Dog Beds

About

Shape follows sleeping style more than it follows size, and that is the useful way to choose a dog bed . Watch how your dog settles for ten minutes and the right category picks itself. Curlers, sprawlers and old joints Dogs that curl into a ball want walls to lean on, which is the donut, bolster, hideout and sofa group — the FurKidz Donut Bed in luxury pile, the Superior Pet Goods Curl Up Cloud and High Side Hideout, the Best Friends by Sheri calming donut, and Ferplast's Etoile and Charles fabric sofas. Dogs that sprawl flat want an open surface with nothing to climb over, so loungers, mattresses and mats suit them better: the Superior Pet Goods Lounger and Hooch cushion, the FurKidz Oval beds and mattresses, the M-Pets MOON mat. Older and heavier dogs are steadier on orthopaedic foam, where a memory foam core holds its shape instead of flattening under the hips — the Ferplast Memor-One, the Superior Pet Goods Orthopaedic Memory Rest and Ortho Haven, and the K&H Thermo-Ortho, which is heated. Elevated beds and crate beds An elevated bed holds the dog on stretched fabric in a steel frame, off the floor. Air moves underneath, so it runs cooler in summer, and it can be hosed off, which is why it is the usual answer for verandahs, laundries and dogs that live outside. Superior Pet Goods makes most of them here — the Original and Heavy Duty Flea Free frames, the canvas, hessian, pinstripe and camo tops — and K&H adds the Coolin' Pet Cot and the bolstered Original Pet Cot. Crate beds are cut to sit inside a crate without bunching at the door, which is what the Superior Pet Goods SnugSide is for. If the problem is heat rather than comfort, a cooling mat does more than any bed. Sizing, and washing it afterwards Measure your dog nose to tail base while it is lying stretched out, add roughly a hand's width, and compare that against the dimensions on the listing rather than the size name — a large in one brand is a medium in another. The large FurKidz Oval is 75 x 60