems to feel more secure riding with a towel under his paws.
Do any of you crate or tether your dogs in the car? Any major pros to doing so? Danny seems pretty safe and happy in the back seat of the Subaru so far, but I’m open to suggestions.
Ximena said
My puppy and I use a Backseat Hammock by Outward Hound because she fell into the (human) leg-space behind the two front seats of my car one too many times and worked up a serious fear of the car.
The Hammock has helped quite a bit in this department. She’s no longer terrified of the car (she tolerates it) – after multiple sessions of counter conditioning, of course, and rides much more happily. 
khg said
Oh, that hammock is genius! I hadn’t seen it before, but it would probably be a big improvement over Danny’s towel tucked around the back seat. Apparently, this blog setup doesn’t allow for your html link to the hammock to work in the comments, but anyone reading this can search for it on Amazon to see what we’re talking about. Thanks for the tip, Ximena!
Danny Tries: Outward Hound Back Seat Hammock « The Active Dog Chronicles said
[...] I asked around on this blog for suggestions and got a great one — a rear seat hammock. I mentioned it to a dog-walking friend at the humane society, who said he’d gotten one on Amazon for, like, twelve bucks. He said all he did was take it out and shake it every once in a while to get rid of the dirt and hair. Sold! I ordered the Outward Hound Back Seat Pet Hammock (I’m sure this or something like it is available at many different retailers). [...]