Waterproof Dog Beds

Built so liquid stays on top instead of soaking into the filling. That comes down to fabric: coated and tightly woven synthetics shed water, while cotton and plush take it straight in. Worth it with a puppy still learning, an older dog, or a bed that lives on a porch or in the car.

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Everything on this page is built to keep liquid on the surface. Some of it is a bed; most of it is a layer you put over a bed you already own. Which one you want depends less on the dog's size than on where the accidents happen.

Puppy still in training A zip-off cover or a blanket over the bed you have, from $20.43Zippered Waterproof Bed Cover, Cover Only Older dog that leaks indoors Sofa bed with an inner pad, plus a non-slip blanket on topWaterproof Dog Sofa Bed with Inner Pad Sleeps on a porch or outdoors Covered bed that zips shut, or the roll-up travel matWaterproof Covered Dog Bed Travels in the car Back Seat Dog Car Bed, which straps to the headrestsBack Seat Dog Car Bed Wants a soft plush top Not this page. See dog beds

11 products

Keep reading

Washable waterproof dog bedCollection Dog bed coversCollection What to do before the accidentGuide Best waterproof dog bedsJournal

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Dog Beds39 beds Washable & Waterproof Dog Beds19 beds Dog Bed Covers11 beds Washable Dog Beds11 beds Crate & Travel Dog Beds7 beds Large Dog Beds14 beds

From the journal

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

What the coated layer does, and where it sits

Three of these are beds; ten protect something else

That split is worth knowing before you scroll, because the search term hides it. Two are floor beds (a zip-sided quilted sleeping bag, and an oval bed with walls and an inner pad), and one is a walled hammock that turns a back seat into a flat space. The other ten are covers and throws that go over a bed, a sofa, a mattress or a car seat.

Both kinds solve the same problem from opposite ends. A waterproof bed keeps liquid out of its own filling; a waterproof throw keeps it off something you already own.

Three waterproof beds on one side and ten covers and throws on the other, each group labelled by what it keeps dry.

Waterproof and water-resistant are not the same claim

A water-resistant surface handles a spill you get to quickly. A waterproof layer is built for liquid that sits there: an accident overnight, or rain on a porch. Every listing here uses whichever term matches the material rather than treating the two as one word, because the difference shows up on exactly the night it matters.

The same fabric twice: once with a drop wiped away in seconds, once with a drop left on it overnight.

The layer that saves the bed sits under the cover

With a waterproof inner liner, an accident means washing a cover. Without one, it can mean replacing the bed, because filling that has been soaked repeatedly breaks down inside where you cannot see it. If a puppy is still learning, that liner is the detail to check before anything else about the bed.

A cover going into a machine above dry filling, beside a whole bed being thrown out with its filling darkened inside.

Coated fabric is quieter about wearing out than it looks

The coating goes before the weave does, and it goes gradually, usually at the folds and along the seams first. A surface that used to bead water and now darkens is telling you the coating has worn through there. Washing hot and tumble drying shortens that timeline more than the dog does.

One coated throw with a drop beading on the flat and a darkened patch where the fabric folds.

Outdoors year-round is a different problem

No fabric loves months of direct sun. Coated surfaces stiffen and crack, and a bed left out through a season will fail at the coating rather than the stitching. If a bed lives outside permanently, something that dries in minutes beats something that keeps water out for an hour.

A coated fabric stiffened and cracked after a season in the sun, beside an open weave that lets water through and dries.

Where the coated layer sits decides everything

If the coating is on the outer cover, every wash is also a wash of the waterproofing, and the coating fails before the fabric does. If the coating is on a liner underneath, you wash the cover weekly and the waterproof layer is never in the machine at all.

That is the whole difference between a bed that stays waterproof for years and one that stops after a season, and it is a single sentence on a product page that most listings do not bother to write.

The same coating in two positions gives two different products: one where washing wears out the waterproofing, one where it never touches it.

How a coating fails

Not evenly, and not visibly at first. It goes at the folds and along the seams, because those are the points that flex every time the dog turns. A surface that used to bead water and now darkens where it lands has already lost the coating in that spot.

Heat accelerates it more than use does. A hot wash and a tumble dryer can take a coating out in a season; cool water and air drying stretch the same coating over years.

Coating does not wear out across a surface, it wears out along the lines that flex, and those lines are predictable.

Waterproof is not the same as outdoor

A coated surface handles liquid. It does not handle months of direct sun, which stiffens and cracks the coating from the outside in, and it does not handle staying damp, which is a different failure again.

If a bed lives outside permanently, something that dries in minutes beats something that keeps water out for an hour. Nothing on this page is built for year-round weather and we would rather say that than let the word waterproof imply it.

The same surface passes one test and fails the other. What kills it outdoors is not the water.

Questions people ask about waterproof dog beds

Is there a pee-proof dog bed?

Pee-proof means the liquid stays on the surface and never reaches the fill. There are two ways to get there, and they cost very different amounts. The first is a bed built that way. The Waterproof Covered Dog Bed is a zip-up quilted shell with a coated outer face ($69.21–$73.29). The Waterproof Dog Sofa Bed has an inner pad you lift out ($41.88–$103.36, five sizes). The second is a layer over the bed you already own. A zip-off cover starts at $24.54, a mattress pad at $41.96, and a non-slip blanket at $20.43. A layer comes off in seconds, so it goes through the wash as often as it needs to. That is usually what decides it for a dog that leaks at night.

What is the best waterproof dog bed?

It depends on where the dog sleeps. Outdoors or on a porch, you want a shell rather than a cushion: the Waterproof Covered Dog Bed zips shut down one side and has a hooded entry, and the Roll-Up Waterproof Travel Dog Mat ($45.95–$47.77) buckles into a bundle with a carry handle. Indoors with an older dog that leaks, the Waterproof Dog Sofa Bed with Inner Pad gives a wall to lean on and a pad you can pull out, and the Non-Slip Incontinence Dog Blanket ($20.43–$114.02, six sizes) goes on top and washes. For a puppy still in training, put a layer on the bed you have. The Zippered Waterproof Bed Cover ($24.54–$42.10) unzips along one long edge for washing, and the Fitted Quilted Dog Bed Cover ($29.67–$65.81) pulls on like a fitted sheet.

Which of these can I put in the machine?

The Non-Slip Incontinence Dog Blanket and the Zippered Waterproof Bed Cover say so on their product pages, and the cover unzips for exactly that reason. For everything else here, check the care label before it goes in the machine.

Will a waterproof cover fit the bed I already own?

Measure your own bed first, length and width and depth, because size names are not the same between makers. The Fitted Quilted Dog Bed Cover runs 20 × 30 in to 40 × 53 in. The Strapped Waterproof Dog Mattress Pad uses human bed sizes, single up to super king. The zip-off covers are cut for flat mattress beds, not for bolster or oval ones.