Can you leave a dogs lead on in the car? Or is it possible to attach a lead to the boot? The reason I ask is because of an incident that happened over the weekend. My bitch dislikes small dogs after being attacked by one (which we are working with a trainer to try and overcome). I had my two dogs in the boot of my car (I have a tailgate guard installed so they can not jump out) Now I had opened the tailgate to put their leads on (we were in the carpark at the time) and as I was attaching the leads someone let their small terrier, run up, off the lead and snap at my two. My bitch leapt out of the car so I grabbed her to make sure she wouldn't harm the other dog and whilst I grabbed her, my dog leapt out of the boot (he is fine with all other dogs but has bad recall which is why I don't let him off the lead) and ran over to play with them. I quickly put my bitch back in the car and took off after my dog (who was running after the idiot owner of the other dogs who was running away with them!)  I yelled at the owner of the other dogs to wait up and stop running in the direction of the road but he completely ignored me. I managed to grab my dog but he wasn't very far from the road at this point and I was panicking and smacked him (which I greatly regret now), I was just so worried and not thinking clearly. I put him on the lead and after a couple of minutes of being slightly subdued, he was back to his normal bouncy self and we went for our walk.

Now I know this was my fault, both my dogs have collars on but not leads whilst in the car. I have two D-ring type things in the boot which I could attach a lead to, but I'm not too sure this is safe. It would be no better with a crate as I would still have to open the door to put their leads on.

If I can use a lead in the boot would you suggest one which is too short to stop them getting out of the boot, or one that is just long enough to allow them to jump down safely but not allow them to move away from the car? I have only ever seen a dog attached to a lead in the boot once (in a 4x4) and this dog nearly choked itself when it tried to jump out of the car as the lead was too long to keep it in the boot, but too short for it to jump down safely and it was almost suspended in the air by its collar. People managed to cut the lead but not before sustaining several bites (none of which they blamed the dog for, he was in pain). This really left an impression on me and I am very reluctant to use something like that. Also I'd be worried that the lead could get caught around them whilst they were in the car.

I would be grateful for any suggestions you could give me.

I wouldn't tie you dogs in the abck of the car especially if you have 2 dogs. I used to have a collar that had a lead that retracted into the collar so the dog always had a lead you could use in an emrgency It might be worth doing a search to see if they still exist

I use double ended police leads, and I always clip one end of each of my three dogs' leads to the hoops that are in the boot of my car.

I thought that car harnesses are used, so why not use leads.

After my one boy jumping out of the boot onto a main road while I was trying to sort my girl out, I would not risk them being loose in the boot again.

I'd only use a lead attached to a harness - in the case of an accident the last thing you want is the dog being restrained by its neck!

I agree with digger, if I attached a dog by lead I would use a harness, this way the dog won't get stranggled!

Anouther suggestion, although I know it is an expensive one and no-good if you have more then two dogs but how about getting a divider and double door tailgaurd or similar?

No dog should ever be "loose" in whatever part of the car; it should be in a cage, protected by a proper divider and tailguard or restrained by a harness.

Restraining it by using a lead attached to a collar around the neck could lead to a broken neck in the event of an accident!

I would no more do this than restrain my children via this method; it is a recipe for disaster!