What does our car setup look like?

Markus sitting in the car looking out the front window

If you've been following our blog, you'll know by now that we travel a lot with Markus. We've done shorter trips that are closer in our backyard, but we've also driven longer distances overnight and out of town. We've recently gotten some questions from some of you about how we set everything up in the car for those longer road trips, especially for a dog that doesn't like to settle in the car. This week, we wanted to spend a little bit of time going through our setup in the car.

To begin, we do have the luxury of driving an SUV and for our day-to-day travel, Markus stays in the back trunk. We leave a dog bed in the back for him, but he rarely uses it. He usually just stays standing and looks out the front window, but he'll occasionally sit on the bed, but never fully settle. For longer road trips, we need to move things around because we usually have luggage or bags with us, which fits into the trunk better. That means that Markus gets upgraded to the backseats, which wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that he doesn't settle. It does, however, ensure that Markus is closer to us in case we need to reach him or give him treats on the road.

For long as the car is moving, Markus is usually standing and if there's nothing blocking him, he'll try to come up to the front seats. Since there's usually no space for him up front, he'll just stand on the centre console, which isn't very safe especially on highway driving or longer road trips. We've come to realize that he chooses to do this because he loves to look outside the front windshield to see where we were going, so we try to set it up so he gets to do that, but without coming all the way to the front.

Another problem that we were getting was that Markus would fall forward whenever the car slowed down. If the trip was 2 or 3 hours long, Markus will actually stand for the full 2 or 3 hours unless it's been a long day and he's tired. So knowing that Markus likes to look out the front window and knowing that he had the tendency to fall forward into the leg area, we looked for a solution that would allow him to be comfortable looking out the front of the car, but without falling forward when the car slowed down.

Markus starting to get tired in the car

The best solution that we've found so far has been the seat cover/hammock. The hammock is made of a nylon material so it is tough, but soft enough to fold with the car seats. Think of a big sheet that's hooked onto the back of the two front seat head rests and the front of the two backseat head rests. This naturally creates a hammock. The cover that we use even has folds in the seat cover, so they follow the folds on the car seats very nicely. The cover also comes with flaps on the side, which can be closed with zippers so it creates a natural trough-like shape. The seat cover also come with pockets to store things.

This solution solved all of the issues for us. First, the seat cover comes with a wall in the front that blocks Markus from coming too far forward. Secondly, the hammock means that the leg area in the backseat is closed off, which means he's no longer able to fall forward into the leg area. If it's a long trip, we also stuff some things in the leg area so that when he does lean forward, there's something solid for him to stand on underneath as opposed to just the side of the hammock.

Another benefit of having the seat cover, which we didn't realize we'd have, was that the seat cover prevents the fur from getting onto the actual seats. Markus loses a lot of fur, so imagine doing an entire road trip with him and taking the cover off to discover that there's no fur on the seats!

For the sake of comfort and trying to get him to settle, we also leave Markus' blankets and the dog bed on top of the seat cover. It's our way of letting him know that it's going to be a long trip, so get comfortable. Our hope is that having his bed there will signal to him that it's a place for him to settle, but Markus rarely ever does.

Markus finally settling in the car on his bed and blanket

This solution works fairly well with Markus and it's our favourite setup so far. We like to try new things, but especially for longer road trips, we want to make sure that Markus isn't only comfortable, but also safe. For most dog owners, I imagine that this isn't much of an issue for you. But if your dog is like Markus - a little nosier and doesn't like to settle in the car, then we recommend checking out this hammock seat cover and having familiar items for them in the car.

We’re so grateful for your support of The Markus Project. We mostly choose our locations through searching and word of mouth. If you know of a park, trail or location you think we should check out, please share it with us. We’d love to know!