Ruff Rider’s only product is the Roadie® travel restraint. Invented by a dog owner after his pet was ejected through the front windshield in a minor collision, the design is so unique it was awarded three (3) patents. Over the past 20 years Roadie has helped protect many dogs during vehicle accidents and also reduced the chance of injury to other occupants.

We were excited to learn of the founding of the Center for Pet Safety (www.centerforpetsafety.org), a non-profit organization dedicated to establishing testing and manufacturing standards for pet products, including safety harnesses.

CPS tests with MGA Research (www.mgaresearch.com), an internationally-recognized testing firm, to collect the data needed to create performance standards for both dynamic and static testing of canine travel harnesses. We recently contracted with MGA Research to conduct dynamic crash testing on our Roadie harnesses using the preliminary test criteria that CPS references for a “typical” 30 mph vehicle crash.

The videos below show our harnesses during dynamic testing using the CPS crash test dogs weighing 20, 40 and 80 pounds. These new state-of-the art dogs may look like stuffed toys, but they contain sophisticated sensors that monitor impact and load data!

The videos document the kind of forces your dog is subjected to in only a 30 mph collision – anywhere from 23 G’s to over 58 G’s, depending on the weight of the dog! For a 20 pound dog, the impact causes them to accelerate at 23 times the load of gravity – they become almost 1300 pounds of mass flying forward in an accident. If not properly restrained, they can be severely injured and can also injure other occupants in the vehicle.

All of the Roadie harnesses tested successfully passed the preliminary test criteria for both dynamic and static load limits. We were pleased that we could validate the design and construction of Roadies and appreciate the use of the CPS test dogs to complete our testing.

The videos below depict the violent action and events that actually occur in a vehicle crash and reinforce why all dogs should be restrained for travel…..just like humans.