The Mini Cooper That Was Never Meant For Humans

From the minute the first three-wheel Patent Motorwagen was constructed in 1885 by Karl Benz, humankind has had one question on our collective mind: could a dog be trained to drive one of these?

As it turns out, the answer is yes, as a trio of New Zealand rescue dogs proved back in 2012. All it took was a specially customized Mini Cooper Countryman, and two months of training, which, admittedly, is less time than some humans take to learn the ropes. Here’s what you need to know.

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You know those Subaru commercials featuring “the Barkleys,” a family of dogs driving Subaru Solterras and Legacies? These “Dog tested. Dog approved.” ads actually launched right around the same time as trained dog drivers Porter, Ginny, and Monte were proving that it could be done for real. The doggy driver test took place in 2012, while the Barkleys ads have been running off and on since debuting on Animal Planet during the Puppy Bowl on February 7, 2013.

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The difference is, in Subaru’s case, it’s always been a mix of trick photography and stunt driving. If we were representatives of the canine stunt drivers union, we might have a bone to pick over the use of human drivers for these ads. That Stephen Colbert video of the orangutan driving the golf cart has been verified by Snopes, so there’s really no excuse to put hard-working animal drivers out of a job.

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The inspiration for the Barkleys ad campaign began with a Subaru customer survey, where the automaker determined that eight out of ten Subaru owners happen to be pet owners. From there, it was a no-brainer to create a dog-oriented campaign. Anyone who’s driven a Forester or a Crosstrek with a four-legged friend in the backseat can attest to the roominess and accessibility that make these cars a breeze for loading your pet in and out on trips to the dog park. But, at the end of the day, it was a Mini Cooper Countryman, not a Subaru, that proved that dogs can (and should) learn to drive.

How To Custom-Fit Your Mini Cooper Countryman So Your Dog Can Drive It

The really impressive thing about the New Zealand dog driving test is that they didn’t really modify the Mini Cooper all that much. Most of the modifications involved making the controls accessible for a four-legged driver sitting upright in the front seat, and, from there, the dogs would operate the shifter, brake, ignition, and steering wheel much like a human driver might.

Accommodations for the canine pilots included:

• Special handles for the dogs to grip the steering wheel and gear shift
• Carpeted dashboard in case the dog needs to lean forward for stability
• Elevated gas and brake pedals for easy reach
• Ignition button modified for paw-control
• Speed limiter to keep the dogs from getting too excited and taking the Mini to highway speeds on the oval track

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Preparing The Pilots

Training is obviously going to be a big part of getting a dog behind the wheel of a car. Yes, dogs can drive, but not without practice. The actual process of operating the modified Mini would go as follows:

1. Hit the ignition
2. Hold the brake to allow the car to go into gear
3. Shift into drive
4. Grip the steering wheel
5. Hit the accelerator
6. Steer around the track

While a trainer would follow alongside the car to give the dog instructions around the loop, the actual driving was 100% dog. Nobody was operating the gas or brake from a remote control station, there was no second steering wheel. The dog sits in the car alone and makes a lap around the track with no direct help from a human driver. This took the team two months of training in a series of simulations, with a mock-up of the custom control scheme attached to a mobile unit that could be pulled along on a rope, allowing the dogs to learn the controls, and get used to their actions putting the vehicle into motion.

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Three dogs were involved in the project, with Monty and Porter ultimately passing their driver’s tests on live TV. Trainer Mark Vette, who has a long history training dogs for movies and television, said that the purpose of the experiment was to “get people talking about the dogs, and hopefully make an SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) rescue dog their top choice.”

Is There A Market For Cars For Dogs?

While the purpose of teaching Monty and Porter how to drive a Mini Cooper was ultimately to benefit dogs waiting for adoption in animal shelters, one has to wonder how many drivers actually saw the test and wondered if their own pet could be taught to operate a motor vehicle (yes we know this is a silly premise, but let’s crunch the numbers anyway).

Mini has always had a very niche presence in New Zealand. 2012-2013 sales data for NZ isn’t readily available, but a more recent report saw Mini selling 1,048 units across all nameplates in that region in 2023, and this was celebrated as a record year for the brand, so it may be safe to assume that the test didn’t exactly create a surge of demand for the car back in 2012.

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The Subaru Forester, on the other hand, sold 6,565 units in January 2013. Then, in March, after the airing of the first Barkleys ads, the nameplate sold a whopping 9,050 units. So who knows, maybe there really is a market for cars your dog can drive. In all seriousness, 2013 was a record year for Subaru. In 2012, the brand sold 266,989 units, then, in 2013, it sold 424,683 units. While this no doubt has something to do with the brand simply spending more on advertising, regardless of the content of said ads, it’s easy to suppose that positioning itself as a dog-friendly automaker had something to do with the sales increase, as well. Whether or not that means people are out there training their dogs to drive Foresters and Legacies, we can’t say. And we wouldn’t if we could, because we’re not sure how legal that is.

Sources: Live Science, Snopes, Subaru, Wonder World.