Dog Beds in the Rain

There is a limit to what you can do with dog beds. At the moment the puppies (all 9 of them) are spending their days outside in a big pen in the garden. We have made the pen with big posts and chicken wire right round. The pups have essentially two dog beds out there. One for their “den”, which is a farmer’s lamb house and one for sunning themselves outside.

The lamb house is tremendous as it is a simple box with a round hole in both ends. The farmers use it during the spring when the lambs are small and might need some shelter in the very unpredictable Scottish weather. The box and hole is too small for the mother-sheep to get in so the lambs have it to themselves. Obviously they don’t have any dog beds in there, the boxes just sit directly on the grass. In the puppy pen we have made bespoke dog beds to fit the box exactly so we can keep changing them to make sure there is always a dry bed in there. We have had the most incredibly wet weather in the last week and the pen has got very wet. However, with bespoke thick and sturdy dog beds we have ensured that even when the ground is soaked and swollen with rain, the pups are all high and dry on the fleece covered dog beds in the box. Because it is one of our normal, thick dog beds, that we stuff firmly as usual, it doesn’t move or folds up, it stays in place with even, insulating thickness right across the whole of the sleeping area, so nobody is missing out on support and warmth.

The outdoor dog beds are a different matter. This is of course an impossible problem to solve when thunderstorms are raging and several inches of rain fall in 24 hours. The puppies have been enjoying one of our raised dog beds in the pen so that they can sun themselves and enjoy the usual benefits of raised dog beds such as being nicely insulated from the cold ground, have a good draught exclusion round them for the cold breeze and the warmth from the fleecy liner. But yesterday the clouds suddenly came over us and created darkness I have never witnessed. We were in the office and first priority was to unplug everything we could think of, firstly phone lines, computers and cctv, next all other electrical appliances. We were all staring outside and the manufacturing of dog beds in the workshop also ceased as the darkness was accompanied by the rumbling of thunder. It started to rain and the lightning appeared. Having unplugged everything, we felt fairly safe, but worried because of the eerie feeling. Suddenly the building was hit by lightning and we all literally jumped in the air. A right SMACK. No smell of burning, but now the rain absolutely bounced on the ground outside. All nine pups were sound asleep in their lamb house, safe from the rain and oblivious to the lightning and thunder. The dog beds managed fine: The raised dog beds obviously got completely soaked, but it is so easy to remove the liners and either wash the whole thing or put it up to dry. The one in the box got wet underneath and I will have to deal with this today when I can wash and dry it, but dog beds like this performed the one and only important function: it kept all nine puppies dry and warm right through one of the most severe thunder storms and down pours I have ever witnessed. Hooray.