Crate & Travel Dog Beds

Here the frame sets the size, not the dog. Bedding for a crate, a carrier or the back of the car has to sit flat on the pan without bunching at the edges. Crate model names are outside measurements, so the floor they actually gets is always smaller than the number on the box suggests.

Measuring a crate

Measure the plastic or metal pan at the bottom, inside the frame, in both directions. A bed even slightly over that will fold up in one corner, and they ends up lying half on the bed and half on the bare tray — which defeats the point of putting one in.

Flat or padded

Flat if the crate is already a close fit, or if they chews when they get bored in there. Padded if there is height to spare and the crate is somewhere they sleep rather than somewhere they travels.

Crate bedding gets washed more often than anything else in the house, so a removable cover matters more here than anywhere else. For the car, a wipeable surface and a base that grips a plastic boot liner are the two things that decide whether it stays where you put it.