Slovakian police posted this photo, taken from a speed camera, to Facebook in 2023, after fining the driver.Policia SR/Facebook
On April 9, the BC Highway Patrol pulled over a driver in Burnaby and fined him $109 for driving with his dog on his lap. In the police photo you can see the cute black terrier looking shamefully at the camera.
It’s tough when I encounter one of these stories. They bring back many difficult memories and open old wounds.
You see, I was that dog once – the dog in the driver’s seat, my face plastered all over social media and the news.
I’m known to the world as “Havino.” I’m a large, brown, incredibly adorable hunting dog and on Sept. 29, 2023, Slovakian law enforcement officers caught me behind the wheel of a Skoda Kamiq, speeding at 60 kilometres an hour in a 50 zone. My 31-year-old owner (we dogs prefer the term “comfort human”) tried to frame me by swearing that I had spontaneously jumped onto his lap while he was driving. As if. The police didn’t buy it and fined him.
They love it. That’s the argument drivers always make when they get caught driving with their pets on their laps. That we want to be in the driver’s seat. That we love it. That there is nothing in the world that dogs love more than sitting on their lap behind the wheel.
Well, I can tell you as a canine who was branded a “pup-etrator” by police for my lap driving, that is nonsense.
Dogs love cars. We love being driven. No one denies this. Nowhere in the dog/human relationship, however, is there anything about us wanting to drive. Why would we? We already have the entire back seat to ourselves. Stick us in a safety harness and we are good to go.
Besides, everyone hates driving and we’re supposed to love it? We may play along to placate our comfort humans, but we aren’t fans.
Driving is awful. That’s what we hear all the time. People complain about it constantly. It’s stressful. It causes road rage in otherwise well-trained comfort humans. Why, then, would we canines want to do it? Are we stupid? Are we the dim lights in the dog/human partnership? I think not. It may be a cliché, but we’re not the ones following you around picking up your poop.
Why would any dog in its right mind want to be in the driver’s seat, especially sitting on a comfort human’s lap? When you are in the driver’s seat it’s hard to extend your snout out the window so you can get a long, deep whiff of all the smells flying past. I’m going to volunteer to give that up to be stuck in gridlock? I don’t think so.
Having a dog on your lap while you drive is an entirely human compulsion that appears in people from all walks of life. A One Poll survey in the U.K. released in March showed 44 per cent of the 2,000 drivers polled have let dogs sit on their lap. The statistic rises to 71 per cent for drivers aged 18 to 34. A 2023 survey from Allstate Insurance Company of Canada found half of Canadian drivers surveyed said they left their pets unrestrained, 20 per cent let them “move freely in the backseat” and 6 per cent let their dogs ride on their laps while they drive.
In 2022, Oscar-winning actor Jeremy Irons was spotted driving with his dog Smudge on his lap. The Daily Mail reports that the dashing 73-year-old was “pictured in the driving seat with Smudge who was not wearing a restraint and as a result could have easily obstructed the actor’s view of the road.” Irons is an inveterate dog driving seat enthusiast who doesn’t limit Smudge to cars. “She rides with me on my motorcycle,” Irons once told Country Life, “on my trap, in my boats and sits backstage in the theatre and on film sets. She’s been to Broadway shows with me, flown on private jets and been to the White House.”
So, what’s the harm?
I must admit that there are some dogs who don’t mind being in the driver’s seat. They always tell me the same thing, “Don’t worry, my comfort human is well-trained. If he’s sitting there quietly and not bothering me, where’s the problem?”
Well, apart from the stress of driving on Canadian roads, it’s dangerous. As Cpl. Michael McLaughlin of the BC Highway Patrol stated after the ticketing of the Burnaby dog-lapper, “You need all of your attention for unexpected lane changes, pedestrians, weather and obstacles. Having a dog on your lap is illegal and a minor collision could kill your best friend. It’s best if pets are belted in properly, ideally with a harness in the rear passenger seat, just like a human child.”
Reminds me of an old knock-knock joke we used to tell in the large, brown hunting dog kennel.
Knock Knock.
Who’s there?
Windshield.
Windshield who?
Windshield, Muffy the puppy is about to crash through you because she was sitting on the driver’s lap when he got in an accident.
That’s exactly the right way to think of it.
Woof.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
