If the dog is in the house, eventually the dog is going to end up in the car, too. The great thing about most pets is that they can adapt to their environment well, which makes car journeys for them possible and sometimes even fun. But have you ever gone out of your way to make sure your pet was safe and comfortable?
While I do not currently have any pets of my own, I do have roommates with pets, and occasionally we take them to the beach if I have a car to drive. But if I did have a pet, and a car full-time for that matter, then I’d want to make sure my pal was as comfortable as possible.
And that’s what I’ve always liked about Adam Savage, the guy who used to co-host Mythbusters on Discovery. Now he’s making a lot of YouTube videos from his workshop on his Tested YouTube channel, and the latest one is a “One Day Build” for a custom-made dog bed for the back seat of his family car.
If you watch Savage’s videos, you know he’ll take any excuse to build something from scratch, especially if it serves a greater purpose in making life easier day-to-day around the house or at his shop. And why should he approach his pet’s day-to-day living any different?
Savage thinks he knows his pup, Maggie, pretty well by now. He knows where she likes to lie in the backseat for road trips. He knows she likes to lick the driver’s ear from time to time. He knows she likes to drink water from the cupholder. So why not make sure the experience is as convenient and comfortable for her as possible?
So he fabricated a new dog bed to fit over the folded rear seat of what looks like a Toyota Highlander SUV. He added a riser to the rear of it to make sure it was level because, as he says, if people like things level, dogs probably do too. Then he covered it in a nice faux fur wrap and came back to edge the entire thing in foam so she’d have a place to lay her head.
The bed is finished off with a fake animal skin rug of the type Savage keeps lying around multiple spots in his house, he says, because they’re Maggie’s favorite. In the final test, the concept proves to be very successful. Maggie looks so comfortable.
It doesn’t just have to be for comfort! Car safety is also underappreciated in the pet-owning world. What mods have you made to your car for a creature other than yourself?