Lately, we've been getting a lot of questions asking how to choose dog beds. While we are definitely not experts, we did become a bit creative once I realized the dog beds I find cute and would like to display are typically very expensive.
Home Decor as Bed
I started realizing by chance that some of our decor made natural dog beds. I liked having these
Ikea Rens Sheepskin Rugs around the place to keep things warm, and the pooches (and
even visitors!) would naturally flock to them. Have we also mentioned
how much we love floor pillows?
Making Plain Interesting
For awhile we had these plain black dog beds. I thought it would be more fun and blend in more if we added a decorative pillow. We picked up inexpensive pillows and covers and turned our plain black dog beds into twin beds! You can
see more of our twin dog beds here.
Making Pattern Inexpensive
When I first started looking I found a lot of dog bed patterns I really liked, but then the beds themselves were really expensive. We found
Molly Mutt dog duvets to be a good alternative where you can get a nice looking bed, but it's less expensive because you add your own 'filler'. We bought a $20 bed from the petstore that we put on the inside lined with a garbage bag in case of any accidents. It's easier to clean because you only clean the cover. I also love this idea of customizing a bed for anyone who can sew well.
So tell us, what types of beds are working for you? And has anyone found the elusive indestructible bed?
Also:
My first big decision as a new dog owner
Beds as a training tool (plus training the pups not to eat the rug!)
The pooches' current fave
15 comments:
Our dog's favorite was an old giant bath rug that I folded over and sewed mostly closed. We stuffed it with old towels and clothes so that it smelled like us too.
(Then the cat ruined it by peeing all over it...)
Now he sleeps on a very old duvet that I had in the closet.
We've wasted so much money on petstore beds, finally last year I splurged to get Corbin an Orvis bed for our living room so he had a "safe" place to go when visitors were over and he was being overwhelming, it's also where he goes to chew his messy bones or if he's in a time out. We loved it's durability so much, I ordered him a more expensive, comfy night time bed for our bedroom. He loves it so much, he doesn't bother getting into bed anymore and doesn't need to be in the crate at night time. I almost ordered a third for the holidays this year, but held back. We love the Orvis beds. Expensive, but well worth the money. Although, I have always wanted to try the Molly Mutt beds!
-Corbin's momma, Jenn
The best one I ever found, much to my chagrin was a weather resistant bed at Wal-Mart. It has a water repellant cover that is removable and washable. We keep that one on the patio and I bought another one for Ray's crate. On that one I found a duvet at Target which is corduroy on one side and a fleecy microfiber on the other side. Aside from that, Ray has an old comforter that he lays on under the kitchen table and various blankets we scatter around. I would love to get him a sheepskin but fear he would destroy it.
Love the sheepskin idea! My dogs like soft and fluffy too, so I bought an inexpensive faux fur throw ($20), sewed velcro around the perimeter, put a foam memory mattress on one side, folded it over and voila! A faux fur dog bed that they both love for just $20!
Ooooh we love the Ikea Rens sheepskins! But those are on the dwindling list of things that are reserved for humans in our house.
We have a RIDICULOUS number of dog beds and covers. You know how shoes are always really cute in the smallest sizes? Same thing with dog beds. Some patterns ended up being a bit too loud for me in the large dog bed size, especially with the bed taking up 1/5th of the floor space in a room. So I've been throwing fleece blankets over many of them. Monkey and Petey seem to prefer the fleece anyway. I still wash the bed covers now and then, but just washing the fleece blankets on a weekly basis is so much easier.
I've found the indestructible dog bed!
One of my dogs used to destroy stuffing-filled beds when she was younger, so I finally bought Kuranda dog beds for my two mutts. The Kuranda looks like a cot and claims to be chew-proof. I was skeptical at first, but three years later, they still look good as new and my dogs love them. I throw a couple of towels on the beds to make them softer and cozier. The Kurandas are really easy to keep clean, too, so that's another plus.
We have some relatively inexpensive dogs beds at our house. The most recent ones are Cuddle Cubes that I bought on amazon. The dogs really like those. I'd love to get an Orvis bed sometime. Those look awesome.
You must either have a really good vacuum or your pups shed even less than most bullies :) We have several Dr.s Foster and Smith luxury bolster orthopedic beds, which the dogs love and which have lasted really well. I lie on them myself sometimes they are so comfortable!
I love the idea of floor pillows because you can find ones to match the existing decor. Such a great idea! I tried those IKEA sheepskins, but Cooper shredded them to bits!
Funny that you posted this today, I just wrote a post about our dog beds last night, but have yet to publish it:)
I bought ours at Target because you can buy the covers separately. I made 2 super squishy for sleeping and 3 flat ones with memory that they love to use to chew their bones on. The rest of the time they are on the couch and the bed though:D
The only dog in our house that even lays on a dog bed is Annie & she has 4 to choose from in the living room alone. We won a P.L.A.Y. dog bed from Fido Friendly that she LOVES. I hope they last a long time as we could not swing buying one. She also has a baby mattress, an orthopedic dog bed & a Coolaroo bed. She goes back & forth with all of them, but uses the P.L.A.Y. one the most. So far any beds with stuffing get destroyed by fosters :(
Costco beds are huge, as cheap as they get, and have that nice cedar smell. It's hit or miss on the patterns, however. I have a bed I got from Target cheap ages ago--it looks dork and small and we throw this old pink blanket over it (not wonderful decor,) but Hades loves it! I could never get rid of it even in the interest of better decorating.
garbage bag---genius! We love our molly mutt beds and with our recent order of 2 new ones, have 4 total! I just hated washing everything in it when it smelled like dog after a while. We get a twin set of cheap pillows from Costco for $10 and put those in the bed, but now we will certainly stuff the pillows in a garbage bag first! How did I not think of that?!
We have a couple of smaller kong beds that I move from room to room, and we have a huge big shrimpy bed that stays put in our living room. After buying many beds (bolster, s few orthopedic beds, and quite a few traditional beds), we opted for what we currently have. The dogs love the current beds. Although the beds are not the prettiest, they are the best for our pack =)
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