Sudbury inventors may have the safety of your dog in mind

All five harnesses failed completely, and sent the doggy dummies flying when the centre recreated car crashes.

“Catastrophic fault is the term,” Adric said.

The year before, the Center for Pet Safety in the United States had tested 11 harnesses at the centre.

In that case, all but one harness, called the Sleepypod Clickit Utility, failed.

“A 50-kilogram dog that gets launched at 80 km/h can impact you with the force of an elephant, which is about seven tonnes,” said Daniel Cluff, a physicist.

After watching the segment, the two Cluffs got to work on a prototype for a safer harness that wouldn't snap in a collision.

“We own dogs, we love dogs and we always will,” Adric said. “It was really important to us, not just that he (his dog Bubba) be safe, but all dogs be safe.”

While the harness is still in development, Adric said it will use anchor points the vast majority of cars already have for baby seats, to help secure the harness.

The harness attaches to a special backing, which attaches to the car itself through the anchor points.

While the Cluffs' invention is still in its early stages, the idea was strong enough to win the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology's (NORCAT) recent Up-starts! Competition.

Adric competed against eight other entrepreneurs and walked away with $5,000 to further develop The Dog Seat.

“It lets us hit the ground running when it comes to product design and development,” he said.

To complete a prototype, test it, and patent it Adric said he'll require more funding, and could soon turn to crowdfunding to get the capital he needs.

Once the first prototype is completed, he intends to send a model to Kettering University's Crash Safety Center to put it to the test.

The market for pet products is expected to be worth $8 billion by 2018, Adric said. And pet safety is an area that has long been neglected, he added, partly because there are no regulations in place for products like dog car harnesses.

He believes The Dog Seat could be a winner — if he can prove it can help people's four-legged friends survive crashes.