Heated Dog Bed?

[mbc1963]

Heating costs are going through the roof, so I'm keeping my house cool when I'm at work. I'd like to get my dog a heated bed, so he can be warm and snug when I'm away. Does anyone have recommendations of good beds, or horror stories of beds I should avoid?

 

Ideally, the bed would be one that only heats up when the dog is on it.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Mary

[kelpiegirl]

I just worry about fires- anything that you plug in has the potential to cause a fire. There are some beds where you can microwave some of the components, and they stay warm... I suspect if your house doesn't go below 50, as long as your dogs and other animals have blankets, they will be fine.

[Sue R]

I sincerely doubt that your dog needs a heated bed. He's wearing a fur coat and any comfy bed should provide plenty of insulation from the floor and padding for comfort. Just my opinion, but I don't think there is a real need and there is a safety factor to consider.

 

Best wishes!

[NRhodes]

What Sue said, your dog is much better equipped to deal with cool temperatures than you are. It's not like your house is going to be that much cooler or you'd have pipes busting everywhere. What seems unbearably cold to us is often perfectly comfortable to a dog

[MrSnappy]

My dogs wouldn't sleep on a heated dog bed for love nor money. They regularly seek out the hardwood floor over their beds just because it's cooler and Tweed pushes his blankie out of the way in his coffee-table-slash-crate all the time. A regular plush dog bed would do the trick on its own, I think.

 

RDM

[Allie Oop]

I have used a heated dog bed as a comfort spot for my dogs if they are outside for several hours in the winter and the temperature is down around freezing or below, but only put it in a sheltered alcove on the porch with a couple of blankets over it, not in the doghouse (it would be way too hot for them).

 

I'll bet your dog wouldn't even use it, if it was in a 50 degree house. Some nice cozy blankets are probably a better alternative.

[mbc1963]

Well... OK! I'll trust your advice and save the money. The house does get pretty darned cool during the day - like 50ish - and Buddy's ear's feel cool to me when I get home. That's why I was worried.

 

I do remember my father's old husky, though, who refused to sleep inside from about October to May - she'd stay out on the porch, sleeping with her nose tucked under her tail, no matter how cold it was. She only slept inside in the summer because it was cooler in there.

 

Mary

[Dixie_Girl]

I couldn't imagine my dogs ever wanting anything heated! I would venture to guess that even if your house went down to 40 he wouldn't seek out the warm bed! If anything, the cooler it is, the more they seem to enjoy it. I am naturally hot-blooded so my dogs think it's great. I do relent and cut the heater on just before I wake the grandkids up for school.

[JohnLloydJones]

...so I'm keeping my house cool when I'm at work.

Where do you live? I have lived up in the arctic circle (70 degrees North) and I have never seen a need for a heated dog bed. Even when the temperatures are way below freezing, dogs curl into a ball and are just fine. Just give your dog something cozy to lay on (carpet / blanket / fleece) and he'll be happy. A dog plus a heated bed/blanket sounds to me like a recipe for disaster as well as being unnecessary.

[bc4pack]

Now OTOH, if you're in the hot and muggy climates that many of us are....

 

Seriously though, the very young, the very old and the ill or injured are the only ones that need

the warmth when the temp drops.

[Guest SweetJordan]

Now OTOH, if you're in the hot and muggy climates that many of us are....

 

Seriously though, the very young, the very old and the ill or injured are the only ones that need

the warmth when the temp drops.

Depends on the breed of dog. My mom's dachshund is always cold. She has something my mom throws in the microwave and heats up to keep her warm. She has a nice bed w/ bolsters in her crate, but if she doesn't have a blanket to sleep under as well she shivers. Even in the summer doxies get cold because of the AC.

She doesn't always need her heated buddy though, just some extra warm blankets to lay under.

[Maralynn]

There are some dog beds/blankets you can get that have a heat reflective layer sewn into the middle. It traps and reflects a dogs body heat to keep the dog warmer - no outside power required

 

But I'm with the majority - just get him a nice bed to curl up in and he should be fine

[Olivia]

I have a heating and massaging bed that I put in Carlie's crate when we are at a dog show. She has bad hip dysplasia and I noticed that even when I put a cushioned bed in her show crate it would be sitting on cold concrete and the cold would seep through and she would get stiff and sore. Since I put a heated bed in with her and keep it on through the show she is much more comfortable and doesn't get nearly as painful. While the other dogs may get one of the beds in their show crates (because they fit well) I never turn them on. They are healthy young dogs and have no need of the heating.

 

Even though we have the heated beds (actually have 4, they were given by the company that makes them since I work for them) we never use them in the house. I am paranoid about fire having had my house burn to the ground at age 10 and try to unplug everything possible when I'm not home. I would never leave the beds on when I'm not there.

 

Olivia

[Sue R]

I have a heating and massaging bed that I put in Carlie's crate when we are at a dog show. She has bad hip dysplasia and I noticed that even when I put a cushioned bed in her show crate...

 

I am assuming you are not showing a dysplastic dog in a conformation show here, but rather that Carlie or your other dogs are in a performance sport at a show? When I am hurting, I do like heat but I also need to be able to regulate it myself. If a dog needed supplemental heat, I would expect that it would be best if it could get on or off the heat source as needed, so access to the heat or a heat source smaller than the size of the crate might be optimal. You've had the experience to know what works best for Carlie.

 

Aged or otherwise unsound/infirm and some very small and/or short-haired animals may benefit from a mildly heated bed, especially if the substrate is chilling, like concrete. I don't have a "tote dog" but I know plenty of folks who do.

 

Normal, healthy, nicely-coated dogs produce plenty of their own heat - that's why I like them sleeping on the bed by my feet in the winter!

[jamesqf]

What seems unbearably cold to us is often perfectly comfortable to a dog

 

Humans also have a wider comfort range than is generally supposed, if they let themselves adapt to it. I spend a lot of time outside, and have found it's more comfortable to keep the house fairly cool (60-65ish) rather than try to adjust to a warmer house every time I come in. Besides, it gives me an excuse to use fuzzy blankets & comforters :-)

[Liz P]

A company offered me a free heated and massaging dog bed to try out. I asked for the biggest one. I lay on it a few times myself to see if it felt good. It barely felt warm at all and the massage feature shuts off in less than a minute and never comes back on. I ended up chopping the cord off and using it as a regular old low tech dog bed. I looked up the price and it was nearly $300, so it's clear spending a lot won't guarantee a good product!

 

What others said is quite true, 50 is very warm for a BC. My dogs are happiest when it's under 40F. If you want, give your dog a crate or dog house with some fluffy blankets. When I was living in upstate NY I was on a tight budget and didn't heat my apartment during the night or during the day when I wasn't home, and it got down to 30 below zero quite often. In fact, I used the dogs to stay warm at night (dragged them under the blankets with me).

 

BTW, when I lived in NY people would flock to the parks and enjoy the sunshine on late winter days when it got up to 20F. They would all smile, run around without hats or gloves and get excited about how warm it was. It's all relative

[Sue R]

In fact, I used the dogs to stay warm at night (dragged them under the blankets with me).

 

Liz, you are making me laugh here! I don't think my dogs would have anything to do with coming under the blankets except in extreme circumstances, and I hope my house is never THAT cold!

 

I have camped in my Subaru at trials before where the temps went down into the 20s and I'll admit I froze in spite of several very warm blankets. At one last winter, I noticed Celt and Bute (who had absolutely no body fat at the time I could detect) who are both just medium-coated, shivering in the early hours of the morning. I got them both under the covers lined up next to me where they slept quite gratefully the rest of the night. And I was glad of their warmth under my covers! I would have taken all the dogs I could get that night!

 

Under more moderate circumstances, dogs with decent coats and health are fine at temps that are quite chilly for us humans. I'll admit I do like an electric blanket (which I don't have) but, when I had one, the dogs would *not* sleep on the bed if it was on.

 

Julie P (in NC) doesn't use A/C in the summer and keeps (or, at least, kept) her house very cool in the winter. It keeps her dogs acclimated to the ambient temperatures. I admire her dedication and fortitude - I'm not quite so selfless but I do think not having A/C helps my dogs (and me) cope with the summer temps outside and keeping a cooler house helps with cooler weather acclimation. If I lived in coastal or Piedmont NC rather than north-central, higher-elevation WV, I would opt for moderate use of A/C - for my comfort and for the sake of the house, not so much for the dogs. I believe they would adapt reasonably.

 

Sorry for straying...

[OffTopic]

In fact, I used the dogs to stay warm at night (dragged them under the blankets with me).

Random trivia: I seem to recall that the band "Three Dog Night" got their name from reading an article about a tribe (don't remember where...maybe Australia?) which judged the coldness of the night by how many dogs they needed to sleep with to keep warm. A really cold night was a three dog night.

[bc4pack]

[Depends on the breed of dog.]

 

 

Ah, Sweet Jordan very true, but since I thought we were talking about a BC....... <grin>

[Liz P]

Julie P (in NC) doesn't use A/C in the summer and keeps (or, at least, kept) her house very cool in the winter. It keeps her dogs acclimated to the ambient temperatures. I admire her dedication and fortitude - I'm not quite so selfless but I do think not having A/C helps my dogs (and me) cope with the summer temps outside and keeping a cooler house helps with cooler weather acclimation. If I lived in coastal or Piedmont NC rather than north-central, higher-elevation WV, I would opt for moderate use of A/C - for my comfort and for the sake of the house, not so much for the dogs. I believe they would adapt reasonably.

 

I stopped allowing my dogs to be in rooms with AC after one collapsed from the heat after just minutes of running around outside. I never had that problem again! It is very important to keep dog acclimated if they are expected to spend any amount of time outside during the coldest part of winter or warmest part of summer.

 

Sue, I've found that nothing short of a couple of dogs or a really good sleeping bag will keep me warm. I camped out for 3 weeks in the mountains in AZ in March and it regularly got down to 5F at night. I had been assured that I only needed a sleeping bag rated to 20F Since then I have gained more camping experience I've learned to assume it will get MUCH colder than expected. While in northern Maine I was zipped up tight in my 20F bag in the middle of August! Oh, and my dogs were happy to be curled up under blankets I brought for them to use.

[sandra s.]

I'll admit I do like an electric blanket (which I don't have) but, when I had one, the dogs would *not* sleep on the bed if it was on.

 

Kessie LOVES mine. She likes to cook herself on it for a while in the evenings, all stretched out, and then go somewhere else to sleep. But I agree, she never uses it to escape the cold, even though I often sleep with the window open even in winter. She never retreats to the warmer parts of the house, either.

[Guest SweetJordan]

[Depends on the breed of dog.]

Ah, Sweet Jordan very true, but since I thought we were talking about a BC....... <grin>

Haha I know. Just reminded me of how my mom's doxie is always cold.

[Sue R]

Liz P - Sleeping in a small car like my Subaru seems to "magnify" the cold, I think! I was amazed when I put a heavy-duty tarp over mine last year at a December trial, that just that little bit of "dead air space" made a tremendous difference in comfort (that, and making sure the dogs were under the blanket to begin with, for my sake). I always had a couple of windows open an inch or so no matter how cold the weather, to avoid a build-up of humidity and staleness of air. I am very grateful now that I have a very tiny camper with a good furnace. It keeps me quite toasty, even at the lowest setting (which is all I ever use, when I use it at all).

 

I'm straying...

[NRhodes]

Sue's camper is cute

[Olivia]

Sue,

 

No conformation showing here. We do some agility for fun and that's where Carlie uses her heated bed. Some of the show sites are outside, last year we showed in 25 degree cold with 20 mile an hour winds! I thought about getting a larger crate so she can get off the heat but since we use the crate much more often (visiting in laws, etc) than we use the bed it's not worth toting around a huge crate for a little 30 lb border collie.

 

OLivia