Versatile dog beds in the car.

It is handy to have a dog bed in the back of the car, which covers the entire base because dogs are not very good at arranging their dog beds to their best advantage. Dogs are funny in that respect: if there is for example a bone or a toy lying in the middle of the bed, they cannot think to push it aside in order to have more space and be comfortable. They simply try to worm their bodies around the “obstruction” and lie down around it.

If they feel that their dog beds are not quite comfortable enough, they will dig around aimlessly in the hope that the bed will get softer. Almost as if they are digging imaginary grass round their imaginary den.

With a large dog bed in the back of the car it is important that if the dog moves or digs, the bed will not be pushed around. Look for a good, well made dog bed that is firm and thick enough to stay in place while you travel with one or several dogs. In most cases you can have it made as a bespoke dog bed service so that it fits the base of the car even with the wheel arches protruding in to the space.

Firm dog bed fitted exactly to the back of a truck pickup.

However, there are times when a floppier dog bed would have been handy. I drove home yesterday through the highlands and there, in the side of the road, was a newly killed young red stag. I stopped to have a look and decided it was perfect for dog food.

I wouldn’t have used it for human consumption as it had burst the stomach slightly. It was still warm, but I was just not in the mood to go in to all the cleaning and clearing, so I gralloched it and hoisted it in to the back of my truck. However, my large waterproof dog bed with its Fluffie Tuffie cover was in there with my dog on it and I had a job folding this top quality dog bed over in order to protect it from too much blood and mess. I managed to get the dog out and in on the front seat, fold the bed over and then, with danger of doing my back in, manhandled the animal in to the car. My guess is that I had around 50 Kgs of dead weight to lift on to the tail gate and then further in the back.

The road killed stag in the car had to lie beside the dog bed.

When I got home, I got the stag out and butchered it completely and put it all in an out door bucket for the dogs. Then I took the cover off the car dog bed and put it in the washing machine. All is clean again.