when reading this weeks dog world and our dogs this tought came to me, how many people could rescue or could infact get their dogs out of a damaged vehicle in an accident when time was of the essence, i think i may be one of the few who can from three different doors the fitted cage main access is from the boot doors(i have a fiat doblo with van doors) but when the cage was made i had escape hatches built into the backs of the cages so they can also come out over the back seat from either side silding rear door, collars are worn in the cages main leaders are on the lead hooks by the main doors but i have cheap nylon ones under the back seats i also carry a fire extingusher and canine first aid kit the cage is also made to take a rear inpack and not buckle as it has external and internal support bars on both decks and all cages, i learnt a hard lesson when a friends dogs had to be cut out of her car when it was rear ended and the boot gate was so buckled and twisted it would not open even after the boot was cut open the cage itself had to be cut open by the fire men with frantic and panicing dogs trapped inside she was lucky there was no fire involved or the dogs would have burnt to death since then i know exactly how to get my dogs out and where all necessary things are stored

The crash has been on my mind a lot as it was only 10 or so miles away from me, and emergency services based in my locality were called out, not to mention the recovery vehicles at the garage next door.

I think it is very sensible to consider emergencies :)

This might not be the best thing to say, but with every contigency in the world covered, there were some people beyond rescue in that crash.... Those that could get out, did, and helped others but the fire prevented other rescue attempts. That only 7 lives were lost is a miracle considering how many were involved - 34 vehicles and 51 injured, a few still in a critical state in hospital.

There are some things in life nobody can plan for, or mitigate, sadly. :(

There is someone on another dog site I go to, who a few days ago had everyone's worst nightmare - a house fire (caused by an electrical fault) - they escaped but one of their dogs and several of their small furries were lost. There's a fund set up on site to help them get back on their feet. Not that it could ever really erase what happened.

The world can be a cruel place, and it's so painful to hear of those at its mercy.... I haven't stopped thinking about those involved in the crash, and I will be giving something to the person in the house fire if I can.

I always travel my dogs in crates and always have their collars on with tags...I then keep their leads very close to the cage so I can clip them up quickly.

I have to know that I can catch them quickly in the event of an accident and that they wont run out onto the roads.
Getting your dogs out safely in an emergency is paramount, no point them surviving a crash only to run onto the road.
The story in Dog world about the man using his belt to lead his dogs away from the crash scene on the M5 gave me shivers.

I think it made a lot of us think what we'd do.  Mine travel with lead and collar attached so I can grab easily (was worth being like that when tyre had to be replaced on motorway a couple of weeks ago as would of been worried getting an uncollared dog out on hard shoulder of busy motorway)

Also although the gate is fixed at the back, the internal guard would be easy to push out as not fixed to structure other than a loop on seat.

> I always travel my dogs in crates and always have their collars on with tags...I then keep their leads very close to the cage so I can clip them up quickly.
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Ditto, in fact I leave their leads on (adults) too.

I don't leave leads on the dogs in the car - I don't want them eaten and end up with no leads at all!

Fortunately none of mine are lead chewers, though I don't trust the puppy yet.

Ditto to JG. I arrived at LKA once with a dog minus its lead as she had chewed it to pieces! Most of my leads are very expensive leather ones. Since then I always leave collars on but not leads. I also keep spare leads in the front of the car, easy to grab quickly if needs be. But it isn't only the lead chewing eitehr. If you travel with more than one dog, and don't have separate cages for them all (we don't, as in our car you could only fit cages with space for two big dogs, but without the extra space the cages take, just using guard and tailgate, we can fit 3 in), having leads on can be dangerous as they can get tangled up in each other. I see this all the time when we put dogs in the car to take them up to the field we run them in. As it only takes a couple of minutes to get up there we tend to leave the leads on then, and the number of of times we get there with the leads all in knots around the dogs is amazing -to the point where we've had to stop doing that as well.

I've got a collar chewer, so I do worry a bit although I generally leave the collars on, and leads are on top of the crates.

If my lot get in a tangle (which they don't to any extent as they settle in the car) then they sit and wait for Mum to sort them out. 

They are often tethered together and all walked together so the maypole effect is common, and they are used to remaining still once the lead length becomes uncomfortably short, for me to unwind them all. 

For this reason I use the same type of lead in different colours so it is easy to quickly disentangle.

There is no completely ideal solution, a solution for one thing may cause an issue in another way.

Like the collars on or off debate.  Mine have always worn theirs from 8 - 12 weeks old 24/7.

Yes I agree it is like the collars -we do what our personal experience tells us is the safest. Another thing about leads in cars though -if a dog should get loose after an accident the lead could be a big problem then if it got tangled up somewhere -unless found quickly the dog could die from dehydration or starvation or even strangling. But then even a collar could have that effect. There is no simple answer.

but a dangling lead could enable someone to catch a panicing frightened dog..
there are no easy answers

Everyone will have differing opinions on this and i think you have to make your own educated decision based on the risks you see. For example, i believe brainless (sorry if i have the wrong person) has assesed the risk of their dogs wearing collars in the house, which some wouldnt allow, but the fact that they are near a busy road and may have a need to grab a dog quickly deems it necessary.

Yup just so.  The dogs themselves, their reativity and behaviour will influnece the decisions too.

having leads on can be dangerous as they can get tangled up in each other

Mine travel 2 or three in their crate, and they never have their leads left on for this reason. I used to put their leads in the gap between the bootlid and crate, but I after I thought through the what ifs one day I decided it would be safer to have the leads next to me in the front in case the boot is inoperable and I need to haul the dogs out the emergency hatch.

we have an xlwb van with 6 cages built into the back, their is then at least 6ft between the cages and the rear doors but we do carry 2 rigs in the back for racing, the bulk head in the van between the rear seats and the cages is only thin ply wood though with a perspex window in and can be easily kicked out with plenty of room above the cages to get over and into the back