The 9 Best Back Seat Covers For Dogs

It’s not too often that a product marketed as “premium” actually lives up to the hype, but in this case the Plush Paws Products back seat cover for pets is definitely the best of the products we tested. The Plush Paws cover has all the features you’ll need for keeping your back seats clean and comfy for your pooch. Unlike others we tested, the Plush Paws cover has a thick layer of chemical-free padding sandwiched between two layers of waterproof 600D Oxford polyester. The fourth bottom layer is made of silicone and guarantees the cover won’t slip when your dog is jumping in and out of the car. Compared to the other back seat covers we tested, Plush Paws lives up to its name and feels soft and cushy.

Installation couldn’t be easier. The two anchors fit snugly between seat cushions, the head rest straps adjust easily, and two rubber straps fit underneath the ends of each side of the back seat, which holds the cover in place and keeps it neat and tidy. The Plush Paws cover also has some nice “pleather” detailing where the straps are sewn into the cover. It has four Velcro slots for inserting seat belts, and two sturdy harnesses — included — that snap into the seat belt buckle for keeping your dog(s) safe and secure. The Plush Paws is a bit more expensive than the other covers we tested, but this is a quality product, and we think it’s worth it.

The iBuddy Dog Car Seat isn’t quite the high-grade product as Plush Paws, but it’s a very good alternative that’s about $15 cheaper. It’s made from the same waterproof 600D Oxford polyester material with thick padding, but instead of a silicone no-slip bottom, it has a PVC webbing that also keeps the cover secure on your car’s leather seat. The iBuddy’s seat anchors aren’t as substantial — you can squeeze them like a rubber toy — but they slip into the seat cushion easily and hold tight. The iBuddy’s head rest straps are sewn securely and easy to adjust.

Installing the iBuddy takes about two minutes, and one of the features we loved is the option to fold the cover sides down to fit the seat or pull the sides up with the included extra belts, creating a sling, which adds protection from Fido’s claws scratching the door panels. If you decide to use the cover as a sling, there’s a mesh divider between the driver’s side and passenger’s side, which keeps air flowing and allows you and your dog to see each other. The iBuddy also has two sizable pockets on the driver’s side for a water bottle or a favorite chew toy.

The Vailge Dog Seat Cover is almost identical to the iBuddy but about $10 more expensive. Its construction allows for using the cover in different ways: as a bench-style cover in which the front flaps are lowered and not attached to driver and passenger headrests, a hammock with front and back flaps attached to headrests and side flaps are tucked down, and a sling in which the sides are attached to the passenger handrails with the included straps. This third option protects car doors, but it does limit your dog’s ability to move (and it looks like you’ve put your dog into a shopping basket).

Like iBuddy, the Vailge has the mesh window for airflow and two pockets on the driver’s side for a leash or balls. An interesting distinction is Vailge’s waterproof layer is made of TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane), a breathable nylon with high tear strength that’s also antibacterial. All clips and buckles are made of plastic, which we found difficult to release. A seat belt buckle that attaches to your dog’s harness is included, but it’s quite short, and for a large dog, we feel it would be too confining.

The 4KNines back seat cover is one of the more expensive products we tested, but it’s exceptionally well made. Its most stand-out feature is that it’s 100% waterproof, thanks to its specially treated bottom layer — called KNine Shield (the company’s proprietary formulation) — that’s stitched along the entire bottom side. This is not the case with many of the other seat covers we tested, which have a thin polyurethane webbing that’s sewn only around the edges.

The 4KNines is made of the same 600D heavy-duty polyester as the other products, but to the touch, it feels to be a higher grade. It’s also thickly quilted, so your dog can lounge in comfort. We’ve read many complaints about the headrest straps of cheaply made back seat covers that they are not UV-resistant and after a few months, they fray and even disintegrate.Read more…

But the 4KNine straps are made of thick polyester that have been treated with a laminate to protect them from sun damage and excessive heat. The buckles are made of nylon — not plastic — and snap shut securely but release easily. Overall, even though the 4KNines is a quality product, it’s very similar to other back seat covers, and a bit pricey for what it is.

Not only is the Kurgo Wander Dog Half Hammock ridiculously over-priced, we can confidently state that the installation of this product is truly insane. After spending 40 minutes attempting to decode the included printed instructions for installation, we went to Kurgo’s website and found a more helpful video. But then we spent another 30 minutes following the video before we finished.

Once installed, the Kurgo half hammock didn’t fit as instructed, until we adjusted it with the “optional” (as the video calls them) features, which include a bungee cord to attach the bottom of the hammock to the bottom of the seat, the rubber strap for the top of the seat, and anchoring the hammock with the PVC anchor. (An essential — not optional — feature that all car seat covers have.)Read more…

The idea behind the half hammock is that a child could sit in the back seat while the dog is in the hammock. The hammock, though, takes up so much space with all of its straps, a child might find it confining, certainly for a long drive. Another odd add-on is a large pocket, presumably for a leash or toy, but it’s situated underneath where the dog sits, so it’s actually unusable.

On the plus side, the Kurgo Half Hammock is well made with a heavy-duty and attractive polyester exterior that’s been lined with PVC (polyvinyl chloride) that protects the seat fabric or leather. Still, at $70, we don’t think this Kurgo product is worth the hassle of the overly complex installation.

BarksBar is a no-frills back seat cover that’s a slight step above the last products on our list. Made of polyester with a non-slip rubber webbing, it’s simple to install by clicking the plastic buckles around the front and back headrests. The BarksBar cover has two flimsy side flaps that tuck down on either side of the back seat, but it has no flap to protect car doors.

Despite the company’s claim that it has silk padding, whatever it’s actually made of is very thin. The cover anchors well, and although we found some complaints that the cover doesn’t lie flat, during our testing, it didn’t move or buckle when our dogs jumped into the car. Buckles and straps are made of plastic, so it’s unlikely that the BarksBar cover will last in the long run, especially when exposed to excessive heat and sun.

You would be hard-pressed to find the four layers of fabric that the URPOWER back seat cover is supposed to have. We could find no indication of padding: just a polyester top and PVC bottom. So that bit of false advertising aside, the URPOWER is pretty much identical to BarkBays; it’s a hammock-style cover with side flaps that fold down, so it forms a bench.

The URPOWER has a large pocket on the driver’s side trimmed with fluorescent orange piping, which matches the pleather decoration where the straps are stitched. Like BarkBay, the URPOWER’s buckles and straps are made of plastic, and long-term durability is questionable. The URPOWER installs easily and lays flat, so it does the job, but with less comfort for your dog. Also included are two seat-belt buckles for attaching your dog to his/her harness.

As we were researching which back seat covers to test, we understood that the basic design would be the same and so looked for products that stood out in some way. The Honest Dog back seat cover definitely does not deliver how it’s marketed on Amazon. We knew it would be a bench-style cover, but it’s supposed to have four layers of padding, rubber straps to secure the cover to the bottom of the seat, and, as with all the others, a non-slip bottom.

The Honest Dog seat cover has none of those features. It’s made of a piece of heavy-duty polyester with tiny PVC dots on the reverse side, which do nothing in keeping the cover from sliding. Instead of rubber straps, you get four pieces (two on each side) of what appears to be polyester ribbon that you use to tie the front and side panels together. The only thing honest about the Honest Dog seat cover is that it’s cheaply made, and you should pass this one by.

For $10 more, you can buy the even worse Active Pets back seat cover. It’s made of a single piece of polyester with no non-slip bottom layer (that resembles the inside of a rain coat), so an active dog jumping in and out of the car will bunch up the cover every time. It has four plastic buckles and straps so it can be set up hammock-style, or the front piece can be draped down for a bench-style cover. But there are no straps to fit the cover on the top or bottom of the back seat, so the Active Pets just flops around and offers minimal protection to the seat. To call this seat cover “bare bones” is generous; don’t waste your money.