Last week, I wrote about how awesome Kong dog toys are and how nice it is that my dogs chew on them. You know what’s not nice and awesome? Kong dog beds, and my dogs chewing on them.
It’s not an uncommon problem. Puppies like to chew and they are perfectly happy to chew on, well, anything that they can put in their mouths. For those of us who crate train our puppies – which I highly recommend! – this management strategy can curb a lot of unwanted chewing and keep the pup safely away from dangerous items. But we feel bad sending our cute little fluffballs to puppy jail so not only do we train our dogs to enjoy the crate, but we also make it comfortable with cuddly toys, warm blankets, and plush beds. And then what do the little bastards do? Render absolutely everything we give them into a mountain of shredded fabric and stuffing, drenched in excrement, all the while they screech like tormented souls and rattle the bars of their canine prisons.
Okay, maybe they aren’t quite that bad, but sometimes it feels like it.
When I brought home Vigilante, a toothy tornado in the form of a nine-week-old German shepherd dog, it was not my first rodeo. I thought I was prepared. He had a wire crate, not a flimsy plastic kennel. He had a hanging water bucket, not a tossable bowl. And he had a sturdy canvas crate pad made by Kong, a brand renowned for durability, not a fluffy, cushiony pillow.
The crate and the bucket survived with minimal damage. The crate pad lasted right up until it didn’t – once the tiny terror got bored and gnawed on a seam, it was all over. He then went through three more beds of differing designs in rapid succession. After delegating him to puppy jail to sleep on the plastic tray for a night and ruminate upon his sins, I asked a friend of mine who works in materials engineering if she knew of anyone who made dog beds out of Kevlar. I was only half joking.
Fortunately, she did know of a company, appropriately named K9 Ballistics. While not technically bullet-proof, their beds are advertised as the toughest on the market and I ordered the top-of-the-line for my little destroyer. He flipped it, he scratched it, he chewed it, he even took flying leaps onto it, but he did not destroy it. The Chew Proof Armored Elevated Cot dutifully held the line for nearly three years, until one day it developed a slight tear in the center of its ripstop fabric. Vigilante took one fateful, final flying leap and fell right through.
Which lead me to my only complaint. I couldn't get replacement parts.
In the intervening time, I had begun working at an animal shelter and so been introduced to the Kuranda brand of pet beds. A generous donor had supplied our shelter with dog beds and cat trees made similarly to Vigil's now defunct elevated cot, only a bit more utilitarian with heavy-duty vinyl fabric and PVC or even aluminum frames. They were many years old by the time I encountered them, having withstood countless disinfectants, pressure washers, volunteers, hurricanes, mildew – not to mention the animals themselves. Most of them were showing signs of wear, but if a corner broke or the fabric rotted, we could easily get replacement parts from Kuranda and fix them.
K9 Ballistics, much to my dismay, offered no such service.
I won't complain too much. It had gotten us through his horrific puppy and adolescent years, and time had mellowed the monster as much as a working line shepherd could mellow. He no longer needed a bed quite so over-engineered. But still, the boy had to sleep on something.
I had intended to purchase a Kuranda, as I was impressed with their durability and service, but covid was in full swing and supply lines were running dry. I went back to K9 Ballistics, this time for a Giant Rectangle Seven Inch Thick Orthopedic Dog Bed.
So what do you know? I did get my puppy an enormous, fluffy, cushiony bed.
It's just got two layers of ballistic fabric on top of it!
For further reading:
Susan Garrett’s 5 Games for Puppies (including an introduction to crating)
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