Washable Dog Beds

A washable dog bed is one you can get clean in a machine: usually by taking the cover off, sometimes the whole bed when the care label allows it. That is what keeps a bed pleasant to have in the room six months on, so check the label on each bed before the first wash.

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Start with what gets the bed dirty, then pick the row that matches.

Hair and dust, washed every week The Foam Dog Bed with Washable Cover: the cover comes off and the mat foldsFoam Dog Bed with Washable Cover A large dog that sleeps stretched out The Washable Memory Foam Dog Bed: low and open on three sides, up to 39 × 28 inWashable Memory Foam Dog Bed Accidents now and then The Waterproof Dog Sofa Bed with Inner Pad: walls at the back and sides, sold as waterproofWaterproof Dog Sofa Bed with Inner Pad You already own a bed you like A replacement cover from the dog bed covers page The car or the crate The Reusable Dog Blanket for Bed and Car, three nested sizesReusable Dog Blanket for Bed and Car

11 products

Keep reading

Dog bed coverCollection Washable waterproof dog bedCollection Waterproof dog bedCollection Best washable dog bedsJournal Best dog bedsJournal Puppy potty trainingGuide

Elsewhere in the catalog

Dog Beds39 beds Washable & Waterproof Dog Beds19 beds Large Dog Beds14 beds Dog Sofa Beds12 beds Dog Bed Covers11 beds Waterproof Dog Beds11 beds

From the journal

Best Washable Dog Beds Journal Best Waterproof Dog Beds Journal Dog Beds With Sides: Bolster, Sofa, or Flat Journal

What washable covers, bed by bed

The cover comes off; the fill usually does not go in

On most beds it is the cover only. Foam and thick fibre hold water, take days to dry all the way through, and break down inside if they are soaked repeatedly, which is a failure you do not see until the bed has gone flat.

Smaller fibre-filled beds sometimes go in whole, but only when the care label says so. Check it before the first wash, because the difference decides how you clean the bed for the next three years.

The same bed drawn twice with an identical outside, the second one cut open to show filling that has collapsed.

Check the drum before you check the bed

A cover cut for a 45 × 31 in (115 × 80 cm) bed is a lot of fabric, and finding out it will not turn in your machine after the accident is the wrong time. If a cover cannot move freely in the drum it will not come out clean; for the largest beds that usually means a bigger machine at a laundromat.

An open washing machine drum with a medium cover that fits beside a large-bed cover that plainly does not.

The care label decides the temperature, not the stain

A hot wash shrinks covers, and a shrunk cover will not go back over the fill, which turns a washable bed into a bed with a spare loose sheet. Warm water and a full rinse remove more smell than heat does anyway, because what lingers is usually residue rather than bacteria.

The same cover over the same filling twice, fitting after a warm wash and falling short at the corner after a hot one.

A spare cover is what makes a weekly wash realistic

The bed stays in use while the other one dries. That single change is the difference between washing on schedule and washing when you finally cannot ignore it, and it is why the covers page exists as its own thing rather than as an upsell.

A dog asleep on a bed with its cover on, and a second cover drying on a line beside it.

How often depends on the dog, not on a rule

A dog that is outside a lot, a puppy, or an older dog all shorten the interval and none of that is unusual. A useful test: press your palm into the sleeping panel and smell it. If the smell is in the fill rather than the cover, washing the cover will not fix it and has not for a while.

Cover off, or whole bed in: the difference decides three years

A removable cover means a fifteen minute job on a Sunday and the bed back in service the same evening. A one-piece bed means a full day of drying and a dog with nowhere to sleep in the meantime, which is why one-piece beds get washed less often than their owners intend.

Whether a bed's cover comes off is not a feature on a list. It is a prediction about how often the bed will be clean.

The cost of washing is not effort, it is the hours the bed is out of service, and that is the number that decides how often it happens.

What the care label is protecting

It is protecting the fit. Covers are cut close so they do not wrinkle under a turning dog, and that tight cut is exactly what a hot wash ruins: the fabric shrinks a few per cent, the fill does not, and the cover will not go back on.

Warm water and a full rinse remove more smell than heat does anyway, because what lingers in a dog bed is residue rather than bacteria. Heat is the one variable with a downside and no upside here.

A hot wash does not damage the cover, it shrinks it. The fill stays the size it was, and that mismatch is permanent.

When washing stops working

Press your palm flat into the sleeping panel, hold it there for a few seconds, and smell your hand. If the smell is on your hand, it is in the fill, and no amount of cover washing will reach it.

That is the point where the honest answer is a new insert rather than another wash. Most people run several more wash cycles first, which is a fair thing to do and does not work.

The test is physical and takes five seconds: what you are smelling is a layer below the one you have been washing.

Questions people ask about washable dog beds

Can a dog bed be washed in a washing machine?

The cover, where it comes off. The whole bed, only if its care label says so. A foam core should not go in at all. It absorbs several times its weight in water, takes days to dry through, and can crumble inside the cover where you will not see it happen.

Which dog beds are fully washable?

Only a bed whose care label allows the whole thing in the machine, which in practice means a smaller bed with fibre fill rather than foam. For a large bed the drum is the limit: if the bed or its cover cannot move freely in your machine, it will not come out clean.

Which dog beds have a removable cover?

The Foam Dog Bed with Washable Cover has a cover that comes off for the wash, and the Washable Memory Foam Dog Bed has a zip along its lower edge. For the other beds here, the listing and the care label say what comes off. If you already own a bed you like, a replacement cover from the dog bed covers page does the same job.

My dog bed still smells after I wash it. How can I get rid of the smell?

The smell is usually in the filling, not the cover. Press your palm into the sleeping panel and smell your hand. If it is there, no amount of cover washing will reach it. At that point the options are washing the fill if the bed allows it, or replacing the insert.

How often should I wash a dog bed?

Every one to two weeks for most dogs, weekly for a puppy or a dog that is outdoors a lot. The honest version: as often as you would wash your own bedding if you slept in it after a walk. Owning a spare cover is what makes that schedule survivable.

What is the best washable fabric for a dog bed?

Tightly woven synthetics: they release hair, dry fast and hold their size through repeated washes. Plush and faux fur look best on day one and mat with washing. Cotton is pleasant and shrinks. Whatever the fabric, look at the zip: on a cover washed every week, it is the part under the most strain.

Which of these are also waterproof?

Washable and waterproof are different properties, one solving dirt and the other liquid, and a bed can do either without the other. On this page the Waterproof Dog Sofa Bed with Inner Pad is the one sold as waterproof. The washable waterproof page lists the beds that do both, side by side.