Kyjen Outward Hound Back Seat Hammock

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List Price: $32.99
Sale Price: $17.96
Today's Bonus: 46% Off

I purchased this to try to provide some protection to the rear seats on a new car. These seats are of the leather variety and my wife and I did not want our dog (a 45 lb wheaten terrier) to ruin the new seats... since our dog is of the non-shedding variety, hair/fur was not a concern.

The seat cover shows up in a cardboard box with no instructions, and installation is pretty straight forward. There are adjustable straps with buckle releases for the front and rear seat headrests, and there are a couple of elastic captured "pucks" that are supposed to make the seat cover slip around less. I also discovered that if you wanted to further increase the stability of this cover you can slip those elastic straps through rear seat belts.

So how did I like this product? I did not like it at all, and neither did my dog. I will attempt to explain.

As I mentioned, my car has leather seats and this cover is VERY slick and only offers a few points to anchor it in. The result was that it made my dog uncomfortable (probably because he was scooting around trying to get comfortable) and he quickly managed to get part of the seat cover lifted up and overlapped, rendering it useless.

This is probably less of a problem/concern on cars with cloth seats and perhaps seat size is a factor here too.

Another issue that I had was that although this cover has Velcro straps to unwind part of the seat (for a passenger that is sitting in the other half of the seat than the pet for example) there's no easy way to quickly run a seat belt on the outside of the cover.. which means latching your pet in could be a little more difficult.

In any event, I see that the previous version of this protector got rave reviews, but I simply can't recommend it. The manufacturer of my vehicle makes a similar protector available as an OEM part, which is made of a thick felt and is cut to fit the vehicle precisely, I might have more success with that.... it is however MUCH more expensive.

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Was all right for a while but we washed it and all the backing began coming off. It leaves little black plastic pieces all over the seat. Just as much trouble is clean up of pet hair. If you get this do not wash it.

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The basics: my dog is a little under 50 lbs, VERY active when she is first in the car, and thinks it's her job to guard the car from the front seat when I leave. Car: Subaru Forester.

I replaced a more expensive, heavier canvas hammock (Kurgo) with this one. I am much happier. First, this covers almost all of the back bench...a little longer would make it so I don't have to pull the material towards the side of the seat before the dog jumps in.

The clips are VERY easy to use; you don't have to take off the headrests to set it up. So I can finally have people sitting comfortably in the back seat when the dog isn't around without all the work the old one required. The old one said you could unzip a side to have someone sit on the seat, but that zipper broke right away.

I learned from experience not to open the velcro for the seat belts; once the fur gets on them, they can't close again, and dirt won't be contained. (Pet safety critics: My dog will NOT accept a seat belt. Long trips, she goes into a crate in the back for safety.)

The material seems lightweight, but still contains the occasional accident without a problem, and hasn't been in the least affected by my dog's nails. It does seem a little cool now that winter is here, so I'll be adding a flannel throw for her.

It's definitely not high enough or stiff enough to prevent the dog from hopping into the front seat when I leave; but it is "hammock" enough to keep her from falling onto the car bottom and to encourage her to lie down.

All this, at what at least WAS a reasonable price when I bought it!

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I ordered the outward hound hammock to protect my 2012 Ford F-150 supercab . The hammock fit my truck's back seat pretty well, except that I wish it was a few inches longer on each end to fully cover the corner of the seat. Obviously I can't fault the product for this, as I knew it might be slightly short for my full size pickup. It works well for the supercab (extended cab) but I think it would be too small for any crew cab pickup. I have an 83lb pit bull/boxer mix who usually rides pretty contently. He doesn't thrash around much, he just kind of sits there like my co pilot. He's been to a half dozen rides with me since I installed the hammock and the hammock has held up well. There have been no failures in any of the straps, buckles or mounts and there are no signs of tears. This includes a trip to camp in which my dog got very wet and sandy on one occasion. The sand just brushed right off the hammock. Overall I'd say this is an excellent product. It installed easily, cleans easily and it does an excellent job of protecting my dog and my truck. I'd recommend this product to anyone. The price was right too. I haven't tried any of the other hammocks on the market but I can't see how spending 3-4x as much would yield a better product. Outward hound is. the way to go.

UPDATE 9-7-2013:

After about 2 months of regular use, I'm happy to report that the pet hammock is still going strong with no failures of any kind. It has since migrated from my '12 F150 supercab to my fiance's 2011 Mazda 3, as the Mazda has become the primary dog hauler. The hammock fits the Mazda 3 perfectly an provides full coverage of the seats while keeping our dog safe and content in the back. On on occasion he was able to jump his front half over the hammock but that was because he saw a crow in the road (he hates crows) and he spazzed out. He's not normally that rammy and the hammock has worked great. I can see though, if you had a very active spastic dog, you might want to put some additional provision in place to keep him/her contained in the back seat. This is an excellent product and has paid for itself many times over in upholstery cleaner. Buy this product

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I love the idea of the hammock since my dog is a white dog in a black car and sheds like no other, but they advertise it as being "safer" than not using a hammock at all, but I've found the opposite to be true. It is extremely slippery for my dog. Even when I tap on the breaks he goes flying!

Other than that, I love the hammock, it helps keep my back seat dog hair free and is easy to install, and clean. They recommend dry cleaning, but I throw it in the washer and then let it air dry and it holds up nicely. It is made out of very thick strong material and it is excellent quality.