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My dog weighs 65 lbs. and we drive a Nissan Versa. If we take her, she sits in the back next to the car seat. Some will say that it isn't safe, but she just lays there and we are looking for a harness for her. Our stuff goes in the cargo area.

Our dog is 45 pounds and honestly he is only semi well behaved in the car (he prefers to stand in the back seat and look out the front.) We drive a sedan and so far he does great with our baby in the back. He has plenty of room to stand or lie down. We have also driven him in a Ford edge and go goes in the cargo space without issue. When he is in the back seat we use one of those doggy harness things for him unless it's a short short trip. I can't say he loves it but it works well. We haven't restrained him at all in the SUV but he isn't in it often or for long trips. I think our next car will be an SUV and the thought is that we will put him in the back and bungee cord a few larger things on one side in a pile so he essentially gets half of the cargo space. The rest will go in the seating area under car seats, on the floor.

We drove 6 hours to Florida in my Hyundai sedan with LO in the carseat and 2 big dogs in the back with him. My Lab slept the entire way with his head on LO's feet . Both dogs are older and they just lay there and sleep. They were cramped, but it worked!

Our dog is small, but we put him in the backseat with LO. He lays on his little canopy/seat protector thing and LO hangs out next to him. We have too much stuff in the trunk to put him back there!

We don't have any kids yet, so feel free to ignore my response, but I have two dogs (25 lb cocker spaniel & 49 lb shar pei) and I have a CR-V. If we get pregnant through IVF with a singleton or multiples, we are hoping our CR-V is still big enough. As for the storage issue, we will probably keep one dog in the back seat with me and have the other dog sit shot-gun with my DH.
Then use space in the back for stuff. If we are blessed with twins, that's when I'm starting to worry about traveling with 2 dogs. Our smaller dog can sit up front (like he likes to do) but our larger dog will have to sit up front or in the back back. As for space, I've heard that I can use the roof-top storage carriers. If we have twins, I'm hoping that it would work for a little while because I really don't want to give up my CRV. The other thing is maybe our dreams of traveling with twins and both dogs will be a pipe dream and won't actually happen.

Also, another suggestion is to get an SUV with a hitch and you can have a hitch mounted storage system. (Probably slightly easier because I'm short and it will be nearly impossible for me to load anything into the roof carrier. My CRV doesn't have an hitch so if we go that route, I would have to get a hitch.

Oh, another alternative, would be to use my DH's tacoma truck. He has a full size cab so that would fit us, the LOs and the dogs and we can load everything else in truck bed. I am trying to get DH to get a bed cover so it will be dry storage.

@Synchronicity: Ah, cool! We can think of all the what-if's together... pre-baby! Haha!

I'm the human tetris and organizer when we do road trips, but if we do the roof top storage, it will definitely have to be his job because I'm short.

Yeah, I want DH to get a tonneau for his truck bed.

We have a midsized SUV and the dogs go in the back. Once baby gets here we are going to get a roof rack. We both have waterproof North Face duffels that we can strap to the top of the car. We also have a tow hitch we could add a box too, but M likes to bring his roadbike wherever we go when the weather is good.

We have a family beach house that does not have a washer/dryer so we take down all of our linens, and bring clean stuff back to the house, that with food and our work stuff for a long weekend already fills the car to the brim. We could croud the dogs a little bit more but I'm not really excited about that.

We have a 45lb retriever and a Honda Pilot that we use for travelling. Typically for family trips, we would put down the 3rd row of seats, pack half of that back area full, and let the dog lie down on the other half. We also would usually end up putting a fair amount of stuff in the backseat either next to LOs car seat on one side or on the floor behind the front seats.

Now that we have a second LO, it will definitely be tighter. We'll either need to pack light (when possible) and/or get a rooftop carrier, I think.

@erind425: Roof storage for the dog?! I never thought of that!!! JK.

@Synchronicity: @.twist.: Yes he did!

@erind425: @PawPrints: Nooooooo. LOL. That is so.... weird. wtf. lol!!!!

We have s 140 pound Newfoundland dog and 2 LOs, we put the dog in the cargo area, and have a rooftop cargo box for our luggage/stroller etc. any delicate/valuable stuff (cameras etc) goes in the back seat between the kids. One piece of advice - invest in the biggest carrier you can fit on your vehicle! I swear those things shrink over time

We have 2 dogs (30 and 45 lbs) and they ride in the cargo area of our CRV. We have a heavy duty plastic mat thingy and then a few dog blankets on top. They're quite cozy! And then LO in the back in her car seat. We also have a roof top carrier should we need room for even more gear!

ETA: when we moved cross country with the dogs (no LO) we piled things in the cargo area and then put the dogs on top. Not saying it was the best option but it worked and they were fine! Let me find a pic of the worse of it...

We have a Forester, a 50 pound heeler, and two car seats in the back. He sits on the floor underneath the rear passenger seat. We made him a bed out of a comforter and he snuggles in and is set for a 6 hour drive to California.

@.twist.: @erind425: omg, I laughed out loud so hard at that. Had we even been considering him at that time, that would have been the kiss of death for our vote The vet world was on fire about it back then!

my dog isn't as huge as most, but he rides in the "trunk" of my highlander - he likes to stand the entire time and stare out the windows. DD used to find it hilarious when she was rear facing still!

hahaha ok. Usually we don't put Bronx in a harness, we only did for the one trip. He's usually much more comfortable than this, but here's what ended up happening when we would put the harness on him....