Handy Additions to Your Dog Beds.

Just like extra pillows, reading lamps, top covers and fancy head-boards on our beds, there are additions to your dog’s bed that are good to know about too. Things that may protect your flooring or make your dog that little bit more comfortable in an otherwise extremely cosy dog bed or perhaps additions that make cleaning even easier.

Here at Tuffies we have designed optional additions, but we have also had ideas from customers, who have suggested their own additions to our beds.

The simple and obvious additions from Tuffies.

The basic principle of Tuffies Dog Beds is that you can buy the simplest basic dog bed and use it as it comes. The dog bed is either a Nest dog bed or a mattress dog bed and they are both extremely durable, insulating, supportive and waterproof. Here is a waterproof Durasoft mattress bed, no fuss no frills and fantastically easy to hose down for cleaning.

Wipe Clean Tuffies Mattress bed with Dalmatian.

Around 50% of our customers who buy our waterproof mattresses use them without any extra covers, but the other 50% do choose to add a cover. Our most popular covers are the Luxury Fleece Covers. This fabric is made especially for Tuffies in a thick pile quality and in a wide range of designs and patterns. They are very easy to take off and put back on and they wash beautifully in the washing machine. They make the mattress beds much cosier and it is a joy to fit a new, fresh cover back on to your dog’s bed.

Sleepy Viszla on a bed with Luxury Fleece cover.

An extra warming addition to the mattress bed is our Tunnel covers. Some dogs have a strong burying instinct and this appeals very much to their inner wolf. It can take a little bit of getting used to and to learn how to get in under the cover (and turn around so the nose sticks out), but once they have learned it, burying dogs LOVE the Tunnel Cover.

Cosy Tunnel Cover.

We also have full covers for our Nest Beds and it has to be said, from experience, that this is probably THE ULTIMATE in dog beds. Our Tuffies Nest Beds are very, very popular, but for customers, who have discovered the full nest covers there is nothing better. The full covers can be a bit of a ‘’work-out’’ to take off and put back on again, but once they are fitted, they don’t move and they look fantastic. They make the nest in to the ultimate den for your dog as the sides are padded and warm.

Labrador in Easy Access Nest with full cover.

One of our customers additionally designed what she called a “nest sock” and asked if it would be possible for us to make one. This is a device that transforms the nest into a total den. It creates a 2/3 “roof” over the nest so your dog can curl up in there for extreme warmth. Dogs like Vizslas and other fine-coated dogs enjoy this, especially at night-time when the house temperature drops.

This would be an addition that you might use in the winter-time, but possibly put away in the summer time to help your dog as a hot summer might create a problem with over-heating.

Vizsla cosy in her nest with a nest sock.

Other hardware additions from external sources.

There are two additions to our dog beds that our customers have found and alerted us to. The first one has to do with the inevitable problem with condensation if you have a cold floor and a high relative humidity.

There is not a lot we can do about physics and humidity with condensation as a consequence, so when you experience condensation under the dog bed at certain times of the year, this will need to be dealt with in other ways. What happens: The moisture in the air is in gas form. This humidity can “precipitate” at any time if it finds a colder surface, which condensates the moisture. We have all seen this on a cold beer glass in a pub full of people with their damp clothes and shoes on a winter’s day. Your glass has cold beer, so it has a cold surface and as soon as you get it, the air around the glass cools and the humidity condensates on the surface of the glass. A similar thing happens under the dog bed if the humidity is a bit high. The condensation furthermore gets trapped because there is no free air under the bed and this is unsightly when you lift up the bed. Your dog is fine because the Tuffies beds are completely waterproof, so no dampness gets absorbed in to the bed making it clammy and non-insulating, but it is still not a desirable situation as mouldiness can also happen.

The solution is a mesh that you can buy in smaller pieces and assemble to the required size. A customer found this on line and sent us the link. It’s a great idea. Here it is: https://www.restaurantsupplystore.co.uk/coba-red-flexi-deck-tiles?fbclid=IwAR2lcDNToKfCJ8QlsJVi9sH8XFvolDFEzgH9HFECiTF6nfZ2MnDkBUfHEfk

Of course you can also just buy one or two coconut door mats that will lift the bed just enough to give the desired ventilation, but you will probably get condensation under the matt then.

The other great idea of an external addition to OUR dog beds that we received from a customer was a non-slip device for out Raised Tuffies Dog Beds. As the customer had a slippy floor and a very excitable Spaniel, who would go full speed towards the dog bed and jump on it with a sliding result, he needed the bed to be better anchored on the floor so it wouldn’t slide. Ingeniously he found a rubber corner-attachment that could be put on the base of the Raised Dog Bed and instantly the bed stopped sliding when the Spaniel landed on it at full speed. We are so very grateful to our customers who take the time to let us know about these little finds. Here is the link to the non-slide-rubber-edge:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N2OCLUA/ref=pe_3187911_185740111_TE_item_image

All suggestions are more than welcome, we love them.