Leaving your dog in the car

Today was not a good morning.  I took Jack for a walk  in a new neighborhood because that is always fun and then I had to stop and see a friend. I thought I would only be a few minutes and she has a kitty so I left Jack in the car. It was a overcast, cool morning in a quiet neighborhood where I felt he would be safe and happy.   USUALLY he is fine in the car.  He relaxes in his car seat or he sits and watches the world go around!  Today was NOT that day.

I ended up spending more time than I thought with my friend. While I was with her, I had 4 phone calls which I thought that was odd.  I had the ringer turned off so I didn’t realize I received that many until I was leaving.  As I was walking to the car, I listened to one of them and it was a lady stating that my dog had been barking for 45 minutes in the car. I have my Leash Your Fitness sign on the back of my car so obviously she looked it up.   The second call was basically the same message from another concerned woman.  I then noticed a Facebook message on my company page stating that I needed to get my dog from the car.

I was MORTIFIED!! Not only because these women called me out but that Jack was upset.  Jack has extreme separation anxiety because I take him everywhere that I go (when possible).  I never know when it is going to strike! Sometimes he is fine, other times he is not.  I am now crating him when I leave the house because I never know when he is going to be upset and chew up my shoes or other clothing items.

Usually when I leave him in the car, he is fine. I return to a relaxed and happy dog.  Today when I returned, he was spastic!! He acted like he was in the car for days and I was never going to return!  The rest of the day, he was my 3rd leg, never leaving my side when most days, he is Mr. Independent and does his own thing.

Jack survived but it was very upsetting to me for a few reasons. First, is that I have to figure out when he is going to act like this because I definitely do not want him upset and barking.  Second, is that concerned citizens think that I am a reckless dog parent.

I was speaking to a friend about what happened and we talked about when it is ok to leave your dog in the car.  Obviously it is NEVER ok to leave your dog in the car when it is hot outside.  That is NEVER an option unless you leave the air conditioning running for Fido.  Even when it is a little warm outside, it gets HOT in your car and remember that Fido has a fur coat on and does not sweat.  He will overheat faster than a person does.

I would also never leave Jack in the car in an unsafe neighborhood or in a closed parking garage where he may get sick from breathing fumes.  Personally, I can not leave him where he knows that I am having fun and he is stranded in the car like at the beach, park or hiking trail but that is just because of the way that our relationship is!

This is my take on it.  Sometimes my choices are:  1/  Leave Jack at home the entire day  2/ Leave him in the car where he is safe so I can run an errand so that he can be with me all day.  I always leave the windows down a little and often I put the sunshade up to help keep the car cool.

My friend was telling me crazy stories of concerned citizens calling him out on leaving his dog in the car. One lady called security because it was warm outside and she saw the dog in the car. What she didn’t notice is that he had left the car on with the air conditioning running for the dog. The dog was super content. Another time, he was gone a few minutes on a cool day when a lady was frantically running around trying to find the owner of the truck with the dog in it.  Again, his dog was safe, cool and content and again, the choice was to leave the dog home alone the entire day or leave the dog in the car for a few minutes so that they dog could spend the entire day at work with him.

I do not blame the women today.  NOBODY likes to hear a barking dog. It usually means that something is not right.  I am the first to agree with that and probably would have done the same thing just to let the person know what was up.  In this case, Jack was just suffering from separation anxiety.  But sometimes, people need to look at the entire picture before they jump to conclusions.  The argument that you would never leave a child in the car doesn’t really work because you wouldn’t leave a child at home by himself either.

Jack and I are a team and I would never put him in danger. He is my best friend & is probably the most spoiled dog that I know. We spend a lot of time in parks, at the beach and doing fun things and we love to be together.   We do a lot of traveling together and my business, Leash Your Fitness, allows him to be with me at all of my fitness jobs.  Leaving him home is usually not even an option so we are going to have to figure something out so that he is not upset and I am not labeled a reckless dog parent.

Any suggestions? 

What are your feeling about leaving a dog in the car?  I would love to hear your thoughts!

PS> after I posted this blog, I found this one and like the information in it!!  Moral of the story, DON’T break someone’s car windows and try to take their dog out of the car……

In the meantime, he was nice and relaxed when I returned & we continued on our day…….