Leash the dog before you open any door. Then follow AAA’s pull-over steps: if you can get the car clear of traffic, staying inside is the safest place to wait, and if you cannot, get out on the side away from the road and move well clear, with the dog on a short leash. Do not leave the dog in a stopped car on a warm day while you handle the tow.
This page covers securing the dog before you open a door, the heat of a stopped car, the leashed-shoulder protocol, and what roadside assistance publishes about pets, which is little.
If your dog has already gotten loose near traffic, skip to If your dog gets loose now. Don’t chase.
Before you touch the door handle: get the leash on
The most important step happens before you open a door, and it has nothing to do with the car.
A dog that is calm on a normal drive can act differently once hazard lights click, traffic noise builds, or you stop somewhere unfamiliar. This part is our reasoning, not AAA’s: a startled dog can dart through a gap the moment a door opens, and a dog loose near a highway is a second emergency on top of the first.
If your dog wears a harness with the leash already clipped, or you can reach the leash without digging through a bag, that habit is the difference between a controlled stop and a loose dog on the highway. A crate or car harness helps too: a dog already contained cannot bolt the instant a door cracks open, which buys you seconds to get a hand on the leash. The same door-first rule governs a much worse version of this stop, a collision, where the dog may also be injured and a bite risk. Our guide to a car accident with your pet in the car covers that order: your safety and 911 first, then containment, then handling.
Pulling onto the shoulder with a dog aboard
The driving part does not change because there is a dog in the car. AAA’s general breakdown guidance is the baseline:
- Signal, slow down gradually, and pull onto the shoulder avoiding sudden maneuvers.
- On most roads, pull onto the far-right shoulder, as far off the road as possible while remaining on level ground. On an interstate or multiple-lane highway with medians, AAA says you may consider the left shoulder, again as far from traffic as possible.
- Turn on your emergency flashers, especially at night or in bad weather.
- Note your exact location: mile marker, last exit number, or nearest rest area.
- If you exit the vehicle, never stand behind or directly in front of it.
What changes with a dog is what happens once the car has stopped.
Should you stay in the car?
AAA says that under most circumstances, if you are able to pull away from traffic, it is safest to remain in your vehicle until a law enforcement officer or road service provider arrives. The reasoning that a leashed, seatbelt-secured dog is safer inside than standing on a narrow shoulder is ours. If you are off the travel lanes on a stable, wide shoulder, staying put with flashers on and calling for help from inside is usually the better call.
That changes if you cannot get the car far enough off the road, or you think it may be struck from behind. AAA’s instruction then is to get out and move away from the road to a safer location. That is when the leashed-exit protocol below applies, dog included.
Winter changes the picture. In a whiteout, the danger shifts from heat to cold and to carbon monoxide backing up through a snow-packed exhaust pipe if you run the engine. Our guide to being stranded in a blizzard with your dog covers that engine-running protocol.
The heat problem
Staying in the car protects you from traffic. It does not stop the car from heating once the engine, and the AC with it, is off.
AVMA’s table, which it says draws on research about vehicle safety for children, shows how far a parked car’s interior temperature rises with time. AVMA says the rise is basically the same whether it is 70 or 110 degrees outside, and that cracking the windows makes no difference:
| Time elapsed |
Interior temperature rise |
| 10 minutes |
19°F |
| 20 minutes |
29°F |
| 30 minutes |
34°F |
| 60 minutes |
43°F |
AVMA says that at one hour the interior can be more than 40 degrees higher than the outside temperature, so even on a 70-degree day that is more than 110 degrees inside. A breakdown with the engine off is functionally the same heat trap as a parked car with the keys pocketed, except you are sitting right there.
If you are waiting on a warm day, get the dog into real shade the moment it is available, and keep a bowl and a jug of water within reach rather than packed in the trunk. A reflective windshield shade may slow the heating, but no source here says by how much. Never leave the dog inside while you step away. Our heat wave and hot cars guide has the fuller sourced detail and cooling gear.
A breakdown on the shoulder is a one-vehicle version of a problem that gets harder at scale: a car stopped because thousands of others around it are also stopped in a mass evacuation. Our stuck in evacuation traffic guide covers that version, including fuel arithmetic for a wait that can run into hours.
If you must exit: the leashed shoulder protocol
If staying in the car is not safe, AAA says to exit through the side facing away from the road and move well away from oncoming traffic and your vehicle. AAA gives no distance. A dog on a standard 6-foot leash standing right next to you is not clear of the vehicle, and neither are you, unless you deliberately walk farther than feels necessary.
A workable version of AAA’s guidance with a dog:
- Leash on before any door opens, even in a hurry.
- Exit from the side away from traffic, dog included, never toward oncoming lanes.
- Walk well clear of the vehicle and roadway, not just a few steps. The distance that feels sufficient for you is the distance the dog needs too.
- Keep the leash short. Our suggestion is a 2-3 foot working length rather than the full 6 feet, for control if a passing truck startles the dog.
- Don’t let the dog investigate the road or shoulder debris. Staying still and waiting is the whole job.
What to tell roadside assistance or the tow truck about your dog
AAA’s roadside assistance rules page covers vehicle eligibility, coverage limits and service conditions. It does not mention pets or animals. Its breakdown guidance tells you to make sure the service provider knows about circumstances that may require special towing or transport considerations, and gives examples such as a large number of passengers, infants and special medical needs. Dogs are not among its examples. Neither AAA page says whether your dog can ride in the tow truck cab.
What that means in practice:
- Call ahead when you request the tow and ask directly whether pets are allowed in the cab. Don’t assume either way.
- Don’t plan on the dog riding in the towed car. AAA says you may ride with the service provider, but not in your disabled vehicle.
- Have a backup plan: a friend who can pick up you and the dog, or somewhere safe off the shoulder to wait rather than counting on the tow truck.
Service animals are a different category. The ADA National Network’s transportation fact sheet says service animals may accompany people with disabilities in transit vehicles and facilities, and that private taxi services cannot refuse service to people who use service animals. It does not name tow trucks, so we cannot say the rule covers them. It does not extend to pets that are not trained service animals.
If your dog gets loose
If a leash slips, a door opens wrong, or a dog panics hard enough to break free near a highway, the instinct to run after it is strong. Don’t.
Lost Dogs of America, in its guidance for dogs lost from car accidents, says: never call, chase, whistle, pressure or pursue a scared lost dog. Doing so risks chasing the dog away from the area and possibly into traffic. It says dogs lost this way do not usually venture far: they may bolt at first, then hide, and may creep back to the crash location, often the first night. That guidance is written for crashes; applying it to a breakdown is our extension.
If you spot the dog:
- Sit, face away, and avoid eye contact. Lost Dogs of America says to sit on the ground facing away, toss a few tasty treats behind you, speak softly or not at all, and be patient. Most people give up too soon, stand, and chase the dog away. Do this only where you are well clear of traffic; that caution is ours, not theirs.
- Leave scented items (the dog’s bed, toys, a worn shirt) near the site but well away from the road, along with food and water, as Lost Dogs of America advises. If the dog does not approach and you have to leave, it says to put a few treats on the ground and go without looking at the dog.
- Report it. This one is our suggestion, not Lost Dogs of America’s: tell the local police non-emergency line and nearby shelters so anyone who sees a loose dog on the roadside knows to report it.
Current ID matters most here. A tag with a working phone number, or a microchip registered to current contact info, helps anyone who finds the dog reach you. Our pet emergency wallet card and pet travel document organizer tools cover that gap before you need it.
Night visibility: being seen matters as much as being careful
A breakdown at dusk or after dark adds a question the daytime advice does not cover: whether other drivers can see you and the dog near the shoulder.
NHTSA’s pedestrian-safety guide says 77% of pedestrian fatalities occur in the dark (citing NCSA, 2023), and that pedestrians wearing retroreflective material, especially on moving parts of the body, can be detected hundreds of feet farther than pedestrians in normal clothing, even with low-beam headlights. NHTSA also notes that no studies have linked visibility aids to fewer crashes, and that conspicuity is unlikely to overcome risky behavior such as driver distraction.
None of this research is about dogs, and we won’t pretend it is. But a dark-colored dog at knee height near a guardrail at night is plausibly harder to spot than a person. A reflective or hi-vis item on the dog, paired with your own flashers and warning triangles if you carry them, addresses a sourced visibility gap without promising a result.
Build a breakdown kit that lives in the car
The gear that helps is not exotic. It is the gear still in the car three months from now.
- A leash dedicated to the car, clipped somewhere accessible like the glovebox or door pocket, not buried in a bag.
- A collapsible bowl plus a jug of actual water, stored separately. The bowl solves how you offer water; a jug solves whether you have enough.
- A reflective or hi-vis item sized to the dog, for breakdowns at dusk or after dark.
- A reflective windshield shade, which will not make a parked car safe on its own.
- Copies of ID and vaccination records that don’t depend on a phone with signal.
None of this needs a separate go-bag. If you are building a broader kit, our pet evacuation kits guide has the fuller checklist; this is the subset that earns a permanent spot in the car.