Dog Beds

It depends on the dog, but the honest starting point is what the category is mostly made of. Nearly every dog bed sold is polyurethane foam, shredded foam offcuts or polyester fibrefill, and all three fail the same way: they pack down where the dog lies and stay packed. Natural fills that are loose rather than bonded can be opened and added to, which is the only real answer to a bed going flat.

Wool conforms around a thin or bony dog and handles damp and odour well. Latex is firmer, holds its height, and suits a dog who drops down hard or a household that keeps no animal fibre.

They are the shortest-lived option in the category, and the one most likely to end up on the kerb. Memory foam takes a permanent impression where the weight sits, and once it does there is nothing you can do about it: the block is bonded, so there is no way to add material back. A dog who has worn a hollow into their bed is sleeping with their hip on the floor through it.

A raised rim looks like a nest to us. To a dog who sleeps flat out on one side with the legs extended, it is something to hang off. The positions dogs use most are the ones a rim gets in the way of, and a flat bed works for all of them without stopping a dog curling up if they want to.

Measure your dog from the tip of the nose to the base of the tail, then add six inches. A dog who curls into a comma can go down a size. A dog who sleeps flat out on one side should go up. Wrong size is the single most common reason a dog bed is sent back, so it is worth the tape measure.

Four inches is enough up to about fifty pounds. Past that, six. Pressure relief works by the dog sinking in far enough that the material comes up around the shoulder and the hip, and a heavy dog on a thin bed reaches the floor before that happens. Depth is what buys the comfort, not a wall around the edge.

Wash the cover, not the insert. Agitation pulls shredded latex apart and heat degrades the rubber, and wool felts into a mat you cannot undo. So a natural-fill bed is only as washable as its cover, which is why the cover needs to unzip and come off in one piece.

A waterproof cover does the rest of the work: it holds a spill at the surface so it never reaches the material underneath.

No, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. Wool and latex both insulate, which is what you want for most of the year and not what a dog wants in August. Still air is a good insulator, so the gaps inside a loose fill hold heat rather than shedding it. A dog who gets up off the bed to lie on the tile in summer is doing the sensible thing.

Natural latex appears on no ASPCA, Pet Poison Helpline, Cornell or FDA toxicity list, and there is no documented latex allergy in dogs in the literature. The risk to watch is obstruction. Shredded pieces are already the size a dog can swallow, and swallowed bedding of any kind is hard to find on an X-ray. So latex is a poor choice for a dog who chews bedding, and no bed of any material is chew-proof.

Treat the word carefully. There is no legal or technical definition of orthopedic in pet products, so any maker can print it on any bed. What helps a stiff or bony dog is enough depth to sink into, and a material that wraps around the shoulder and the hip rather than pushing back against them. Judge a bed on those two things and the label stops mattering.

Certified natural-fill beds run from about $129 to a little over $600 depending on size and material, and the size is what moves the number most. A bed that can be opened and topped up is worth paying more for than one that cannot, because the second one is a replacement purchase the day the middle gives out.

Yes. The X-Large is 54 by 36 and built six inches deep. If your dog is bigger than that, write to us and we will build it to their measurements.

The beds are not, and we would rather say that than round it up. The separate waterproof cover is, under Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) license GOTS-10229 through Oregon Tilth. For the beds themselves the relevant certificate is a different one: the latex is tested to OEKO-TEX Standard 100 at Class 1, which measures what is in the finished material rather than how the crop was farmed. We do not hold that certificate ourselves, so we name the standard and the class and leave it there. There is nothing on the wool.

In practice the phrase describes what a bed leaves out. Nearly every dog bed sold is polyurethane foam in a polyester shell, often over a vinyl backing and under a stain finish. A non-toxic bed is one built from none of that.

The word itself is not regulated, so it is worth less than the list behind it. Ask a maker what the fill is, what the cover is, and what was applied to either. If all three do not get a plain answer, the label is doing the work.

Fewer than the labels suggest. Plenty of brands design in the USA and build offshore, and the wording on the box is careful about which one it means. Read it closely and check whether the claim covers the design, the assembly or the materials.

Ours are made in the USA, cut and filled and sewn by hand in a New Jersey workshop that has been making bedding since 1981. The fibres are sourced abroad, as natural fibres are. That is also why we can tell you what is inside one, and change a size when a dog needs it.

One where the cover comes off in one piece. The cover takes the mud and the hair, and on a natural-fill bed it is the part designed to go in the machine.

A waterproof cover does the rest. It stops a spill at the surface before it can reach the material underneath. The beds you end up throwing away are the ones bonded shut, or the ones where the cover is sewn on.