Awesome thread! Love the pics! I have 2 Bernese Mountain dogs and am considering a Clubman or Countryman for my next ride. I currently own an X5 and when the lease is up, we are going MINI!

 

The first thing that comes to mind is the dog wearing a harness then a short leash with two clips that hook to one of the tie-downs in the boot. That may work for awhile until he gets up and turns around a few times and gets tangled. I have a big Greyhound, and we avoid taking him in the MINI. I prefer hauling him around in our four door Colorado.

 

We had a great dane up till two years ago used to take him to work with me at our retail store. He was quite the attention getter. If I had a dollar for every person that took there photo with him, I would be retired. I used to drive him in the front seat of my jeep he would sit up and I would put the seat belt across him. He was a big guy 188 pounds. He could stick his head over a six foot fence and look down at the neighbors dogs. We miss him, but he loved to drive in the car but did not have a harness just the seat belt. In the Cooper I would do what your doing back seats down, bed in and let him lay. You might be able to lock him over to the clips that hold the nets in place. By the way he lived to be 14 years old the vet said it was the oldest dane he ever new. His body gave out, they are a joy. Good luck with yours.

 

I have got to see a photo of your dane in the MINI!

 

The trainer had us use it when we were teaching her to heel. She doesn't need it now (and she's twice that size now)

 

Here are some pics of Fred, he is still growing daily, hid father weighs 185 lbs, don't think hell be quite that big, but some of his litter-mates will! there were 14 pups...more crazy colors than we had ever seen, but Fred picked us and made it plain that we were his from the get-go.
[IMG][/IMG]

 

Wow! That is a high dog-per-car ratio. I'm looking to get a Rodesian Ridgeback soon and was worried about carting her around in the MINI, I'm not too worried any more!

 

These are the absolutely best harnesses I've ever seen. While they have those easy to use plastic, quick-disconnect buckles for putting the harness on and taking it off, they also have two steel D-rings that you actually hook onto for teathering your dog. That way, any forces from an accident go through the D-rings directly to the harness and not through the camparatively weaker plastic buckles. The best of both worlds.

http://usak9outfitters.com/harnesses.htm

Here are some other options: http://usak9outfitters.com/autosafetygear.htm

And for keeping them untangled, nothing beats having the teather to the harness connected to the car up high. There can be several ways to do this. One is to simply build your own teather between the two rear grab handles up high, if your car has them. (Almost always, these grab handles are steel reinforced and bolted firmly to the body.) Use some carabiners and climbing straps from a sport store to span from one side to the other. Then another carabiner with an appropriate climbing strap to clip to the high cross strap and the dog harness.

Or, some cars come with a middle shoulder or safety seat strap attachment point in the ceiling of the car.

(I have a cabriolet so I'm not familiar with how the regular Mini is equiped.)

At any rate, our beagle Gracie loves going for rides in "her" convertible, whether she's sitting up front with me in the passenger's seat or in the back when her mom is along for the ride. (I both cases, she's in her car bed and strapped in.)

 

Oh, and here's another tip. If you have a more normal sized dog, or one that is small but in a car bed/seat, if you just plug the seat belt in and attach the dog harness to the shoulder strap, often that allows for too much slack in the connecting strap between the harness and the seat belt shoulder strap so that the dog could still jump out and be dragged. Shortening the connecting strap works, but then it doesn't allow enough slack for comfort in the car.

The solution is to route the shoulder strap around the head rest so the shoulder strap is much closer to the center of the car. Then clip the dog in. In the case of our cabriolet, I route the shoulder strap around the back of the roll bar and then down to the buckle in the middle. This give Gracie plenty of room to move around in her bed, but does not allow her to get too far over the edge of the car.

 

Great excuse to get a Countryman. Hanna loves our new car.

 

Hey has anybody tried a countryman or a paceman with a dane and perhaps 1 child? We don't have a child yet but we do have a 110lb Great Dane I've been wanting a mini for a long time and I know I've got a while before my husband and I have children, but it's definitely something I need to keep in mind. Has anybody tried it?

 

I have had Great Danes for the last 20 years or so. Never let them in my mini. I have a roadster and don't think it would work.

 

Yeah, I can't see how it would work. I'm thinking I could always just have this as my fun car and not try to use it for travel. We have a 540i bmw that he rides in, and a ford explorer that would easily fit the two.

 

My English Mastiff rode in the backseat of my R56 a couple of times, but height wise he isn't a Great Dane.

 

My Doberman is pretty tall in my clubman. But that guy wouldn't make in the gate I don't think. Nice dog!

 

Haha! I think he'd make it in, but I know I'd have to put the back seats down. Long before I had ever seen a countryman I had some crazy idea the boot would be big enough to fit him....😑but anyway. Have you eer put your Doberman in which a kid or person in the back?

 

Okay so emoticons don't work on my mobile ap, that's what the dde11 is .. -_-

 

So far it's just been me and the Dobi. But I could definitely leave one of the back seats up if desired. The trick will be after I get my 2nd one next sunday. But he's only 8 weeks right now so we will figure that all out later.

 

Thank you for the links - http://usak9outfitters.com/autosafetygear.htm

These are just what I was looking for, although I really should just take him in our other car instead of the Mini.