Yellow Dog Project – This is a project to encourage the use of a yellow ribbon tied to a dog’s collar and/or leash to let others that this dog needs space. The reason could be varied; perhaps the dog is fearful, may bite, or perhaps just had surgery and is in pain. For more information, go to yellowdogproject.com.
“Dangerous Dogs” – In some states, dogs that have a “vicious propensity” can be deemed dangerous – the canine version of being on probation. This means that while you may know your dog is a sweetheart much of the time, one bite can be enough for the authorities to label him dangerous, and two bites could result in an order to surrender or euthanize the dog. Also, if your dog bites someone you could be sued and found liable, and if the building ownership had knowledge of the dog’s propensity for aggression (a past bite), it could also be found responsible (which is one reason why many building owners and managers are reluctant to rent to dog owners).
Muzzles are Useful Tools! – If you know your dog is prone to biting, get to a positive behavior consultant who can also teach you how and when to use a muzzle, which can keep everyone safe while you work to modify your dog’s behavior. I like Baskerville basket-type muzzles, because they have a lot of ventilation so the dog can pant and even accept treats. Another advantage of using a muzzle is that it will enable the handler to relax, which will also help the dog! For more information, see Karen Pryor’s site.
Breed Prohibitions
It has become all too common to see lists of breed bans in multi-unit residences as well as municipalities. Books could be written about the drawbacks of breed-specific legislation (BSL), but suffice to say that all dogs have the potential to bite and no breed has 100 percent benign membership. The “bully breed” lovers among us (count me in) would point out that many of these dogs are model citizens and great companions.
Further, breed bans provide a false sense of security. See the position statement of the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB) on this subject.
Rather, encourage or require new owners to provide proof of having properly trained their dogs through programs such as the American Kennel Club’s Canine Good Citizen (CGC) certification and encourage your building’s management to develop and enforce common sense rules, such as, “All dogs must be leashed when outside their apartments,” and “All dogs must be licensed.”
Last month, I mentioned how concerned my son was when he heard I had made the decision to adopt one of the bully-breed-mix puppies I had been fostering. He’s accustomed to me pretending that I don’t like puppies (“Ew, a puppy! Gross! Who likes puppies? Ick!”) – a stupid joke meant to soften the hard fact that unprepared people always seem to be magnetically drawn to the puppies in the shelter where I volunteer, passing right over many more suitable, calm, house-trained, non-chewing adult dogs in the process.
I never worry that the puppies in my shelter won’t get adopted; despite the fact that people often share pictures of the puppies on Facebook (usually with a plea, “Share this album, save the puppies!”), the puppies are in no danger whatsoever. Puppies of all descriptions fly out of the shelter like iPads on sale. So while I do foster puppies that are surrendered to the shelter (or are brought in by animal control officers) at a too-tender age, or in poor health and in need of a few weeks of TLC, I don’t worry about them finding homes. They are often adopted the same day I bring them back to the shelter. What I do worry about is them coming back to the shelter a few days, weeks, or months later, when people realize how much work it is to raise and train a puppy. And I worry about them coming back with baggage – such as newly implanted fears of people, noises, and/or other dogs.
So many people adopt puppies without a clue as to their needs – it never fails to amaze me. People will literally walk out the door with their newly adopted puppy, stop, turn around, and ask, “Say, what should I feed him? How much?” I’ve seen more than one person clip a leash onto the collar they brought to the shelter for their new baby dog, and then look puzzled as the puppy (who has never before worn a collar or been pulled by a leash) bucks wildly in a panic. And they will start calling the front counter staff the next day to ask, “How do we stop him from biting our kids?” and “What should we do to keep him from chewing all of our shoes?”
Only rarely do the staff members get asked, “Can you recommend a good puppy trainer in this area?” It breaks my heart.
Because puppies fly off the shelter shelves, so to speak, whether through thoughtful adoptions or ill-advised ones, usually I focus my fostering efforts on adolescent and adult dogs. It’s much harder to find homes for dogs who have a little behavioral baggage, despite the fact that they may also be way past the problems that perplex and plague puppy owners – most notably chewing and housetraining. I deal with those issues and more: teaching the dogs not to eat (or even think about chasing) my cats or chickens; to wait at doors before trying to dart through them; how to get in and out of cars, and how to ride calmly and quietly, even if we are on the way to our favorite trailhead; to stay out of both the garden beds and my family’s beds (unless they have been specifically invited); and so on. Sometimes this process takes months, because these dogs have had an equal number or even more months to practice behaviors that make them less attractive to potential adopters.
But here’s the thing – and I’m sorry for taking so long to get to it: Oh my word, you guys! It’s so incredibly easy to train a puppy from the get-go, especially when you are equipped (baby gates, crates, puppy toys, superior food and treats, lightweight leashes and well-fitting harnesses, etc.) and you know what you are doing! I haven’t raised a puppy from such a tender age (I started fostering my new puppy’s litter when they were just about four weeks old) since I was 12 years old (and plumb ignorant) myself. Which is why, maybe, it’s such a revelation: Starting with a puppy this young can be – it is – an absolute dream.
Nobody, it seems, likes trimming dog nails. Not you, not the dog, nor anyone else who may be called upon to take on nail-clipping for you (such as a technician at your local veterinary hospital or even a professional groomer). But for the health of your dog, it must be done, and should be done frequently enough to keep your dog’s nails short.
This isn’t an article about how to make nail cutting a more pleasant experience for you and your dog; this magazine has run plenty of those. Don’t be tempted to skip that step: You should read up on positive reinforcement and desensitization techniques before you even think about snipping; of course your dog should be comfortable with having his feet touched and manipulated before you attempt any type of nail trimming. If he is not – and especially if he shows signs of serious distress or aggression – consult a qualified dog behavior specialist to help you modify this behavior. Better safe than sorry.
No, this article is what you’ll need to know before you have appropriately and positively introduced your dog to the nail-cutting experience. I hope to convince you to commit to a regular nail-maintenance program for your dog.
Long hair on a dog’s feet can hide a really painful situation with too-long nails. Keep your dog’s hairy feet clipped, or check the length of her nails weekly.
Why Dogs Need Their Nails Trimmed
When dogs spend a good deal of time outdoors, running on various hard surfaces, including concrete and blacktop, their nails are gradually worn down, and they have less of a need for formal nail-grooming sessions. But today, with many suburban and urban dogs increasingly confined indoors when their owners are at work, and running mostly on soft surfaces such as lawns when they are outdoors, this welcome friction is often absent in their daily lives.
Long, unkempt nails not only look unattractive, but over time they can do serious damage to your dog (not to mention your floors). When nails are so long that they constantly touch the ground, they exert force back into the nail bed, creating pain for the dog (imagine wearing a too-tight shoe) and pressure on the toe joint. Long term, this can actually realign the joints of the foreleg and make the foot looked flattened and splayed.
Again, this isn’t just an aesthetic problem, it’s a functional one: Compromising your dog’s weight distribution and natural alignment can leave her more susceptible to injuries, and make walking and running difficult and painful. This is especially important in older dogs, whose posture can be dramatically improved by cutting back neglected nails.
In extreme cases, overgrown nails can curve and grow into the pad of the foot. But even if they are not that out of control, long nails can get torn or split, which is very painful and, depending on severity, may need to be treated by a veterinarian.
And in the end, unattended nails create a vicious cycle: Because the extra-long nails make any contact with his paws painful for the dog, he avoids having them touched, which leads to unpleasant nail-cutting sessions, which makes both human and dog avoid them, which leads to longer intervals between trims, which leads to more pain …
The Basics of Trimming Dog Nails
So what’s the goal? What’s the “right” length? While some breeds (most notably the Doberman Pinscher) are often shown with nails so short they can barely be seen, the most commonly accepted rule of thumb is that when a dog is standing, the nails should not make contact with the ground. If you can hear your dog coming, her nails are too long.
The nails of mammals are made of a tough protein called keratin. Technically, dogs have claws, not nails, though we’ll use the latter term in its colloquial sense for this article. (The distinction is that nails are flat and do not come to a point. And if your nail is thick enough and can bear weight, it’s called a hoof.)
Dog’s nails differ from ours in that they consist of two layers. Like us, they have the unguis, a hard, outer covering in which the keratin fibers run perpendicular to the direction in which the nail grows. But unlike us, under their unguis, dogs have the subunguis, which is softer and flaky, with a grain that is parallel to the direction of growth. The faster growth of the unguis is what gives the dog’s nail its characteristic curl.
In addition to one nail at the end of each of the four toes usually found on each foot, many dogs also have a fifth nail, called a dewclaw, on the inside of the leg, below the wrist. Some dogs are born with dewclaws in the front only; others are born with dewclaws on every leg. There’s a great deal of debate about whether these should be surgically removed; some breeders do this a few days after birth because they believe that the dewclaws are vestigial, and are likely to rip or tear if they are not removed. (Many shelters also do this surgery on dogs at the same time they do spay/neuter surgery.)
Proponents of dewclaws argue that dewclaws are not vestigial, but indeed used to grip objects such as bones, and to provide important traction when a galloping dog needs to change direction. (Poke around Youtube and you can find videos of Sighthound lure coursing; they actually lay their entire forearms perpendicular to the ground when redirecting their momentum.) Even the floppy double-dewclaws of breeds like the Great Pyrenees are said to have some purpose (traction or a “snowshoe” effect in the snow).
One thing is certain: If a dog has dewclaws, they need to be trimmed – perhaps even more often than nails that routinely touch the ground. Because the dewclaws rarely touch the ground and so aren’t worn down, they tend to be pointier than the other nails. But perhaps because dewclaws are so loosely attached to the forelimb, many dogs object to trimming them much less.
The Canine Toenail Quick
There’s a reason why the phrase “cut to the quick” means to deeply wound or distress: Running through the nail is a nerve and vein called the “quick.” Nicking or cutting this sensitive band of tissue is very painful for the dog – and messy for the owner, as blood often continues oozing from the cut nail for what seems like an eternity. (Keeping a stypic-powder product, such as Kwik-Stop, on hand can help promote clotting and shorten the misery. Or, in a pinch, try flour.)
Shortening the nail without “quicking” the dog is easier said than done – unless your dog has white or light-colored nails, in which case, you’re in luck: The quick will be visible from the side, as a sort of pink-colored shadow within the nail. Avoid going near it. If you trim the nail with a clipper or scissors, trim a bit off the end of the nail, and notice the color at the end of the nail (in cross section). As soon as the center of the nail starts to appear pink, stop.
It’s much easier to trim white nails nice and short, since you can see the pink, sensitive tissue inside the nail, and stop short of cutting into this and causing it to bleed.
You can’t see the quick in a black or dark-colored nail. With these nails, you have to be even more conservative about how much nail you trim off. After making each cut, look at the cross-section of the nail. If you see a black spot in the center – sort of like the center of a marrow bone – stop cutting. It’s likely your next slice will hit the quick.
The longer a dog’s nails are allowed to grow, the longer the quick will become, to the point that taking even a very small bit of nail off the end “quicks” the dog. Then the goal becomes a matter of snipping or grinding the nails to get as close as possible to the quick, without actually cutting it. This is perhaps easiest to accomplish with a grinding tool (such as a Dremel), though it can be done with clippers, too, with practice. By grinding away the nail all around the quick – above it, below it, and on both sides – the quick has no support or protection, and within days it will begin to visibly recede, drawing back toward the toe.
If a dog’s feet have been neglected for months (or, horrors, years) at a time, it might take months to shorten those nails to a healthy, pain-free length. But if you keep at this regularly, it should get easier for the dog to exercise. And the more he moves, the more his nails will come into contact with the ground in a way that will help wear the nails down and help the quicks to recede.
Helpful Tools for Trimming Dog Nails
Nail clippers use blades to remove the tip of the nail. There are a couple of different styles to choose from, but no matter what type is used, their effectiveness is dependent on the blades being sharp and clean.
Guillotine trimmers have a hole at the end, through which the dog’s nail is inserted; then, as the handles of the tool are squeezed together, an internal blade lops off the end of the nail in a fashion reminiscent of the execution device for which the trimmer is named.
Plier-type clippers (left) need to be sharpened occasionally to be effective. Replacing the cutting blade on guillotine-style clippers (right) is easy, but operating this tool is daunting for some people.
Some people find it easier to chop through thick nails with these clippers, but others find it difficult to thread each nail through the hole at precisely the right distance from the end of the nail, especially when the dog is wiggling or uncooperative. On the plus side, though, it’s fast and easy to replace the blade in guillotine-style clippers – in fact, most guillotine clippers are sold with replacement blades, which encourages an owner to swap out the blade as soon as the tool loses any effectiveness.
Scissor- and plier-style trimmers are arguably easier to use, but need to be sharpened from time to time – and who knows how to do this, or where this service can be obtained these days? Many people find themselves discarding and replacing these tools as needed, instead.
Grinders are relatively new to the world of canine manicures. So many owners discovered how easy it was to use that old hardware standby, the Dremel tool, that you’ll sometimes hear that brand name used as a verb, as in “I Dremel my dog’s nails.” Soon enough, pet-specific rotary grinders found their way to market – and now Dremel makes a pet-specific grinder, too.
Regardless of the type of grinder you buy, make sure it is appropriate for your dog. Some cordless models might be perfectly adequate for a Papillon, but simply may not have enough oomph for trimming the thick, hard nails of a larger breed like a German Shepherd.
Though Dremels and other grinders come with several different attachments, most owners opt for the sandpaper barrel. Change the sandpaper sleeve whenever you see it’s becoming worn.
Be sure to acclimate your dog to the sound of the grinder, and then slowly introduce the tool, so that your dog is accustomed to the grinding sensation on his nails. Don’t keep the rotary tool stationery on one area of the nail, as the heat it generates can be painful for the dog.
Be aware of dangling hair – both yours and your dog’s – and take care not to have it get entwined in the tool’s spinning drum. To protect your eyes, wear safety glasses. And because nail grinders can generate a good deal of nail dust, a disposable surgical face mask is a sensible idea as well.
Nail Maintenance Routines are Crucial
If this sounds like a lot of work, it is – at least initially, until you and your dog develop a nail-maintenance routine. And “maintenance” really is the name of the game; it’s far easier for you (and less painful for your dog) to maintain his short nails than to shorten nails that have gotten long, with the inevitable corresponding long quicks.
If your dog’s nails have gotten too long, or you adopted a dog whose nails were too long, you need to really commit to frequent trimming to restore his foot health and comfort. Three to four days is probably the minimum amount of time that’s advisable between salon treatments that are intended to encourage the quicks to recede. Once a week is ideal if you want to gradually shorten your dog’s nails and eliminate all that clickety-clacking on your wood floors. And, depending on the rate at which your dog’s nails grow (and what sort of surface he exercises on) once or twice a month is a reasonable goal to maintain the nails at a healthy length.
No matter what frequency you choose, make a commitment. Earmark a specific day of the week or month for your grooming sessions, and stick with it. You’ll have a better chance of remembering to do your dog’s nails on a regular basis if you get into a routine.
It may also be helpful to dedicate a location in your home for doing your dog’s nails – somewhere comfortable for you and your dog and with a good light source. Make sure you have everything you need at hand before you begin: clippers, styptic powder and some tissue or a small clean towel or washcloth (in case you accidentally quick the dog), eyeglasses for you (if you need them to see well up close), and lots of small, high-value treats to keep the experience rewarding for your dog.
It’s also smart to have a leash on your dog, even if he’s usually fine with having his nails clipped; many dogs will attempt to leave abruptly if they are “quicked.” And who could blame them? If you do make a mistake, don’t make a huge fuss. Feed your dog some treats, and proceed with more conservative clips.
To continue reading this article or issue you must be a paid subscriber. Sign in
If you are logged in but cannot access this content, a) your subscription may have expired; b) you may have duplicate accounts (emails) in our system. Please check your account status hereorcontact customer service.
Immediate access to this article and 20+ years of archives.
Recommendations for the best dog food for your dog.
Dry food, homemade diets and recipes, dehydrated and raw options, canned food and more.
Brands, formulations and ingredients all searchable in an easy-to-use, searchable database.
Plus, you’ll receive training and care guidance to keep your dog healthy and happy. You’ll feed with less stress…train with greater success…and know you are giving your dog the care he deserves.
Subscribenow and save 72%! Its like getting 8 issues free!
This is what I’m grateful for this chilly, rainy morning: Three dogs who willingly and quickly go right outdoors and get to work. Not all at once, of course: there is a peeing order that is aligned with the pecking order. The puppy goes first. Tito, the older small dog, goes next. Otto, the benevolent leader of my little pack of three, checks to make sure it’s really happening; Tito is so small it’s hard to tell. Only after everyone else is done does Otto go back over both spots and mark them himself.
This is what I’m sorry for: The fact that I rehomed the foster dog who takes the longest to pee of any dog I’ve ever known with my sister, who lives across the street from me. From my front window, where I sit at my computer and work, I can see the top of her umbrella over her backyard fence. This morning it was there for a very long time; it made me shiver from inside my warm office. Sorry, Pam!
How are you guys holding up this winter? Do your dogs easily do what they need to do when the weather is cold, snowy, or wet? Or do you have to join them in an extended cold-weather experience? Do they have more accidents indoors when they don’t want to get their feet wet or icy?
I’m a big fan of “puppy socials” – a classroom-type setting to which people bring their puppies for socializing with pups of a similar age. It’s a powerful opportunity for the puppies, especially the ones who are being raised with no other dog at home to learn basic canine social skills from – or the ones who DO share their homes another dog, but the dog is super grumpy about puppies.
I first learned about puppy socials from my good friend Sandi Thompson, owner of the famed Bravo!Pup (dog and puppy training) in Berkeley, California (bravopup.com). Sandi was lead trainer for Dr. Ian Dunbar’s pioneering business, Sirius Dog and Puppy Training, for many years, before striking out on her own. Due to the value to the puppies and the popularity among the puppy owners of the “Go play!” breaks within her puppy training classes, Sandi decided to offer the participants in her classes a separate weekly session of “just” playing and socializing. During the sessions, she helps the owners identify and reinforce healthy puppy play, and teaches them how to gently interrupt potentially problematic puppy play. She also prompts the owners to occasionally interject moments of practicing training exercises that they learned in the puppy classes, and then powerfully rewarding the puppies for their compliance in such an off-the-charts distracting environment with the best possible reward: “Go play!”
Ten years ago, I moved from the San Francisco Bay Area, where I was surrounded by wonderful and highly educated dog trainers (including Sandi), to the relative dog-training desert three hours north. But thank dog, there was ONE wonderful and highly educated dog trainer close to me: Sarah Richardson, of The Canine Connection in Chico, California (TheCanineConnection.com). That’s who I sought out for modeling for WDJ articles when I moved here in 2006, and whose training classes I attended with Otto when I adopted him as an adolescent shelter dog in June 2008. And whose puppy training class and puppy socials I am attending with my new pup Woody!
Like Sandi, Sarah offers the owners in her puppy training classes a separate session each week that is devoted to puppy socializing and play only, separated from the training classes – although she guides the puppy owners in reinforcing their puppies’ healthy social interactions and gently but proactively stopping them from practicing any sort of bullying or defensively aggressive ones. The super shy or anxious puppies are given opportunities to come out from under their owners’ chairs and explore while the more assertive and/or brave pups are reinforced for restrained on-leash behavior on the sidelines. And then the strongly social pups are given a chance to run, play, and practice introducing themselves to other puppies in manners both weird and wonderful. They learn what physical body language prompts potential playmates to engage in play and which body language triggers another puppy to take defensive action upon their own person – in other words, it’s a safe place for the little pups to learn kindergarten social skills in a group that is safe from “big kids” or grumpy grownups.
That’s not to say it doesn’t take a certain amount of management to make sure it’s safe for everyone. My friend Leonora, who fostered a litter of six TINY puppies for my local shelter recently, ended up adopting the tiniest one in the litter, Samson – all two pounds of him. I adopted the largest puppy in the litter that I fostered over the same time period, Woody, and we are commuting together to bring both pups to Sarah’s puppy training classes and puppy socials. The puppies get along famously, but they can’t yet be permitted to play together unfettered; one playful gesture of Woody’s can mean a concussion or broken leg for Samson. In Sarah’s puppy social sessions, there may be 20 or more pups of various sizes and play styles, and Samson’s stature and social needs are considered alongside of the big, exuberant puppies. Unfortunately, because all of the puppies present in our first session were so large, Samson did some of his socializing from behind a protective exercise pen, and some on leash, so that Leonora could swoop him to safety, if need be. As he grows a bit, and the pups get more accustomed to the play sessions, we hope he can “Go play!” in a more unfettered fashion.
A side note: I think the people who have big, rowdy puppies are the most likely to avail themselves of these social sessions, because they can clearly see their developing dogs need to play. But this is one of the many reasons that so many small dogs grow up with poor social skills: because their exercise needs can be met readily through less-strenuous outlets, and their owners don’t recognize that ALL dogs need time with other dogs to practice their own “language.” My friend wants Samson to be comfortable with all the dogs he meets, and is taking pains – at the highest level of exposure she can risk – to make sure he gets social time with dogs and puppies of all sizes. Smart!
At our first session, Sarah asked the puppy owner participants to described their puppies in one word, and I used “mellow” to describe Woody. That is ordinarily true, but I’m not sure anyone believed me after his first play session. There was one particularly exuberant, large German Shepherd puppy in the session who seemed to inspire Woody to new heights of both activity and over-arousal, so I had to interrupt my puppy a couple of times and bring him back to the sidelines for a highly rewarding calm-down session. I have witnessed Woody’s genetic predisposition for play-biting with a particularly extended hold on the “bite” part, and I want to nip that behavior in the bud to the extent possible. He’s got a lovely soft mouth when playing with humans, and learned to bite gently when playing with my former foster, Maebe – she would dump him unceremoniously on the ground and quit the game if he tried the bite-and-hold with her – but since Otto won’t brook ANY contact with the puppy, he’s losing practice time at this important skill, and the puppy social is a great time to regain it. I don’t want him to get frustrated, so instead of being put on some sort of punitive time-out when he gets over-the-top with play, or bites another puppy and won’t let go after a second or two, I’ll jump in with a super high-value treat and lure him off to the sidelines to practice some sits and downs for some yummy treats and some low-intensity down/tug with his favorite toy.
TRUTH: It’s true that the likelihood of a serious parvo infection decreases as dogs age, and that most victims are puppies. But adult dogs can become seriously ill or die from parvo.
MYTH: I can protect my dogs from exposure to parvo by maintaining a clean environment and restricting their contact with other dogs.
TRUTH: The virus is everywhere, and it’s impossible to prevent exposure.
MYTH: My dog is strong and healthy. His immune system will prevent him from getting sick.
TRUTH: Under the right conditions, any dog can be vulnerable to illness.
MYTH: Vaccinations will protect my puppy.
TRUTH: Vaccinated puppies can get parvo under certain circumstances.
First, not all puppies have an appropriate immune response to vaccines. It’s rare, but it does happen, that some dogs must be vaccinated numerous times before their immune systems respond by manufacturing protective antibodies.
More common is something called maternal antibody interference. As long as they are active in a puppy’s body, the antibodies received from a protected mother both guard the puppy from infection and prevent vaccines from working properly. These maternal antibodies begin to fade from the puppy’s system anywhere from 6 to 16 weeks following birth.
In order to protect puppies as soon as possible after the maternal antibodies wane, they are generally vaccinated for the first time around 6-8 weeks of age, and then given additional vaccinations every 2 – 4 weeks, until they are around 16 weeks old. But if they’re exposed to parvovirus at any point between the fading of the maternal antibodies and the advent of an immune response to vaccination, they can become infected.
Joanne Levy has bred and exhibited Alaskan Malamutes since 1972 and has finished 17 champions. Last year, she and her husband shared their Rockland County, New York, home with seven Malamutes, one Akita, one Poodle, and two six-month-old Pomeranians.
Their peaceful life changed in December when Jonah, one of the Pomeranians, threw up his dinner. “Because his vomit contained a funky old apple from the tree outside and some asparagus fern, which is toxic to dogs, I thought he might have given himself a wicked tummy-ache,” Levy recalls. “I kept an eye on him, and during the night he vomited little circles of frothy white foam.”
The next morning, at her veterinarian’s office, Levy was asked whether any other dog in the household was sick. “If any of my other dogs had shown symptoms, they would have done a parvo blood test,” she says. “But because everyone else was fine, we approached it as a case of indigestion.
“If he didn’t improve by the next day, I’d bring him back.”
Joanne Levy
That night, Jonah’s symptoms advanced to bloody diarrhea and severe nausea. He stopped breathing, and Levy and her husband performed artificial respiration. Rushed back to the clinic, Jonah received IV fluids and other support therapies. But despite two days of intensive care and a vet bill approaching $2,000, Jonah died on New Years Day.
Three days after Jonah first showed symptoms, so did his brother, Micah. Three days later, eight-year-old Tyrone and two-year-old Vivian, both Malamutes, became ill. Levy caught their symptoms early because she kept all of her dogs confined and followed them individually to check for diarrhea. “Parvo’s diarrhea has such a specific, pungent, metallic smell,” she says, “that it viscerally imprints itself on the nasal passages. I believe I could diagnose any dog that has parvo by the odor of its feces alone.” Micah and Vivian were as ill as Jonah had been, but immediate treatment saved their lives. Tyrone had milder symptoms and did not require hospitalization.
Levy blames her vaccination protocol for the outbreak. In 1994, she stopped giving her adult dogs annual vaccinations and put her puppies on a reduced schedule of shots.
“For eight years I thought I was doing the right thing,” she says. “Then four of my dogs got parvo, three were hospitalized at great expense, and one of them died. I lost a spectacularly healthy, fat, robust, powerful, well-muscled six-month-old puppy who was in excellent condition and a joy to live with – to a disease that’s completely preventable.”
Now Levy is a vaccination advocate. “Losing Jonah was one of the most devastating experiences of my life,” she says. “I will never allow it to happen again. Parvo is terrifying because dogs that die from it suffer horribly and unnecessarily. I absolutely resent people who have their dogs on reduced vaccinations or who don’t vaccinate at all, for the obvious reason that all dogs, their own and others, are needlessly put at risk.”
Levy revaccinated her dogs for parvovirus and distemper and plans to repeat their vaccinations every two years. If she ever gets another puppy, she says she will probably alternate between parvo and distemper vaccinations until the puppy is six months old.
“To me the only valid argument is whether to give a multiple-vaccine cocktail or individual vaccines,” she says, “and I agree with those who favor individual vaccines. A month after vaccinations end, I’ll have the puppy tested. And I’ll keep him quarantined at home until I know he’s fully protected.”
The name Ray Carlisle is synonymous with Doberman Pinschers. A breeder and exhibitor for 40 years, a show judge for the last 20 years, and a former president of the Doberman Pinscher Club of America, the United Doberman Club, and the American Working Dog Federation, the New York resident travels the world on behalf of his favorite breed. “I vaccinated my dogs for many years,” Carlisle says, “but they all had chronic health problems, and many died of cardiomyopathy at age five or six.”
As he looked for ways to improve his line of dogs, Carlisle met breeders of Dobermans, Great Danes, and other breeds whose dogs lived well into their teens. “Some of them hadn’t used vaccines for years,” he says, “and they used remedies I had never heard of. Their dogs were so healthy and in such excellent condition, I slowly started to reduce my vaccinations and improve my dogs’ diet.” Today they eat large amounts of raw meat supplemented by PHD dry food and occasional raw green tripe.
Since 1978, Carlisle has used what he calls “field vaccinations.” In each new litter, he gives one puppy a combination vaccine and places it back in the whelping box. Vaccinated puppies do “shed” the virus in the days after vaccination, and close contact with vaccinated littermates can stimulate an immune response in the unvaccinated pups. Carlisle has faith in this approach; whenever he has tested their titers, all of the littermates, vaccinated and unvaccinated, have shown identical results.
“It’s an interesting coincidence,” he adds, “but in the last 25 years, the only puppies that developed health problems were the vaccinated ones. I save these puppies for people who believe in vaccination. One went to an obedience competitor whose brother is a veterinarian. Following his advice, she had the puppy fully vaccinated, and it died of cancer at age two.”
For three generations, Carlisle has taken puppies from unvaccinated parents and exposed them to everything imaginable during their first eight weeks. “This is the exact opposite of what most breeders do,” he says, “but I’m convinced that exposing puppies to the world protects them, while keeping them in isolation makes them weaker.” In the past 25 years, Carlisle has bred more than 400 unvaccinated puppies, and until last summer, none of them had ever contracted parvovirus, distemper, coronavirus, or other serious contagious illness.
Four years ago, Carlisle kept a puppy who became his favorite companion. UDC Champion Cara’s April Fool, Schutzhund I, was born to a mother who had received only one vaccination and a father who was never vaccinated. “April traveled all over the world with me,” he says, “and she was never sick a day in her life.”
In August, she accompanied Carlisle to his Spring Valley office, then to a large dog park in New York City, and to an obedience class. “That’s where we were when I learned my mother had died, and I spent the rest of the day rushing home, packing, and taking the first flight out.”
April stayed home with Carlisle’s wife. The next morning, she wasn’t hungry, and later that day, she had a small amount of diarrhea. By the next morning, April was severely ill with what her veterinarian called the heaviest case of parvo he had ever treated, and she died the following day.
“I was shocked,” says Carlisle. “She was only three years old, had never been bred, and had her whole life in front of her. She was also one of the strongest, healthiest dogs I’ve ever known. It was unbelievable. This happened almost a year ago and it still hurts.”
Despite this unfortunate incident, however, Carlisle has not changed his aversion to using vaccines. “My attitude about vaccinations hasn’t changed. In a breed that has been steadily declining, my dogs live almost twice as long as they used to, and they’re in excellent condition. Cardiomyopathy, which used to be a major problem for my dogs, has disappeared. There’s absolutely no question in my mind that the benefits of not vaccinating far outweigh the risks.”
For over three months, I had possession of a year-old American Black and Tan Coonhound or coonhound-mix whom I called Maebe. I absolutely loved that dog, and cried when I dropped her off for transport to her new home. AND I’m thrilled and tearful – in a good way – that she found a great new home. That’s the bittersweet experience of fostering.
As a frequent foster person for my local shelter, I had originally pulled her as a prospect for my sister-in-law and her six-year-old daughter. She is one of the sweetest, most affectionate dogs I’ve ever met, loves cuddling on the couch or petting anytime, and is super inquisitive about anything humans are doing. But within days of bringing her home, I could see that she had far too much energy for my sister-in-law’s home and schedule. She needs regular running, or she finds creative/destructive ways to amuse herself in a house. I knew my sister-in-law, a working mom without a partner (her husband, my brother, passed away last year), didn’t have time in her schedule to add in hour-long walks.
Even though I had pulled her with a specific home in mind, once I realized Maebe wouldn’t work out for that home, I couldn’t take her back to my shelter. Once I’ve pulled a dog and have gotten interested in him or her, I just can’t take them back to the loud, concrete row of barking dogs. Instead, I figured I’d advance her training and life experience, and find her another home, while keeping an eye peeled for a different dog for my sister-in-law and niece.
I started work on her house manners, sit, down, wait for the food bowl, not jumping up, and especially, not darting out the door. She was a champion door-darter. She flew out of the car from the backseat over my shoulder once, before I started using a harness and seat belt, even if we were just driving the two blocks from my home to my office. We worked on leash manners, and a recall off-leash. She learned everything really fast. We also worked to reduce her mild separation anxiety, with lots of short, drama-free exits and entrances.
She caused a certain amount of trouble in my home and at my office. She dug up some garden beds. At first, she wailed when left alone for any length of time, even just the few minutes it took me to walk to the post office on the next block and back. She chewed through my Macbook power cord. She ate an entire cake that my sister baked for me one day, a cube of butter another day; she is an experienced and crafty counter-surfer. But she is also the most playful mischievous, likable dog! And she played and played with the litter of puppies I was fostering, and then the one in the litter I decided to keep. She served as a full-time companion and playmate to the puppy, Woody, keeping him from having to get reprimanded sternly by my older dogs, Otto and Tito, every two minutes. She and Woody slept together, switched bowls back and forth when eating meals, chewed opposite ends of the same toys, and romped together all day long.
I marketed her initially to my son’s friends and teammates. He plays a sport that involves a lot of running (Ultimate, better but less accurately known as Ultimate Frisbee), and almost all of his friends are athletes. I’ve found dogs for several of his friends, teammates, and work associates before – three dogs in his office are my former fosters! – but nobody was currently in the market for a canine running partner.
So I reached out to the American Black and Tan Coonhound Rescue, an organization I’ve talked about before. It’s one of the best breed rescues I’ve had the pleasure of working with. They have a very large and dedicated group of volunteers who foster and transport hounds from areas where they are very much in danger of being euthanized in shelters, and finding them homes with people who can handle and appreciate their unique characteristics. Like many breed rescues, they often take on hounds other than the one the group is named after, and even hound-mixes. And they take on dogs who have health and/or behavioral challenges, and find just the right type and amount of help they need to be appropriately placed.
Within a week or two, the rescue had passed along a couple of inquiries about Maebe to me. I corresponded with both potential adopters, and one lost interest fairly quickly, based on the amount of exercise I suggested that Maebe needed to behave herself. But the other potential adopter wasn’t daunted by that OR the news about Maebe’s other various mischief (door-darting, separation anxiety, and all); she had adopted another coonhound from ABTCR a few years ago, and was well acquainted with coonhound ways. The only catch: she lives in Arizona, almost a thousand miles away.
And then, just a week or so later, the ABTCR came through with transportation, largely provided by volunteers from another amazing organization: Pilots n Paws, a group of aircraft owners and enthusiasts who volunteer to help move dogs from places where they are in danger to new homes or rescue groups, especially across distances that are too far for a simple bucket-brigade of volunteer drivers.
photo by Stacy Gonzalez
I drove Maebe to the ABTCR’s Western region coordinator’s base, a dog daycare in Jackson, California, about two hours away. I wept and sniffled during the whole drive, seeing Maebe’s goofy countenance in my rear-view mirror the whole way. It kills me every time I take one of my foster dogs to a new home, even when I’m certain it’s going to work out perfectly. THEY don’t know where they/we are going. When I hand the leash over to someone they don’t know, they don’t know they won’t see me again, or where they are going to sleep that night. They just know they are in the wind again. Those facts just stab me in the heart. Just as the sight of Maebe’s confused expression did when I last saw her, among a group of dogs at the daycare. “Where are you going? Why are you leaving me here?” I could barely say goodbye to the rescue coordinator, and sobbed once back in my car.
But a day later, I got to see pictures of inquisitive Maebe in a small airplane, flying over California, and being greeted at a small airport a thousand miles away by her new owner. And within another day, pictures of her chewing toys with her new coonhound “brother” in her new home, and snuggling on the couch with her new owner. And I’ve been getting reports from the owner, about how funny and mischievous she is, and how Maebe has already become the exception to the adopter’s mother’s lifelong rules about “no dogs on the couch,” and “no big dogs on laps.” And those things cause an outbreak of happy tears!
I’m completely immersed in puppy-training Woody now, and have a new litter of nine foster puppies to care for, for at least a few more weeks. So I don’t think I will be fostering any adult or young-adult dogs for a while. It’s time-consuming and draining… but eventually, I forget about all that, and with the help of a continuing flow of happy pictures from my former foster dogs’ new owners, I just remember the best news: another dog saved from the shelter, and beloved in a home. And so I bring home another one to foster.
I want to congratulate WDJ’s long-time contributor, dog trainer/writer Stephanie Colman, for winning a Maxwell award from the Dog Writers Association of America (DWAA), for her article, “Service, Please,” which ran in WDJ’s July 2015 issue. The award is named in honor of the late Maxwell Riddle, who co-founded the DWAA. The awards were announced on February 14, at the Pennsylvania hotel in New York City at the DWAA’s annualawards banquet, held prior to the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
Of course I’m biased, since I edited the article, but I thought it better explained the differences between service dogs, emotional support animals, and therapy dogs – including their capabilities and training – than any article I’ve seen before or since. It also discussed the differences between their legal access to public places, why there is so much confusion about what dogs can go where – and why it’s so bad for people to take advantage of that confusion and pass off one type of dog as the other.
Apparently the judges of the DWAA’s annual competition agreed, because it was awarded the top prize in the “Canine Newsletter Article or Column” category.
I’d also like to congratulate two other WDJ contributors who were named as finalists in the same category. Trainer/writer Lisa Rodier had two WDJ articles named as finalists: “Order! Labrador in the Court!”, about a dog who provides comfort to victims in a courtroom, and “Restraining Order,” her report on canine car restraints. And trainer/writer Laurie Williams’ article, “The Healing Power of Dogs,” about how dogs and the dog community have literally saved her life, was another finalist.
What a dilemma! The work of three of our very strong writers battling it out in the same contest! My appreciation and thanks to all of them.
Want to judge for yourself? Click to read the articles mentioned above:
If your dog hops out of bed, stretches, and trots off, thank your lucky stars. He’s likely had a good sleep on a supportive surface. But if he rises slowly, stiff and sore, that bed might be worn out or inferior. Even an old dog shouldn’t wake up stiff and sore. The time is now to spring for a good dog bed!
We gathered nine high-end, medium and large dog beds that were marketed as “orthopedic,” offering full body support. We distributed them to appropriately sized test dogs, most of them in homes with more than one dog. We wanted to see what human and canine preferences emerged, and if these beds truly supported our sleeping dogs.
What Constitutes “Orthopedic”?
There is no legal or technical definition of “orthopedic” when it comes to dog beds. Wikipedia defines an orthopedic mattress as one “designed to support the joints, back, and overall body.” We’d say that an orthopedic dog bed is one that reacts to and supports the dog’s weight in a superior fashion. In our opinion, if you squeeze a dog bed and are able to flatten it, feeling the floor or your fingers on the reverse side, that bed isn’t offering orthopedic support, no matter what the label says.
In search of maximum support, we dismissed “filled” beds – those products that are stuffed full of chunks of foam, fiber, or other small particles. Those beds tend to adjust slowly (or not at all) when the dog gets up. They usually become lumpy and indented, requiring you to “fluff” them up on occasion.
Instead, we selected products with the thickest mattresses we could find. A couple of our selections have mattresses made with slabs of quilted poly fiberfill. But most of the “orthopedic” beds are made with super-thick, high-quality foam – those products being best able to evenly distribute a dog’s weight and offer balanced, cushiony, firm support each time the dog gets on the bed.
Details of the beds we chose for evaluation, along with links to company websites, appear below.
Whole Dog Journal‘s Favorite Orthopedic Dog Beds
BED
TYPE, ORIGIN
DIMENSIONS AND PRICES
COMMENTS
Alden Odor’s Posture Pedic Pet Mats
(866) 364-6367 dogodor.com
Flat, rectangular; Made in the USA
Small: 12″ x 17″ $25
Large: 28″ x 46″ $55
(seven more sizes in between)
These mats are made with two layers of closed-cell memory foam and wrapped with a Cordura cover. Extraordinarily durable and long-lasting. Foam is 2 inches thick. This bed is not soft and cushy, but offers incredible support. This is our top choice for an inexpensive way to provide support for your dog.
Drs. Foster & Smith’s Quilted Super Deluxe Dog Bed
(800) 381-7179 drsfostersmith.com
Rectangular; imported
Small: 36″ x 21″ x 7″ $90
Medium: 42″ x 24″ x 7″ $140
Large: 48″ x 28″ x 7″ $160
X-Large: 50″ x 35″ x 7″ $180
The mattress in this bed is made with a 6-inch slab of orthopedic foam, covered with quilted poly fiberfill, stitched to stay in place and to offer solid support. The poly/cotton quilted cover has an extra heavy-duty zipper; replacement covers and a waterproof liner are also available.
Measurements = sleeping area, not entire bed:
XXS: 13″ x 21″ $50
XL: 37″ x 46″ $194
(four more sizes in between)
Very cozy, nest-like bed with 100% cotton durable cover. Can be ordered with either a polyfill or orthopedic foam mattress, or a combination. Order a size larger than you think you need. Excellent, maximum support.
In the Company of Dogs’ FurFighter Orthopedic Bolster
(800) 544-4595 inthecompanyofdogs.com
Bolster; Made in the USA
Medium: 36″ long $250
Large: 46″ long $280
Arguably the most luxurious bed in the trial. Beautiful. The tightly woven fabric does not allow fur or dirt to penetrate to the foam beneath. NASA-certified memory foam with a poly fiberfill bolster. Provides maximum support.
L.L. Bean’s Therapeutic Dog Couch
(800) 441-5713 llbean.com
Bolster; Made in USA with imported components
Small: 25″ x 20″” x 7″” $130
Medium: 36″ x 28″ x 9″ $180
Large: 44″ x 34″ x 12″ $250
X-Lg: 52″ x 42″ x 13½” $290
This bed has poly fiberfill bolsters on three sides, and a durable 100% cotton denim cover. The mattress is an open-cell memory foam base insert. Nice details! Gussets ensure that the cover fits snugly, and the zipper is covered to discourage chewing. Assembly required; we struggled with it initially to get it put together. Antimicrobial treatment minimizes odors. One of the most durable choices in our trial with excellent support.
Orvis’ s Tempur-Pedic Deep Dish Bed
(888) 235-9763 orvis.com
Bolster; Made in USA with imported components
Small: 35½” x 25½” x 3½” $295
Medium: 40″ x 26½” x 3½” $350
The mattress in this tempurpedic dog bed is high-density foam with open-cell technology. Comes with a water-resistant breathable liner. Available covers include plush microfiber, faux shearling, or tweed bed, and replacement covers are sold separately. We ordered the tweed cover, and it is absolutely beautiful and elegant. This bed offered maximum support.
Petmate’s Dig & Burrow Orthopedic Bed
(877) 738-6283 petmate.com
Flat, rectangular; Bed made in USA, cover made in China
36″ x 37″ x 3 $90
This is the only bed we ordered with an egg-crate foam mattress. The egg-crate foam gives the bed a ripply appearance; its maker says it’s designed to encourage dogs who like to dig and scratch before they lay down, and it definitely attracted that activity. We were concerned that with enough digging and burrowing, the cover would tear, but it survived well. The bed offers good support for lighter-weight dogs, and our medium-sized test dogs loved it, but it would not provide enough support for large or heavy dogs.
Rectangular with a “nest” indent in the center; Made in the USA
Small: 18″ x 18″ x 4½” $30
Large: 35″ x 54″ x 8″ $186
(five more sizes in between)
The mattress in this bed is a single slab of extremely thick foam that has a scooped-out center forming an indented nest. The water-resistant cover goes on like a fitted mattress sheet, with no zippers, hooks, or loops. As far as orthopedic support, this bed provides absolutely superior, maximum support for even the heaviest dog. However, some of our test dogs prefer sleeping on flatter surfaces and shunned the indented nest.
Some beds with mattresses that do not contain foam:
BED
TYPE, ORIGIN
DIMENSIONS AND PRICES
COMMENTS
Ruffwear’s Urban Sprawl Bed
(888) 783-3932 ruffwear.com
Flat, rectangular; Made in Vietnam
Medium: 28″ x 35″ x 4″ $150
Large: 36″ x 48″ x 4″ $200
This two-sided mattress is made with recycled polyester. One side is firm and meant for warmer temperatures or dogs with orthopedic issues. The other side is softer and provides more warmth. The top of the cover is made of microsuede; the bottom is a waterproof fabric, providing a moisture barrier. Mattress can be washed (separately) in a commercial front-loading washer. This is an extremely durable bed, that provides excellent support.
(Not actually a bed, but a stuffable bed cover); Designed in California and made in China
Small: 22″ x 27″ x 5″ $25
Med/Lg: 27″ x 36″ x 5″ $41
Huge: 36″ x 45″ x 5″ $50
Round: 36″ x 5″ $19
We had to tell you about these 100% cotton, durable, well-made dog bed covers. They were designed as an environmentally friendly dog-bed option; the maker suggests that you stuff them with old clothing, blankets, towels – whatever you would like. Given that they are some of the most attractive covers we’ve seen, and inexpensive (especially given the quality of the fabric and the workmanship), we’d consider stuffing them with a slab of high-quality foam from an upholstery shop in order to create our own orthopedic pet bed, or use them as replacement covers for another bed of a compatible size.
Foam-Filled Dog Beds
When it comes to beds with a foam cushion, thicker is usually better – and a thick mattress is an absolute necessity for a larger, heavier dog – as it offers more support and lasts longer. Some dog beds are made of thinner foam slabs that have been glued together. These tend to be less expensive than the ones made with the thickest, single slabs of foam. We noted several claims that a single piece of foam will last longer and offer more support, but the length of our trial (about six months) was insufficient to prove or disprove this theory.
Most of the beds in our trial were made of high-grade, flat, polyurethane foam. If it’s thick enough, flat foam will support your dog.
Many manufacturers use egg-crate foam for dog beds. It’s a top choice in human health care due to its support, shock absorption, and economical price. Egg-crate foam is usually open-cell foam, which, combined with its egg-crate shape, is meant to offer more air flow and a cooler surface than memory foam or flat orthopedic foam. However, today, any foam (even some memory foams) can be infused with air pockets to allow heat to escape.
Egg-crate foam adjusts to pressure immediately. The downside is that it will not have the longevity of memory foam. It can become permanently compressed with time, which means if you start to see the dog’s imprint in the bed – dents and hollows – it’s time to replace the foam. Only one of our selections is made with egg-crate foam.
Memory foam, invented by NASA in the 1970s, is a polyurethane that molds to shape and becomes more pliable as it becomes warmer, including from body warmth. It provides excellent support in thinner slabs than ordinary foam. Since quality memory foam is evaluated by its density, not its thickness, a good memory foam pad that is just two inches thick can offer excellent support. As your dog lies on memory foam, the surface slowly adjusts to the weight distribution, offering a well-aligned support system. Memory foam dog beds also offer the advantage of being a long-lasting choice.
The downside of memory foam is that it can retain heat more than other foams. That’s because most memory foams are closed foam, which means no airflow (some of the newer memory foams have air pockets). The too-warm problem can be circumvented by placing a thicker cover/pad on top of the mattress, or even adding a “cool bed” on top during warmer temperatures. If your dog constantly gets up, circles and lays back down, or pants for no apparent reason (panting can also indicate pain, of course), or sleeps belly up, he may be too warm.
Easily Washed Beds
For our trial, we considered only those beds that had covers that can be removed for washing. Who wants something in their home that a dog will be spending a significant amount of time on and that can’t be washed? Ick!
Happily, we were able to remove, wash, dry, and replace every bed cover in this trial without major problems. Except for the Pet-O-Bed, which has no zippers or closures, all the covers zipped on and off.
A few of the covers were trickier than others to get back on. It was a lot of work to get everything stuffed into the L.L. Bean dog bed, for example. The Pet-O-Bed required close attention to the instructions, but once they were understood, no problem.
The Urban Sprawl fiberfill mattress is the only one that can be washed in a front-loading machine. The foam mattresses in the other beds can be spot-washed or lightly sprayed with a mixture of vinegar and water to help get rid of any lingering odors.
Sun is a great antimicrobial agent, but be careful. It can also damage foam if it is exposed to intense sun rays for very long.
Observations
The Pet-O-Bed product was the thickest foam dog bed in our trial, up to eight inches in its largest sizes. Their high-quality foam was made in the USA, and this is important. Some inferior imported foams can retain a chemical smell. While the odor will usually dissipate if you thoroughly air out the foam prior to use, we advise you to look for that USA label. A notable exception is the Drs. Foster & Smith bed in this trial. While imported, it proved to be a quality choice.
The FurFighter Orthopedic Bolster bed uses NASA-certified memory foam covered with a tightly woven fabric designed to resist dust and hair from passing through. It’s a luxurious bed, and our tester, a veterinarian, believes it offers maximum orthopedic support.
We read a customer review of the Orvis Tempur-Pedic bed, another memory foam bed that performed very well in our trial. The review was the only one-star review online, so it drew our attention. The reviewer wrote that the bed was too hard and took too long to allow the dog to “sink” in. That gave us pause. Memory foam is naturally stiffer in cool temperatures (the review was written in November, so we assume the ambient temperature was cool).
As for the comment that dog didn’t actually sink into the bed fast enough, well, that’s a good thing. Quality memory foam is actually less springy than other foams. It’s supposed to be slower to relax against weight and slower to recover when that weight is removed. If you press your hand on good memory foam, you will leave a handprint, and then it will gradually disappear. Remember, it’s all about support.
L.L. Bean’s Therapeutic Dog Couch uses open-cell memory foam, which offers relief from overheating. Unfortunately, we were not able to judge if that was true, as our trial took place in the fall and winter. However, the bed is extremely durable, withstanding chewing and standing up to the demands of two large Labrador agility dogs.
Ruffwear
The mattress in Ruffwear’s Urban Sprawl bed is made of recycled polyester fiberfill and is reversible! One side is firm, designed to keep the dog cool in warmer temperatures; the other side is soft, both for dogs with orthopedic issues and those who might benefit from added warmth. This durable bed survived a very large Goldendoodle who has destroyed every other bed he’s had. He only managed to scratch a few holes in it, and the tester said “Doodle” loves his bed.
Consider When Buying for YOUR Dog
Different dogs have different sleeping styles, although nearly every dog will relax in every position at one point or another. Before you purchase an expensive dog bed, observe your dog in his napping position at different times. If he tends to sleep most in a ball and likes to cuddle, he might like a nesting bed, like the Pet-O-Bed or the Bagel Bed. Dogs who like to “hide” while they’re sleeping might enjoy the deep, luxurious Bagel Bed from For Your Dogs Only.
Snugglers might also like a bolster bed, which has at least one raised side, usually the back. Most are raised on three sides. If your dog seems to like to use a pillow for his head or rarely sleeps out in the open, preferring the security of a snuggling up against a nearby pillow or cushion, he might be a bolster bed candidate. A bolster bed can also be a good option for a dog who likes to lie on his side, as long as it’s big enough.
Dogs who flop down and spread out as wide as possible are candidates for a rectangular bed, although we maintain that if you’re not sure, the rectangular bed is your most versatile choice. You can place it against a wall with a couple of pillows against the wall to mimic a bolster bed or add a blanket for the “nesting” dog to scratch around on.
Actually, Petmate’s rectangular Dig & Burrow bed was a favorite in one of our testing spots, with every canine family member using it as often as possible. They scratched on its surface, digging and circling for that “perfect” spot. Unfortunately, however, we had to place it in a home with lighter dogs, as its foam seemed to lack what we considered adequate support for heavier dogs. If your dog likes the “dig and burrow” concept, consider purchasing this bed and placing it on top of Alden Odor’s Posture Pedic pad for more support.
The Pet-O-Bed has an inviting “nest” indent in the center of the bed, but our test dogs didn’t settle into it. The Pet-O-Beds feature the thickest foam of any of the products we tested, which, one would think, should have sparked a lot of interest, but our dogs didn’t stay put for long. We suspect the bed may have been too small for our test dogs. Also, the nest indent might not attract all dogs, making us wish the company produced a flat bed, too.
Size is a big issue. Bigger is better, even for little canines. It’s the rare dog who thinks he’s smaller than he is. One of our test dogs, a medium Goldendoodle, determined that one bed was simply too small for him. Once in a while, he would curl up on it, but mostly he used the bed as a pillow. When we measured the dog and the bed, the bed had a spare five or more inches in each direction for the dog but, apparently, he disagreed.
We recommend you ignore breed and weight suggestions on websites for choosing a bed in the “right” size. Instead, grab a measuring tape and measure your dog from nose to tip of tail, from toe to top of the withers. Then, order a bed that’s at least 12 inches longer and wider than the dog’s measurements. Doing this can be especially helpful when shopping for dog beds for small dogs – “small” could mean a lot of things.
We also advise you to check out the company’s return policy. If it’s a local shop, no problem. If you’re mail-ordering the bed and have to return it, the return shipping cost can be a big chunk of change. Either way, for the first day or two, put a large clean sheet on the bed, covering top, sides and at least some of the bottom. You want to protect it from dust, dirt, dog hair, and any signs of use in order to be able to return it.
Adjusting to a New Bed
One of the biggest problems with a new bed is getting your dog to use it. Dismissing the bed, saying the dog doesn’t like it before he’s even gotten used to it, is a disservice to the bed and the dog.
The most important element is the location of the new bed. If your dog’s old bed is beside the couch, you’re going to have to place the new bed in that spot. If it’s a new item, place the bed in a spot your dog often sleeps or in your bedroom if he comes in with you at night. Always place the bed away from drafts and cold areas. Some dogs prefer their beds tucked into a quiet spot they can call their own, while others like to snooze in the middle of all the household activity.
It may help to “scent” the new bed. You can do this a number of ways, but one of the veterinarians who helped test these beds suggests the dog owner curl up on the new bed and hang out there for 15 minutes or so, to make the bed smell like you and like home. You might also toss a few of your dog’s favorite toys on the bed until he accepts it as his own. It’s all part of introducing the dog to the new bed, helping your dog understand the bed is his to use. He’ll soon figure out it’s comfortable!
Finally, the cover material can make a difference. Many of the beds in our trial come from smaller manufacturers who may be willing to take the cover back in trade for a different texture. Maybe your dog doesn’t like denim, but thinks microsuede is luxurious. It can be challenging to determine why your dog walks away from a comfortable-looking bed.
Bottom Line
The biggest waste of money when it comes to dog beds is being cheap. Dogs are hard on beds. They scratch at the covers, nibble on zippers, and occasionally try to drag their beds to another spot. A dog bed needs to be durable, stain-resistant, and have washable covers. Every bed in our trial met this criteria.
At the start of the trial, we climbed onto each bed ourselves to get a feel for the support offered. There wasn’t a bad one in the bunch. However, we felt the most support in the Pet-O-Bed, In the Company of Dogs’ Fur-Fighter, Orvis’ Tempur-Pedic, L.L. Bean’s Therapeutic Dog Couch, and Dr. Foster & Smith’s Quilted Super Deluxe beds.
If your dog is a chewer, meaning you know the bed has a limited lifespan in your household, an egg-crate foam bed or regular foam bed may be the most economical choice. If you want memory foam, choose a brand that makes replacement covers available or investigate those Molly Mutt covers.
For dogs who are kind to their sleeping quarters or have known severe arthritic/orthopedic issues, memory foam is worth the extra cost. In terms of maximum support, we found memory form offer the highest level, followed by flat foam, then the egg-crate foam.
If you’re not at all sure what type of bed your dog might like, we’d go with a flat, rectangular bed just a bit larger than you think you actually need. Every test dog loved the flat beds. Of the ones we had, the Quilted Super Deluxe dog bed from Drs. Foster & Smith earns top choice. While it looked “boring” to us humans, who ooh’d and ahh’ed over the fancy beds from In the Company of Dogs, Bagel Bed, and Orvis, our test dogs couldn’t have cared less. During the bed-sorting and -distribution stage of the test, I more frequently found my dogs on the Quilted Super Deluxe bed than any other bed. For the actual trial, it was shared in a household of Brittanies, and the older arthritic dog – ruler of the roost – claimed it as her own, choosing it even over her owner’s own mattress.
A close second is the Urban Sprawl, which truly gets points for durability and its waterproof fabric bottom.
The Posture Pedic Pet Mat is a bargain to consider, as it offers a lot of firm support. It’s only about two inches thick, but even big dogs get good support when they’re on it. We saw many of these mats used as “under mats” in crates at dog shows and trials with an added cushier soft top layer. Its price is tough to beat, durability is jaw-dropping, and you could combine it with the very fun Dig & Burrow bed.
Note: We didn’t have a completely round bed in this trial, but be aware that if you choose a round bed it must be large enough that the dog can sleep flat out as well as curled up.
Cynthia Foley is a freelance writer and dog agility competitor from New York. Her Papillons enjoyed their time in the sea of dog beds, before they were sent to larger test dogs.
I recently fostered a dog who first greeted me at the shelter that I sprung her from by jumping up on me. I spent the first two days with her almost exclusively working on preventing her from jumping. When I introduced her to a friend, my friend immediately held her arms out and greeted the dog’s enthusiastic jump up with a big hug, petting, and cooing
