safety first, kids.

Well, I have finally come to the realization that I am a terrible driver. Case and point: I made Claire get car-sick the other day. Yep... I felt terrible about it. I must have been tapping the brakes too much, because all of the stop and go made her sick.

That got me thinking about how much I find myself doing the Soccer Mom motion, too. You know, where you reach across the passenger to hold someone back from hitting the dashboard. I do it with Claire a lot, especially because she likes to run back and forth from the front seat to the back seat while I'm driving (talk about distracting!); when I stop short, my first instinct is to protect her.

Enter: the Champion Canine Seat Belt System by USA K9 Outfitters. My friend Abby told me about this a few months ago after she had a first hand experience of my driving, so I got one to try out for ourselves.

The harness clasps over your dog's back and then hooks to the seatbelt strap. I clipped the seatbelt strap to the hook next to the headrest in my backseat so that Claire would have an easier time turning around. Though both of the above pictures show Claire lying down, this set up also allows her to sit, stand, turn, and move around the backseat safely. What I love about this seatbelt system is that Claire doesn't get caught up in it - other products that I have tried had her ending up looking like a pretzel when she tried to move around. There are so many different ways to attach this seatbelt system in your car. The harness itself is easily adjustable, which is great for Claire since she has a larger chest (being the amazing mixed breed of lab/whippet that she is).

I've only been using this for the past four days, but Claire got used to it much faster than I thought she would! Lord knows that I feel much better knowing that she is safe and secure in the backseat now while I keep getting used to these crazy Nashville drivers - and they say that Boston is bad! Now if only there was such an easy fix for the carsickness...