bed saga

Over 65 pounds of puppiness is very destructive, so doggie is crated most of the time. So much time on a plastic floor results in bald spots (calluses) at the pressure points. We've been trying to find a solution. The K-9 Ballistics bed didn't work; he tore apart the plastic zipper in minutes. Then we tried fleece mats--no zipper, no stuffing, no stitches. That's lasting; he's not eating up the entire two fleeces we gave him, though a little bit does disappear each week. Unfortunately, the fleeces just get pushed off to the corner of the crate.

We tried another stuffed bed that was on sale for $20. Yup, it tore in minutes. I've since sewn back up the hole in the bed and now he gets it when he's out in the house (under supervision). In the photo, the cat is enjoying that bed while doggie is crated.

We tried a foam play mat (found through Amazon); it comes as a pack of four 2ft square mats. I estimated a 2ft x 3ft mat, so I used 1 1/2 squares. It survived one night but was torn to pieces by the end of the following day. I still had 2 1/2 mats left. So I've put the mats together with all the interlocking fingers on the inside and the outsides are cut edges something like diagrammed below. I made the mat 24 1/2 x 39 inches so that it would fit the crate more snugly, making it difficult for him to get to the edges. We've decided that we'll remove the mat from the crate when we're gone. Let's hope it works.