Dogs love to ride in the beds of pickup trucks. They do, any dog that had been allowed even the briefest ride in a pickup truck will leap into the bed anytime the tail gate is down. Children also love riding in pickup truck beds.
That doesn't mean they should. And the argument that nothing has happened to the dog yet often ends with an emergency room visit (if the dog survives the fall) with the statement "He never did that before."
It only takes once.
No one knows what dogs see when they see scenery passing by, whether they recognize the scope of the speed. A reasonable person would say that it is unlikely that they understand the scope of the speed a car can travel - after all, why would they?
But dogs can definitely see rabbits, deer, cattle, kids on bikes, they know what those are, and even a well trained dog may have a momentary brain fart and forget that stay means stay all of the time. At sixty miles an hour there are no second chances.
Anyone who has allowed a dog to ride in the bed of a truck even a short safe, slow distance, has seen the dog go flying over the edge after something. If the travel is slow enough, the dog light and agile enough, no harm will come, if the dog is too light and too agile, he may consider the action worth repeating.
Arizona has no laws requiring people to keep dogs out of the beds of pickup beds, in fact, Arizona has no law disallowing children to ride in pickup truck beds (it would infringe on civil liberties).
Interestingly, however, dead elk must be strapped down.
Dogs in Southern Arizona have the opportunity not only to fly out of pick up trucks, and open car windows, but due to the legality of golf carts on public roads in some parts of Green Valley and other retirement communities, dogs can go flying out of those as well.
Use common sense. If your dog loves to ride in the bed of your pickup truck (or golf cart), stay off public roads, go insanely slow, and be prepared for possible injuries if the dog decides that the joy of riding in the vehicle is overshadowed by the joy of chasing a stray cat.
If you use a leash to affix your dog into a vehicle ensure that there is no circumstance where the dog can hang itself.
Life shouldn't be so safe that no one has any fun, nor should it be so fun that no one is ever safe.
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