Dog Beds Part 3: Comfort for the old timers
After flipping through old photo albums and going through the final year I spent with Stanley II (my Brittany Spaniel before Stanley III), it occurred to me that a post about comfortable bedding for old timer dogs was fitting. The final years are sometimes the most special and emotional with our buddies…I’ll be honest, I shed a few tears amongst my smiles looking through year 16 for Stanley II. Though we never got special bedding for him, I was not surprised to see the variety of options and great coverage in the marketplace.
For the older dogs, it seems to be all about orthopedic bedding. Starting my search at BizRate.com again for orthopedic dog bedding, I was pleased at the variety of merchants, including: Drs. Foster & Smith, PetsMart, PetCo, All Pet Furniture, Orvis, Dog Bed King, Pet Solutions, CritterPetSupplies.com, etc. Prices range from $20 to $200, with the sizes of the bed and the amount of orthopedic material being the main factors in cost.
Of all the sites, I liked drsfostersmith.com the best. Not only was their selection of dog beds nice, but alongside 19 results for my search for “orthopedic dog beds”, they also returned a tab with 17 articles about dog health. The most interesting one to me was an article titled Arthritis Maintenance Care: 7 Steps. The writing discussed topics such as pain relief, proper exercise, proper diet, ideal bedding, and best practices for food and water set ups to minimize problem points. Though each section was commercialized by links to products on the site, it wasn’t pushy at all, but rather fantastic content linked to products that clearly could help the quality of life of a pooch.
Though Stanley II got all of the attention in the world in his closing years, I wish I would have known of some of these smaller tips and specialized bedding to have given him a little bit extra. But then again, he spent quite a bit of his closing year on a king size Sealy Posturepedic (mom and dad’s bed), so life couldn’t have been that ruff. :o)
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Actually StanleyII did have special bedding, his magic carpet quilt. This lovely old king size quilt was his “magic carpet ride” on our hardwood floors which are throughout the first floor. He also had baby booties with rubber grippers on the bottom for extra support on the floors. His senior years were indeed special and we were lucky to have such a wonderful companion for 16 and 1/4 years. Oh, and everytime we hear the song about the magic carpet ride we think of our “great one”, StanleyII.
He was a very special friend indeed……..deep breath (trying to fight back a couple of tears here). Manny, I think your next blog should be on the reincarnation of one pet to the next. Stanley II, aka “The Great One”, will always be a part of us.
My dog, once he got older, didn’t even like his bed. I feel bad now…maybe I should have got a few different ones for him to try. Thanks for the post.
Dog Aficianado, thanks for a great post! How’s Stanley?
Thanks for the great tips! Our dog is 10 now and has some hip discomfort, so I am always looking for ways to make his life easier. We’ve also found that glucosamine/chondrotin pills seem to really help him move better, but he’ll only eat them if they are covered in peanut butter.
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