Dog bed accessories: what is on our shelf this week
This collection covers the whole sleeping setup, not just the mattress. A dog bed on its own is one purchase; a dog bed that actually gets used is a bed of the right size, in the right place, on flooring the dog can stand up from, with something washable between the dog and the fabric.
Here is the honest position on stock right now. Our soft beds and sofas are between deliveries, so if the grid below shows everything greyed out, that is real rather than a display fault. What we do have on the shelf today, and what most people are actually looking for when they search dog bed accessories, is this:
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Wire cages in small and medium, which give you a crate bed base you can put your own bedding into.
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Travel carriers in medium and extra large, for vet trips, flights and moving house.
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Training pads in four sizes from two brands, which go under or beside the bed for puppies and for older dogs who no longer make it through the night.
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Dog nappies in male and female cuts across four sizes, for post-surgery, incontinence and seasons.
To buy a dog bed online from us when stock returns, or to have us hold one, message the Animeal team on WhatsApp or call any of our four Mumbai branches. Our Parel branch answers around the clock. Tell us your dog's weight and how they sleep, curled or stretched out, and we will tell you the size to order rather than letting you guess from a photograph.
The dog beds we carry, and the dog bed price band
When the beds are in, this collection runs from a small cotton sofa at the affordable end up to a very large square bed at the top of the range, with several mid-sized soft beds and one elevated dog bed in between. Sizes go from small through to XXL, so a Beagle and a Great Dane are both catered for, though not by the same product.
We are not going to print prices in this text, because prices move and stale numbers in a description box quietly mislead people. The grid below carries live pricing, including any discount currently running. What is worth saying about price is the shape of it: a bed is the item in this category where paying more genuinely buys something, because the difference between a thin cushion and a properly filled bed shows up in whether an older dog can get comfortable on it. The difference between two training pad brands, by contrast, is mostly the piece count.
Every bed here is machine friendly to some degree, but a washable dog bed is not one category. Some have removable covers you can put in a machine while the filling stays dry. Some are washable whole, which sounds better and is worse, because a soaked filling takes days to dry in Mumbai humidity and can go musty inside where you cannot see it. Ask us which is which before you buy, especially if you are buying for a dog who has accidents.
Getting the size right
Most beds that get ignored were bought too small. Measure your dog from nose to base of tail while they are lying stretched out, then add about fifteen to twenty centimetres. That is your minimum internal length, not the external dimension of the bed, which is what manufacturers usually print on the label. A bolstered bed with high sides can lose a surprising amount of usable space to the bolster.
Then watch how your dog actually sleeps. Dogs who curl tightly are well served by a round or bolstered bed and can size down slightly. Dogs who sleep flat out on their side, which most large breeds do in a warm climate, need a rectangular mattress and will hang off anything round. Dogs who sleep pressed against a wall want a bed with at least one raised edge to lean on.
If you are between sizes, go up. The only real cost of a larger bed is floor space, and dogs grow into beds far more readily than they grow into collars. For a puppy, buy for the adult size and let them use a smaller crate insert in the meantime, rather than buying twice.
Where to put the bed, and why one is usually not enough
Owners spend a long time choosing a bed and about four seconds deciding where it goes, which is backwards. Placement is the difference between a bed the dog lives in and a bed the dog walks past.
Dogs are social sleepers. A dog left alone in a back bedroom with a lovely bed will generally come and lie on the hard floor next to you instead, because being near you beats being comfortable. The fix is not to train the dog out of it. It is to accept that most households need two or three sleeping spots: one where the family sits in the evening, one where the dog sleeps overnight, and often one more by the door where the dog keeps watch. A cheap mat in the right place gets more use than an expensive bed in the wrong one.
Beyond that, three things reliably ruin a spot. Direct draught, which in Indian flats usually means straight under a ceiling fan or an air conditioner outlet, and which stiff older dogs feel badly. Thoroughfare, meaning a bed in a doorway or corridor where the dog gets stepped over all evening and never fully settles. And slippery flooring at the edge of the bed, which turns every single exit into a scramble.
In a multi-dog home, count beds the way you would count litter trays for cats: one per dog, plus one, in separate spots rather than lined up together. Beds are a resource, and two dogs sharing one bed while a second sits empty is often the quiet start of a guarding problem rather than a sign they are close.
Orthopedic dog bed for large dogs and older dogs
This is the part of the category where the purchase does the most good, and also where the most is claimed without evidence, so here is a careful version.
Supportive bedding is part of mainstream veterinary advice for dogs with osteoarthritis. Canine Arthritis Resources and Education states plainly that "Supportive bedding, such as memory foam mattresses, should be provided", and adds that "Bedding should be placed in a warm/ non-drafty area of the house, and non-slick flooring should be under/ around the bed". That second half matters as much as the first. A thick bed on a polished granite or tiled floor still leaves a stiff dog scrabbling for grip the moment they try to stand, and Indian homes are full of exactly that flooring.
The 2022 AAHA Pain Management Guidelines describe the principle: "Environmental modification is the adjustment of environmental surroundings to positively influence comfort." They advise that "Owners can provide injured, arthritic, or neurologic pets with secure footing (carpet runners) or with ramps or steps to areas that would otherwise be inaccessible."
So a supportive bed is a reasonable, well-supported thing to buy for a stiff older dog. What we are not going to tell you is that a particular foam density treats arthritis, or that a bed replaces pain relief. It does not. If your dog is slow to rise, reluctant on stairs, lagging on walks or has stopped jumping onto the sofa they used to own, that is a veterinary consultation, and bedding is the comfortable part of a plan rather than the plan itself. Our pharmacists can dispense what your vet prescribes, and our Parel branch is open twenty four hours.
Dog crate bed setups, wire cages and carriers
A crate is not a punishment and a dog crate bed is not a compromise. Plenty of dogs choose an enclosed space over an open one, particularly anxious dogs and dogs in busy flats, and a crate gives you somewhere the dog is genuinely safe during building work, house moves, parties and Diwali.
We stock wire cages in small and medium. A wire cage gives you the frame and you supply the bedding, which is often the better way round: you can match the padding to the dog and replace it independently when it wears out. On sizing, Canine Arthritis Resources and Education advises that "the crate should be large enough for them to stand up, move around and stretch out; and the crate should have supportive bedding". Stand up, turn around and stretch out is the test. If your dog can only manage two of the three, the crate is too small.
We also stock travel carriers, including a hard-sided carrier in medium and extra large and a soft carrier in medium. These are a different job from a crate: they are for moving a dog safely, not for daily sleeping. If you are flying, check your airline's dimensions before you buy, because they vary and the carrier that fits one cabin will be refused at another counter.
One safety point that applies to both. If your dog is a chewer, do not leave a soft bed, a blanket or a plush toy in the crate unsupervised. Swallowed fabric is one of the more common causes of intestinal obstruction we see prescriptions written for, and it is a surgical problem rather than a wait-and-see one. Chewers get a flat, tough mat while you are watching and bare crate floor when you are not.
Elevated dog beds and the heat problem
An elevated dog bed is a taut fabric sheet stretched over a frame, so the dog lies on a suspended surface with air moving underneath. In most of India that airflow is the entire point.
Dogs lose heat poorly. They do not sweat meaningfully through the skin, so they shed heat by panting and by pressing themselves against something cooler than they are. This is why your dog abandons an expensive plush bed in April and sleeps on the bathroom tiles instead. That is not ingratitude, it is thermoregulation, and it tells you the bed is wrong for the season rather than wrong in general.
The practical answer for an Indian home is two sleeping surfaces, not one. Keep a padded bed for the cool months and for air conditioned rooms, and give the dog a raised or hard cool surface for the hot ones, then let them choose. Dogs are extremely good at picking the right one and will move between them through the day.
For a thin-coated or short-nosed dog in a hot flat, take heat seriously as a medical matter, not a comfort one. Heavy panting that does not settle, bright red gums, drooling, wobbliness or vomiting in the heat is a genuine emergency and needs a vet immediately, not a cooling product.
Puppy training pads, and why the bed is where the fleas are
Puppy training pads sit in this collection for a reason: for a young puppy, and for an old dog at the other end, the bed and the toilet are only a short walk apart, and the bedding is what suffers. A pad beside the bed catches the accidents that would otherwise soak into a mattress you cannot dry properly.
We stock training pads in four sizes across two brands, and dog nappies in male and female cuts. Nappies are worth knowing about for three specific situations: a dog recovering from surgery, an older dog with genuine incontinence, and a female in season indoors. They are not a substitute for house training a healthy puppy.
The hygiene point is the one most owners have never been told, and it is the strongest reason to think of bedding as a consumable. VCA Animal Hospitals notes that "The highest numbers of flea eggs, larvae, and pupae are found in areas of the house where pets spend the most time, such as their beds and furniture." The bed is the reservoir. It is also where the larvae are hardest to reach, because as VCA describes, once larvae hatch "they move away from the light and burrow deep into carpets and into other nooks and crannies where they are difficult to reach."
The consequence is direct. If you are treating your dog for fleas and not treating the bedding, you will keep losing. VCA's instruction on that is simply to "wash your pet's bedding in hot water or replace it", alongside thorough vacuuming, and to "throw away the vacuum bag to prevent eggs and larvae from developing inside the vacuum cleaner." Buy the bed with the removable cover, and buy a spare cover at the same time.
How to wash and rotate dog bedding
- Shake the bed out hard outdoors before it goes anywhere near a machine, so loose hair and grit do not end up in your drum.
- Strip the cover off and check the care label for a maximum temperature. Wash as hot as the fabric allows, because heat is what kills flea eggs and larvae.
- Wash covers on their own, not with your clothes, and use an unscented detergent. Heavy fragrance is a common reason a dog stops using a freshly washed bed.
- Vacuum the bare filling and the floor underneath while the cover is off. This is the step everyone skips and it is where the larvae are.
- Empty the vacuum outside and throw the bag away rather than tipping it into your indoor bin.
- Dry the cover completely, in sun if you have it. A cover that goes back on slightly damp will smell within two days in Mumbai humidity.
- Put the spare cover on while the first one dries, so the dog never comes back to a bare bed and goes looking for your sofa instead.
- Repeat every one to two weeks in normal conditions, and weekly during any active flea treatment until the course is finished.
If the bed still smells after a proper wash, the filling has absorbed it and washing the cover will not fix it. That is the point to replace the insert. Most beds outlive their filling by a long way.
Common questions
Are the dog beds in stock? Not at the moment. Message us on WhatsApp or call a branch and we will tell you what is arriving and hold one for you.
What can I buy for a dog bed setup today? Wire cages in small and medium, travel carriers, training pads in four sizes, and dog nappies. All in stock now.
What size dog bed do I need? Measure nose to tail base while your dog lies stretched out, add fifteen to twenty centimetres, and treat that as the internal length. If between sizes, size up.
Do I need an orthopedic dog bed for large dogs? For a stiff or older large dog, supportive bedding is standard veterinary advice, and so is non-slip flooring around it. It is a comfort measure, not a treatment. See your vet about the pain itself.
How often should I wash dog bedding? Every one to two weeks, and weekly while treating fleas. Hot water, and vacuum underneath.
Animeal is the online arm of Goodman Pet Chemist, a licensed veterinary pharmacy trading as Goodman Vetcare Pvt. Ltd., with branches at Parel, Mahim, Sewri and Seawoods. If you are not sure what your dog needs, ask us before you buy.
