I Took My Dog to a Psychic. I Think It Actually May Have Worked?

It turns out that despite his often lazy ways, my pooch loves adventure — from lying in the grass under the sun to romping through the woods on a hike to swimming at a dog-friendly beach.

But dude gets a little stressed in the car, and that can make taking a drive challenging. He is often wedged between my two kids, and he will lick or pant his way through a road trip. He said he wants to feel safe, which is good not only for him but for the whole family.

And the fact is it’s crucial for your animal to be secured in the event of a crash. “Your 50-pound dog can turn into a projectile and kill you,” behaviorist Savocchi said.

“The safest thing is to restrain your pets in the back of the vehicle, either on the back seat, on the rear floor, or in an SUV’s cargo area,” Mel wrote in our guide to traveling with pets. “As much as you may want them near you, they shouldn’t ride shotgun — airbags can also injure an animal.”

I own both a sedan with a bench seat and a van with captain’s chairs, so I needed multiple solutions. Buddy is too big for a crash-tested carrier, such as the Diggs Passenger or the Sleepypod Air, our travel carrier picks for cats and small dogs. So I started with a crash-tested harness, the Clickit Sport Plus, which is designed to be used with your car’s seat belt.

Buddy has a 28-inch chest, which puts him right at the top of the range for the medium-size harness. Yet this harness had plenty of space to adjust it to fit him. I watched all of the instruction videos on the company’s website, and it seemed straightforward in theory, but it took some practice. To make sure Buddy was sitting in the correct position in the car so we could buckle him in, we had to do a little coaxing — with kind words and treats. But we got there, and he settled down with enough room to get comfortable (but not so much that he’d go flying in a crash).

For longer car trips, the inflatable Diggs Enventur Travel Kennel — which Mel uses with their 65-pound dog, Dave — fit the bill.

Diggs sent me a medium-size crate (34 by 22.5 by 27 inches), and it was quick to inflate using the accessory pump (the crate comes with a bike-pump adapter, if you choose not to buy the proprietary pump). The additional tie-down straps were also easy to install in my van’s metal anchor points.

I left the crate inflated in our house for a couple of days — occasionally tossing treats inside for Buddy to retrieve — before installing it in the van to take a quick ride around the block. He took to it almost immediately, lying down and chilling with no whining. By our third trip, I no longer needed to lift him into the crate because he willingly jumped inside for a ride.

“My main caution with the crate in the back of the car is to make sure your dog has enough airflow back there — especially in the warmer months,” Mel said.

The only downside is that the crate takes up a fair bit of the cargo area, so we all had to pack less to accommodate it. But I like that it uninstalls and deflates quickly, and it stores with a relatively small footprint, making it easy to set aside when Buddy isn’t with us.

I know there are a lot of psychic skeptics out there, but I went into this experience with an open mind. In the end, it helped to further build my relationship with my dog, and that’s a real win.

Buddy’s desires aren’t so different from my own: safety and security, good food, and a sense of fulfillment in the daily routine. It’s been fun trying new things with him, seeing how he reacts, and getting a better understanding of who he is and what he likes.

But regarding his desire to ride on a big boat? I think he’s going to have to wait for the inevitable Below Deck: Dog Edition spinoff.

This article was edited by Maxine Builder and Hannah Rimm.