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Annie has only one rule about beds: If it's comfortable, it's mine, even if you think it's yours...

 

We have a bed for the bottom of her crate, but it is only used at night. Otherwise, she is free to rest wherever she wants (except on the living room furniture); this includes DW's side of our bed when I go to bed, until DW retires in the evening.

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The $5 mexican made gas station sold blankets are good. When they get beyond washing - too hairy, or too ripped. I throw them out.

$5, huh?

I don't think I've seen these in my area... Our gas stations have nothing but mini-marts around here ...

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Hoku is only allowed on the furniture by invitation, and he seems uncomfortable on the couch. But he LOVES his Costco dog beds (we have two). Gussy is allowed on the furniture as she is TheQueen. But, being TheQueen, she often wants the bed that Hoku has..... so they often share :rolleyes: Gussy is always happier with this arrangement the Hoku is...

 

Mooooommmmmm, she's on my bed again......

bedbuddies.jpg

 

Hoku will go back and forth between the bed and the hardwood, more on the wood in the summer, more on the bed in the winter. And of course he follows us from room to room. He has a crate pad in his crate for his nighttime sleeping, the crate is his #1 choice, and he puts himself to bed right after the night time walk, even if we stay up :D

 

I like having a bed that he loves, as 'go to you bed' is a useful thing for games, or if he's underfoot, or just pesty. Plus, when we take him someplace we take his bed and he has a spot to settle that is his and familiar, which really helps a freaky tweaky boy like him.

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$5, huh?

I don't think I've seen these in my area... Our gas stations have nothing but mini-marts around here ...

Try gas stations that are also "truck stops" (i.e., that also service 18-wheelers), like Flying J or some of the Hess stations. They are the ones that have the $5 Mexican blankets.

 

J.

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Sometimes Tractor Supply puts their "Navajo" saddle blankets on sale for a good price - I think I got my last ones for six or seven bucks. They hold up real well as crate blankets.

 

Scot got to use my last western saddle pad - the kind with the (fake) fleece on the underside - when he had his heartworm treatment. It was kind of like his security blanket to take to the vet's with him. The vet techs said he wouldn't move off it the whole time he was there. Western pads make really cushy crate pads for old dogs but are way too expensive to get for a shredder.

 

Violet, who is too special to be crated, starts out the evening on a bath mat at the foot of my bed, but she only stays there until I fall asleep. Then, having reinforced her perfect-princess image of a loyal obedient dog, she goes to crash on the couch until just before my alarm goes off in the morning. :rolleyes::D

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Mine have beds and blankets that they use, though they do also sleep all over the furniture. My bed is surrounded by 3 flat pillow type beds, a sort of oval foam one with once upon raised up sides (before it was used and a chew/tug toy) and a crate with blankets in it. The living room has 2 more blankets. Actually the blankets are something my dh brought home from work, they were used as padding for something that was being shipped. Not sure what they are but they are kind of like a felt material and I just fold them all up into a rectangular shape that is a few inches thick. Two of my pillow beds are homemade from old comforters. I find that when the dogs get up on my bed a lot the end up snagging and ripping the comforter (maybe because I keep buying cheapy ones). Anyways, when my comforter gets too old/ripped/stained from dogs being on it a lot I will fold it into quarters and sew it like that, using that satiny blanket edging ribbon to hold the edges all in neatly. A queen size comforter folded into quarters makes a good sized bed. When they get dirty or smelly I just toss the whole think into the washer and dryer and that also fluffs them back up thicker.

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I bought a nice big soft-sided bed for Odin, so of course Benway kicks him out at every opportunity. Odin goes right over to get in the cat bed then, which is way too small for him. :rolleyes: Benway looks so small curled up in the center of the dog bed, and Odin's feet and head and tail spill over the sides of the cat bed, more and more as he grows, too. This is a good reminder to get a picture of that!

 

However, most of the time the cats choose our bed and Odin sprawls on the floor, and nobody uses the animal beds.

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My dogs don't use the furniture unless invited (they are polite that way) and I prefer not to be covered with dog hair myself (insofar as this is possible) so that is fine with me. That said, Solo took a strong liking to a particular recliner, so we got one of those Costco furniture throws for dogs that sort of matches the area rug, and when it's cool Solo likes to sleep in the chair. Otherwise, he prefers the hardwood floor, despite his creaky joints. He is very hairy and well padded.

 

When Solo started to have orthopedic problems I decided he needed a fancy dog bed, so I bought him a Big Shrimpy bed that is environmentally conscious, made entirely out of recycled materials, completely washable, about six inches thick, and very dense. It is also so enormous that I could sleep on it pretty comfortably. I won't mention how much it cost, but they carry them at CleanRun.

 

Solo had previously gone through a number of cheapo beds from Target that I found unsatisfactory because they were thin and the stuffing flattened out quickly, but as it turned out, Solo considered this a feature and not a bug.

 

solo_spiteme.jpg

Here is Solo sleeping on the shitty bed from Target and using the expensive new bed as a pillow.

 

I wrapped the expensive bed in a nice green-on-green duvet cover and use a matching sham on a standard-sized pillow, since Solo likes to elevate his head if he's sleeping on something soft (see photo above). However, I can probably count the number of times he's actually used the bed and pillow on one hand. The bed is at least attractive in the living room, with the matching duvet and sham on it.

 

We have two cheap beds (not the nice orthopedic ones) from LL Bean and Costco in other rooms and the dogs do use those. I think they like having various reclining options. They all seem to prefer having a bed that is sort of loosely stuffed and can be mounded up or mashed around.

 

Jett and Fly do like the expensive bed, or at least, they use it for napping during the day. That said, Fly is currently curled up on the floor right next to it but not on it. And at night they both like to sleep on the bedroom floor right next to the human bed. (Solo thinks it is too warm in the bedroom and usually sleeps on the hardwood out in the hall.)

 

There are three crates in various areas of the house. I used to just buy bathmats on sale to put in the crates (they have rubber bottoms, and are inexpensive, and usually exactly the right size to fit in crates) but my fiance splurged on actual crate beds, which would have been fine for Solo or Fly, who are not destructive, but were promptly unstuffed by Jett. She limits her destructive activities to unstuffing for the most part, so I leave the beds in the crates and just reinsert the stuffing periodically. I used to sew the holes Jett made back up, but she'd just rip them open again so now I leave them.

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Jake, too, sleeps wherever he drops, with no apparent preference to floor type (if anything, he prefers tile or wood over carpet, for the coolness I guess). But he's getting older (turned 10 this year), and has the occasional bout of arthritis (he's all but fine now, after spending a year on glucosamine, but once in a while he'll wake up a wee bit stiff in his bad leg). And for being 10 years old, he'd never had a proper dog bed (usually blankets and straw in his doghouse when he lived outside, and thick blankets in his crate when he moved inside). He LOVED the cat beds, though, and would always try so hard to curl up in them, and even curled up in an old wicker "baby basket" (I don't know if that's what it is, but it looks like it) for a while. So I finally got him an orthopedic dog bed and he FELL IN LOVE. Wouldn't leave it for a week. He still uses it, but he alternates between it and his crate (which, at the moment, doesn't have any blankets in it, for Jake pulled them out in a fit of playfulness). It is summer, though, and very hot lately, so that's most likely why he's using the bare crate more often. The cats love the ortho bed too, but only Molly takes it over since the other two are a little fearful of treading Jake's domain. But he still liked curling up in the cat beds (round things with "walls"), so I got him his own for his birthday, and he loved that one too. This one stays upstairs in the living room, and someone threw a pillow and one of his blankets in there, so now when he runs into it and curls up, he props his head up on the pillow or the wall and stares out at the world around him. He seems to like having a bed that actually fits him for once, not something that digs into his ribs or bladder, lol.

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We have several beds - a couple have washable covers. What I find works best for us is 2-3 yards of fleece, folded in half, whipstiched along 2 sides and stuffed with an old comforter. They're lumpy and mashable, don't cost much, and easily refluffed by running comforter and/or cover in the laundry.

 

Miss Zoe prefers our bed. Sassy is a couch dog. Sasha usually prefers the tile. Nik vaires between the tile in the laundry room and the couch. Rue will take what she can get.

 

Right now, I am within eyesight of two big comfy dog beds, and 4 dogs... 3 of which are lying on the tile, and Sasha is curled up on a doormat. Weirdos.

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solo_spiteme.jpg

 

Melanie,

I meant to say earlier that this is the most colour-coordinated dog/bed combination I've ever seen! :rolleyes: The ortho-bed really should be re-covered in a more complementary fabric!

What a handsome beauty your Solo is.

Ailsa

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Huh. Suka's bed happens to be directly under whereever my feet are. Nice beds? Un-uh. Under the desk, atop a plank of plywood is better, according to her. Or directly under the footrest of my easy chair. Or right beside the bed, exactly where I put my feet down when I get up. Basically, if I can step on her unexpectedly, that's a good place to sleep, in her world.

:rolleyes:

Go figure.

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