Sometimes our readers are our best guide as to how well the DogCar reviewers are doing at figuring out what works and what doesn’t for dedicated dog lovers.

Recently we received the following note from Kari, who said she utilized the DogCars.com reviews to help guide her to purchase the perfect vehicle for traveling with her crew:

I wanted to let you know that I just purchased my first ever, brand new car!!

As an owner of three large breed rescued mutts and a foster mom as well as humane investigator for my local animal shelter I really appreciated the advice and direction your web site gave me in researching this purchase.

I did my first transport today in my new Dodge Grand Caravan SE and it was awesome!!! It was so nice NOT to have to lift or help up the dog into the car like I had to with my old Jeep Cherokee. I love my minivan!!

It was 89 degrees out today and we had to go about 50 miles each way and with the rear vents I was very happy to know that I could keep the dog cool and not have to freeze myself out of the front seat trying to get air back to him.

Kari went on to say that the fact that the Grand Caravan’s second row windows roll down was a huge selling point for her because her pups love being able feel the breeze coming in through the big windows.

Click here to read the full DogCars.com review of the Dodge Grand Caravan.

As your beloved pup starts to grow older, his bones and muscles may start to show signs of wear after years of youthful activity. But that lack of mobility doesn’t deter his desire to hit the road for fun and games with the rest of the crew.

But the combination of a large down and a high-rise vehicle can create a quandary for dog lovers who don’t have the strength or back muscles (after all, we’re getting older too) to handle the daily heavy lifting necessary to get your dog into the car.

That’s why DogCars.com product review expert Kim Campbell-Thornton took a look at a special, Tri-Fold Pet Auto Ramp by Jeep. The lightweight ramp is easy to transport and set up, plus it has a surface rough enough to provide traction for a dog’s paws.

Read her review and paw rating here.
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Another product Kim was impressed with is a special organic solution that is designed to settle your pup’s stomach on long car rides. She tested the Ease the Quease by Kathy Santo on all three of her dogs and came away pleasantly surprised.

Here’s Kim’s report.
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Cool news and free stuff: If you haven’t signed up for our PetConnection.com e-mail newsletter, now is a good time to do so. The August edition is coming up and being a subscriber will automatically make you eligible for our monthly giveaway of $1,000 in pet-care gear. This month’s prize pack is filled with awesome goodies supplied by Petmate.

In our ongoing series of summertime travel with your pup, DogCars came across a helpful piece in the Indianapolis Star that offers some tips to taking your dog on a boat for the first time.

Robert Keene Sr. of Berkeley, N.J., is a vice commander and public education officer of a U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary flotilla, who often takes Annabelle, his 12-pound King Charles Cavalier and Shih Tzu mix, on board when he heads to sea.

“The No. 1 rule is to get a dog a life jacket that fits,” he says. “All your dog stores and boating shops have them.”

Even with a life jacket, you should make sure your dog is a good swimmer by taking them into a pond or pool for a little shallow water training. Then graduate your pup into a small boat to get her used to the water motion from inside the boat. Finally, introduce her to a full-size boat by allowing her to stand on the dock while the boat’s engine is running.

“Let him walk on and off the boat from the dock. Let him stay in the boat a little and get used to the motion,” Keene says. “Then, take him out on short trips first.”

If your dog slips or falls overboard, shut off the motor completely so you don’t endanger him with the motor’s propeller. Then use a boat hook to bring her back on board safely.

Read the complete story here.

Here’s wishing you safe and happy travels this summer.

We talk a lot about finding the right DogCar to shephard you and your crew on road trips, but the question remains: Once you get to where you are going, now what do you do?

Unless you are staying with a dog-loving friend, you will need to find lodging that welcomes your four-legged family members. Many hotels do allow pets — you can find their listings on several websites such as PetsWelcome.com and DogFriendly.com — so that’s an encouraging start to your trip.

But what about hotels that not only allow pets, but actually welcome them with open arms? Many hotels, including upscale ones like the Loews Hotel Chains and the W Hotels, offer extra puppy pampering to their special guests.

Now PetSide.com has come out with its Top 5 Pet-Friendly hotels in the entire nation, and rate them (by number of dog tags) according to the pet-pampering amenities each hotel has to offer.

Some of the packages include:

• Plush dog beds
• Special doggie meal menus
• Pet sitting and walking services
• and even in-room training by an award-winning animal behaviorist.

So pack up the pup in your designated DogCar and prepare to have her pampered at some of the finest facilities in the nation.

And don’t forget to check out Dr. Marty Becker’s summertime pet travel tips offered on Good Morning America’s GMA NOW.

The Ford Explorer pulled up in front of the Suncadia Hotel in Cle Elum, Wash., and the family began to pour out of the sport utility vehicle. First it was mom, then two pre-teen children carrying tennis rackets and big bouncy ball.

Finally, the tailgatge was opened and out of a flexible, nylon travel crate hopped a beautiful golden retriever with a coat so shiny she nearly glowed in the mid-day sun. She was clearly happy to be free of her crated confines, and ready to run and enjoy some vacation time with her family.

As the quintessential SUV for American families, the Explorer is big enough to handle for kids, canines and all their gear (in this case a full-size crate, bicycles and lots of luggage, yet small enough be easy to maneuver through traffic and crowded parking lots.

That’s precisely the reason that Kia, the Korean automaker with mainstream American aspirations, was spending this week introducing a brand new, mid-size sport utility vehicle to the U.S. auto media. The Kia Borrego goes on sale to the American public at the end of July.

Why would anyone in their right mind introduce an SUV into a market where other automakers, including General Motors, are cutting production of the same such vehicles and laying off workers?

Because Kia believes that as long as there are families with kids, dogs and cargo, there wil be a need for vehicles with enough size to carry them all on a summer vacation. And there will be a desire to do so with all the nice accessories we’ve come to enjoy, such as navigation systems, surround sound and heated seats.

Kia says that the Borrego, which will be offered in V-6 and V-8 versions — yet still will get fuel mileage of up to 22 mpg — is such a vehicle. And with a price tag starting at under $27,000, they may be right.

The Borrego’s third row of seats fold completely flat, while the second row goes down 95 percent flat. There is plenty of air ventilation — 16 vents overall — and it is available in two or four-wheel-drive models.

So the Borrego has great potential as a DogCar. In fact, the presentation to the media contains at least two photos with dogs in them. Will it make an impact in the crowded, perhaps shrinking SUV market?

Stay tuned.

Sometimes it’s the little things that turn one off (or on) about a prospective DogCar.

We know that a good DogCar must have room for our dogs (of course), preferably traveling in their crates or safety harnesses. It should also have easy access through doors that aren’t too high for our aging and arthritic pups; some off-road capability for training and exploration purposes; and seats that fold flat or are easily removable.

It’s that last criteria that has me a bit befuddled about the new, GMC Yukon Hybrid.

As a large sport utility vehicle, one would think that the Yukon would have lots of potential space for multiple dogs and their gear. After all, we’ve seen great amounts of space in much smaller vehicles, so the arrival of this big brute for testing purposes was eagerly anticipated.

Plus, as a hybrid, we could expect to save serious gas cash because of its ability to achieve much better mileage than the conventional version.

But I soon discovered that the rear seats of the Yukon Hybrid don’t fold flat into the floor, like many other SUVs and minivans. In fact, the second row of seats flip forward to open up access to the rear cargo area.

To optimize all your space for crates in the Yukon, you will need to physically remove the third row seats and store them elsewhere. This process means unlatching the seats from the floor, flipping them forward, and then lifting their 40 or so pounds out of the tailgate. I’m no weakling, but I found this process rather arduous and strenuous nonetheless.

And when I tried to put the seats back into their latched positions, I was stumped. I tried and tried to manhandle the heavy seats into their respective floor rails and get them to line up with their latches, but nothing seemed to work. Even the owner’s manual wasn’t much help.

Fortunately, the good folks who deliver and retrieve the test vehicles were able to rescue me from my madness. I don’t know exactly what they did, but in no time, the seats were snapped back in place, safe and secure.

Needless to say, despite the decent fuel mileage (20 mpg average) for an SUV, and the overall size and utility ability of the Yukon, I came away feeling like this vehicle falls a bit short for us dog lovers.

A more detailed review of the Yukon coming here soon.

Summertime is travel time for just about everyone and some studies have found that 7 out of 10 Americans plan to take their pets with them on vacation this summer.

But hitting the road with a pet can be quite challenging if you are not properly prepared to provide for your pup along the way.

Fortunately, Dr. Marty Becker, ABC Good Morning America’s resident veterinarian and DogCars.com’s veterinary advisor, is an expert on pet travel concerns and knows what it takes to overcome the challenges of journeying with our four-legged family members.

Here’s Dr. Becker on Good Morning America’s GMA NOW, a part of ABC’s all digital network that goes to cable TV, PDAs, computers and the like. He offers some enlightening tips and products that are certain to help ease the issues of pet travel.

Some of the questions answered by Dr. Becker on the segment include:

• Do dogs get sunburned?
• How do you keep tiny critters out of your pet’s fur while traveling from place to place?
• Is there a way to avoid motion sickness without causing drowsiness?
• How do you keep your pet secured at sudden stops?

As usual, Dr. Becker has the scoop in his piece on GMA NOW.

A recent DogCars test drive of the 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe produced some surprising smiles — along with wagging tails — from our DogCar crew.

The Santa Fe is a mid-size sport utility vehicle — also called a crossover — that manages to have sporty styling without seriously reducing the interior cargo space for crates and other dog-friendly gear.

Lead DogCars reviewer Gina Spadafori was especially impressed with the amount of stuff she could fit into the compact Santa Fe:

I love it. I have hauled a few hundred pounds of chicken feed, plus a lot of dog gear, plus dogs and crates with no problem. The one we have is super-loaded for a very competitive price and decent mpg.

In the cute ute scale, I would put it FAR above the (Honda) CRV, on par with the (Toyota) RAV4, but a better value and roomier.

The Santa Fe’s second row seats fold nearly fully flat and the rear hatch opens wide for easy crate and cargo carrying capability.

About the only downside I could find with the current model Santa Fe was that the V-6 engine was a little too much motor for my needs, averaging just 18 mpg in the city and 24 mpg on the highway. With gas prices rocketing out of sight, I’d rather give up a few unnecessary horses under the hood for some extra miles to the tank.

So it was a pleasant surprise to see today’s story by Kathy Jackson in Automotive News announcing that Hyundai is planning to add a four cylinder model to the Santa Fe’s lineup in 2010.

This news means that the next generation Santa Fe may garner mileage of near 30 mpg in highway driving, which will be a welcome relief to those of us who want to carry our crates and cargo while saving some substantial cash for more important things than gas — like another bag of chicken feed.

Look for a complete DogCars review here soon.

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Speaking of Hyundai — which rhymes with “Sunday” — the Korean auto manufacturer is quietly gaining in popularity and status throughout the automotive world. Having just completed an ambitious roll-out of seven new vehicles in 24 months, Hyundai is embarking on another 7/24 campaign as it continues to bring new vehicles to the U.S. market.

The most recent to arrive is a luxury sedan called the Genesis that won’t qualify as a DogCar, but will go head-to-head with the high-end sedans from Lexus and Infiniti, yet priced thousands less than those popular brands.

Happy Fourth of July! Our DogCars.com bloggers are taking the three-day weekend off to do … whatever the heck we want to do. We’ll be back Monday with a new post, although we’ll be checking in on the comments now and then over the weekend to thwart the spammers.

If you haven’t signed up for our PetConnection.com e-mail newsletter, don’t forget to do so. The July edition is going out on Tuesday, and being a subscriber will automatically make you eligible for our monthly giveaway of $1,000 in pet-care gear. This month, the cool stuff is all coming from Petmate.

It only took about five minutes Monday for me to see someone breaking the law.

I live in California, where the new, hands-free cell phone law went into effect Monday. And wouldn’t you know it, as soon as I hit the freeway, I spotted a criminal. There she was, driving along happy as a clam, chatting away on her pink cell phone like everything was fine.

It didn’t look like she was in distress, or in an emergency (the law says it’s OK to hold your phone in an emergency), so I can only assume that this woman was a criminal. The news about the hands-free law has been everywhere: on the TV news, car radio, in newspapers and even posted on those highway signs typically reserved for traffic issues or missing children.

So there’s no way she could have missed  the new law, right?

Then I started to see other lawbreakers here and there. Many drivers were talking on their cell phones. Admittedly, not as many as I used to see on the roads, but still it appeared that quite a few people were breaking the law.

Why is this law not being strictly followed by everyone? I’ve got a couple of possible answers:

1) The wireless ear piece is broken, or forgotten, or lost under the seat along with a dozen stale French fries, two sticky cough drops and some loose change.

3) Can’t afford an ear piece.

4) The dog ate it.

5) I forgot.

OK, so that’s more than a couple of reasons. Truth is, there are many reasons why someone would fail to comply with this new law. That’s one of the curious things about the law — it sets up a scenario where many people will be stopped and possibly issued a ticket for doing something that until now has been a non-issue.

One day it’s OK, the next it’s a crime.

I’m not saying that I disagree with the law. I think it’s fine. Hopefully we’ll begin to see a reduction in accidents that are directly caused by a driver holding a cell phone with one hand and the steering wheel, shifting gears, drinking coffee, putting on makeup or whatever with the other hand.

But we can lump it into the other self-protection laws in place like buckling up ourselves and our kids, taking our pups off our laps, wearing a helmet while riding a motorcycle, and now, by all means, keeping our hands away from the phone.

I just hope nobody gets confused about the new law and thinks that it really means you must do hands-free driving. That could get ugly!