1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a pet harness safety system, and more particularly to a pet harness safety system having a harness assembly worn by a pet and a carabiner tether assembly to secure the harness assembly to a vehicle during usage.
2. Description of the Related Art
Pet safety systems are essential when traveling with a pet, such as a dog, to protect the pet and the driver and any passengers in a vehicle. Pet safety systems are available in a variety of sizes and styles, and few crash tests have been conducted to ensure they will do the job in case of a sudden stop or accident. Statistically, a twenty-five (25) pound, unrestrained dog can become a deadly, one-thousand (1000) pound projectile in the event of a forty (40) mph vehicular crash. In addition, pet safety systems prohibit the pet from distracting the driver while driving the vehicle, making travel safer for everyone.
Current pet safety systems, however, do not meet any reasonable safety standards. Many harnesses of the current pet safety systems are designed for walking and built to meet the form, fit, and function of walking the dog and effectively put a “safety” claim on a walking harness. Few harnesses of the current pet safety systems adequately provide for the safety of the pet (and their owners) when driving and potential hazards are encountered. For example, many of the existing harnesses for pet safety systems are not practical because they are either “over-engineered” and expensive or “under-engineered” and unsafe. Over-engineered harnesses for pet safety systems often include heavy, cumbersome buckles, hardware, and excessive webbing, and suffer from poor overall installation, design, and functionality. These over-engineered harnesses provide adequate safety by some expectations, but are impractical because they are difficult installation into the vehicle, difficult to fit properly to the pet, and/or have cumbersome buckles (e.g., car seat buckles on the harness), which are heavy, awkward, and clearly uncomfortable for the pet. In addition, these over-engineered harnesses render the pet safety system impractical for anything other than in-vehicle use. At the other extreme are the under-engineered harnesses, which are typically merely a walking harness labeled as a “safety harness” by only providing a means to secure or tether the pet in the vehicle. However, the under-engineered harness serves no practical safeguard in the event of an accident. The under-engineered harnesses fail at three-hundred (300) pounds of force, whereas a reasonable safety rating for an average pet would easily be five (5) to ten (10) times that force.
It is therefore desirable to provide a pet harness safety system that limits all unnecessary hardware, connectors, and buckles by providing a harness assembly that includes two support body loops made from webbing that are joined by a carabiner tether assembly, which becomes a part of the pet harness safety system without disrupting/interrupting the integrity of the body loops.
It is still further desirable to provide a pet harness safety system having a carabiner tether assembly designed to “close” the pet harness safety system and secure the harness assembly to the vehicle.
It is yet further desirable to provide a pet harness safety system that is light-weight and capable of being easily worn either in or out of the vehicle, while exceeding the safety ratings for the appropriate dog weights by withstanding over four-thousand (4,000) pounds of force.
It is yet further desirable to provide a pet harness safety system that may be easily put on or taken off of a pet while keeping a consistent custom fit.
In general, the invention relates to a pet harness safety system having a harness assembly and a carabiner tether assembly. The carabiner tether assembly includes an elongate tether body with opposing carabiners. During usage, one of the carabiners is secured to the harness assembly while the other carabiner is secured to the seat belt buckle webbing or child seat latch. The harness assembly includes two parallel body loops that are adjustably joined together via a body support to form a completed or closed system without any additional hardware, connectors or metal rings. Each of the body loops are folded to form a reinforced loop at a point of attachment to the carabiner and a slide to adjust the size and fit the body loops about the dog and close the loop system. The chest plate body support includes a series of body loop apertures for receipt of the body loops.
A primary and a secondary back plate are respectively attached to the body loops and may be releasably fastened together using a fitting connector. The primary back plate is movable between an open position and a closed potion. The fitting connector does not interrupt or interfere with the integrity of the pet harness safety system and does not bear any load when a load is placed on the pet harness safety system, such as during an accident involving the vehicle.
During use, the pet harness safety system loops substantially parallel to the body of the dog such that only its shoulders are encircled by the body loops, at which point they may be releasably coupled via the fitting connector. The primary back plate is moved from the open to the closed position, the loops of the body loops are secured by the carabiner, and the carabiner can be secured thereto to secure the pet harness safety system to the vehicle.
Other advantages and features will be apparent from the following description, and from the claims.
The devices discussed herein are merely illustrative of specific manners in which to make and use this invention and are not to be interpreted as limiting in scope.
While the devices have been described with a certain degree of particularity, it is to be noted that many modifications may be made in the construction and the arrangement of the structural and functional details disclosed herein without departing from the spirit and scope of this disclosure. It is understood that the devices are not limited to the embodiments set forth herein for purposes of exemplification.
Referring to the figures of the drawings, wherein like numerals of reference designate like elements throughout the several views, and initially to
Referring now to
The body support 30, as exemplified in
The reinforced loop 32 of the body loop 26 is secured to a primary back plate 56 loop, and the reinforced loop of the body loop 28 is secured to a secondary back plate 58. The primary back plate 56 includes a first segment 60 and a second segment 62, with the first segment 60 having a width less than a width of the second segment 62. On a face of the primary back plate 56, both the first segment 60 and the second segment 62 include a fastener, such as hook and loop fastener components 64A and 64B respectively placed such that the first segment 60 may be releasably fastened to the second segment 62. In addition, the first segment 60 includes a substantially I-shaped aperture 66 having opposing enlarged ends 68A and 68B separated by opposing projections 70A and 70B. The second segment 62 may include a reinforced portion 72 that abuts the fitting connector 40 during operation. The second segment 62 of the primary back plate 56 has a component 40A (shown as the female component) of the fitting connector 40 secured thereto, such as by using a length of webbing. The secondary back plate 58 secured to body loop 28 includes a component 40B (shown as the male component) of the fitting connector 40 secured thereto, such as also by using a length of webbing. The fitting connector 40 may be constructed of plastic or other resilient material and enables the pet harness safety system 10 to be easily and quickly put on and taken off the dog 12. The fitting connector 40 does not interrupt or interfere with the integrity of the pet harness safety system 10 and does not bear any load when a load is placed on the pet harness safety system 10, such as during an accident involving the vehicle.
During use, an upper portion of the body loops 26 and 28 are positioned along the upper chest of the dog 12, while a lower portion of the body loops 26 and 28 are positioned along the lower chest of the dog 12, with the intermediate section of the body support 30 positioned substantially parallel to the sternum of the dog 12. Thus, the pet harness safety system 10 loops substantially parallel to the body of the dog 12, such that only the shoulders of the dog 12 are encircled by the body loops 26 and 28. The body loop 26 may be releasably coupled to the body loop 28 by inserting the male component 40B of the fitting connector 40 having opposing protruding detents 74 into the female component 40A of the fitting connector 40 (or vice versa), wherein the detents 74 engage detent openings 76 in the female connector 40A to releasably couple the body loop 26 to the body loop 28, as shown and illustrated in
It will be appreciated that the pet harness safety system 10 may be constructed in varying sizes, such as small, medium, and large or based on a predetermined weight range. Once the pet harness safety system 10 is fitted and adjusted to the dog 12, it may be easily worn by the dog 12 both in and/or out of the vehicle.
The key features of the pet harness safety system 10 are (1) the harness loops around the pet's shoulders, minimizing the possibility of strangulation; (2) the fit connector is effectively outside the load bearing system allowing the harness to be custom fit one time, by the load bearing slide buckle, but installed on and off the pet conveniently with the fit buckle; and (3) continuous loops are parallel but jointed at the loop carabiner to form an uninterrupted system. Furthermore, the carabiner tether assembly may be attached and detached from the in-vehicle restraint system without interrupting the harness loop assembly. Thus, the harness loop assembly is for fitting the harness around the dog comfortably, while the carabiner tether assembly effectively connects the system together and to the vehicle.
Whereas, the devices have been described in relation to the drawings and claims, it should be understood that other and further modifications, apart from those shown or suggested herein, may be made within the spirit and scope of this invention.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/244,725 filed Sep. 22, 2009, which is incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61244725 | Sep 2009 | US |