- Thought I'd do something a little bit different today
on the channel, I had an experience today
that I really wanted to share with you guys
because it really touched a nerve with me
and so if you're here for a training video
or a relationship building video or
a fun vlog, this isn't maybe the episode for you
but for me, this is a great opportunity to
speak my mind and it's on a topic
that I think is really important to me.
So, on that note, I'm Cann, this is Grand Slam,
welcome back to McCannDogs.
So if you've watched the vlog for any length of time,
you may know that I'm a firefighter, I've actually
been a firefighter for about 20 years
and for eight of those years, I also worked as a paramedic.
Over the course of my career, I've seen
some pretty unbelievable things.
On a nearly daily basis, I think
I respond to a motor vehicle collision
or a car accident and in the most unlikely of circumstances
and it's always involving people that
didn't expect to get in a car accident that day.
About six months ago, Cale and I were
driving home from Florida on the interstate
and we witnessed a dog fall out of the window
of a moving vehicle and vehicle's
probably going, I don't know, maybe 100 kilometers a hour,
whatever, 55 miles per hour, 60 miles per hour,
I'm not sure what the conversion is but,
it was maybe 200 meters ahead of us
and we saw the dog fall out of the window.
Today, when I was in town, I saw a dog
nearly fall out of the window of a vehicle,
the car came to a stop light, there was a dog
that was at the intersection and the dog
that was in the vehicle got stimulated
and started barking, they bark back and forth at one another
then the vehicle pulled ahead, then
the dog nearly fell out the window.
I'm not sure where the disconnect is
between understanding that we need to
safely restrain our children and
the idea that we need to safely restrain our dogs.
I don't understand why people don't recognize that.
Having had to witness the result of
a moment of inattention, someone on their phone
or someone, I mean there's a pile of reasons
why motor vehicle collisions happen, car accidents happen.
But, it can happen to anyone, I've seen it first hand,
I see it on a nearly daily basis when I'm at work
and it's horrifying, when a car accident happens,
there's essentially three collisions that happen you know,
I know buddy, there's the vehicles strike one another
or a vehicle strikes an immovable object
or an inanimate object, then the
body, the human body strikes the inside of the vehicle
and then the organs strike the inside of the body,
so there's three, really traumatic
things that are happening.
People, wearing a seatbelt that have been engineered
to restrain someone safely, it lessens that impact,
it lessens the impact that second and third impact
that, has proven to be a life saver.
Vehicles are engineered to be really safe nowadays.
They have crumple zones, I've seen
a car that has no front end anymore,
it's essentially like, crumpled down to
a foot thick, having come from a five foot hood
and the passenger compartment inside the vehicle,
untouched, the driver of the vehicle,
able to get out, out of the vehicle and walk away.
If anything that isn't strapped down,
anything that isn't adequately restrained
inside that vehicle, going through that same
stopping force, will turn into a projectile.
I've seen vehicles that, we've pulled up on scene
and the windows are smashed out
and there are things everywhere.
I mean, the roadway is littered with
whatever was on the inside of that car.
To think for a moment that your dog,
could be one of those things that's
ejected from the vehicle, is horrifying to me.
In our case, I like the idea of a crate
that will hold your dog in place,
it minimizes that movement inside the vehicle
and if the crate's properly restrained
or secured to the vehicle, there's even less
likelihood of them rattling around
or going anywhere but, when I think about
intrusion into the passenger compartment,
so for example, a car's that's been T boned for example,
there's often times the passenger compartment,
part of the vehicle's crushed in
to where someone would be sitting
if you're using a crate and your dog is
safely restrained in there, inside the crate,
there's another layer of protection that's available.
There's also these harnesses that can be used,
that can be clipped into your safety restrain system,
into your seatbelt in your car
that if you were to be involved in a car accident,
your dog would be safe, they're not going to be
flying around the interior of the vehicle
or in even worse case, be ejected from it.
Even if the dog weren't injured,
even if it was by some amazing stroke of luck,
you would have a car accident and your dog's uninjured,
I've seen situations where the dog
was so terrified from the event that they ran away.
Actually one incident involved a police cruiser.
It wasn't in Canada, it was just a story that I saw
from the US, but I mean, it's a
terrifying event for a dog who doesn't
totally understand what's going on.
And then they could put themselves in
even greater jeopardy by running across
the road or whatever the situation maybe.
We go to great lengths to protect our children,
our children can't make those choices for themselves,
we go to great lengths to make sure
and nowadays, in an appropriate child seat,
to make sure that those seat belts
and those safety restrain systems are
going to be as efficient and as effective as they can be.
Why don't people feel the same way about their dogs?
I don't understand it, I know some people might say,
"oh, yeah, he loves it, he loves driving down the road
and we put the window open just a little bit,
so he can stick his head out."
well, I know, my mom was a veterinary technician
and she would say how bad that was for dogs
because often times, the dogs would come into
the clinic with eye or ear issues,
which is understandable as a motorcycle rider,
I know, I couldn't ride my bike without glasses
because, the wind blowing into my eyes
just dries them out in a hurry and
it would be really, really tough to deal with.
But, I just can't think of any reason why
it's a good idea to not restrain your dog
and here's the thing, I mean,
dogs might like to have their head out the window but,
I remember being a kid, I would have liked to,
we lived in the country, I would have liked
to be able to drive around in the back
of my dad's pick up truck, I mean that would have been great
but, because that's irresponsible and unreasonable,
my parents had us sitting in the cabin of the vehicle
and we were wearing seat belts
because that's the reasonable thing to do
and because at that time, we can't make
the appropriate decision, the safest choice
so our parents made that decision for us.
As dog owners, we have a responsibility to
take care of our dogs, to love our pets,
to provide them with food and water
and a safe place to be and to make sure that they're safe.
Part of that, means making sure
they're safe in transportation.
No one ever thinks it's going to happen to them.
No one.
But I see it every single day,
it could happen to you and you need to do
everything you can to make sure that
these amazing family members who can't make the choice
for themselves, are safe in that situation.
I don't really know how to affect change here,
but it's so important to me that I'd love to know
if you guys have any ideas, I'd love to
see it in the comments, like what can we do?
How can we raise awareness for this,
make it so that there's some requirements
to safely restrain your dog when they're
a passenger in your vehicle.
I think it's really important and having seen
a couple near misses and one awful event
when we were on the interstate coming home that one time,
I mean, something needs to happen.
These guys are our family members
and I would do anything to keep them safe
and it seems almost negligent of me
to put them in a situation where they could get hurt
even though I'll never I'll get in a car accident,
I wouldn't imagine I ever would but
I know that it could happen.
So I'm calling on the community,
the community of dog lovers to
share this video, share whatever you think you can
to raise awareness for this topic
because it's so important and it can happen
to anybody and I think that
this is something that maybe with enough action
and enough awareness, maybe we can make a change,
maybe you can be part of saving a dog's life
indirectly by raising awareness for this.
With that said, that's the end of my rant,
all the more reason to do something awesome
with your dog today because they're just so special to us.
Anyway, that's it for me, happy training.