Orthopedic Dog Bed
31 Dec 2009
Before choosing a large orthopedic dog bed for your large dog, you need to measure your dog and consider a few other things.
Measure your dog from tip of nose to base of tail and from floor to head. From here you will then have an idea of the dimensions required of a suitably sized dog bed.
Pay attention to your dog’s sleeping profile. Notice whether your dog stretches out or curls up while sleeping? This is important, most beds cater only for curl or stretch sleeping styles. If your dog tends to sleep in both stretch and curl styles, then opt for a sofa style bed. A sofa styled large dog bed is both long and wide to accommodate a stretch sleeping style, sofa style beds also have bolstered sides to support the curling sleeper.
If your dog prefers to sleep in a curl or ball style, then measure the diameter of the dog’s body while sleeping. Use this measurement when purchasing a curl style bed.
For stretch sleeping style dogs, size the bed dimensions required using the measurements from earlier. Allow an extra 12 inches in addition to your dogs body size on both dimensions to ensure the bed is large enough to comfortably accommodate your pet. Allow an extra 8 inches on the diameter of a curl style bed.
Finally know your material. Orthopedic dog beds are available with a variety of different fillers. But which is the best quality? Look at the equivalent material used in human mattresses. For their mattress, memory foam is chosen for maximum comfort and support. Egg crate foam is only used in human mattress toppers. In other words if it is not good enough for humans, why give your dog second best. If you have a large dog, your dog is probably also heavy, so they need maximum support for handling their frame and weight.
With the above simple criteria you should now be able to better identify great orthopedic dog beds for your dog.
