Dog Housing & Bedding

Dog crates, playpens, gates, kennels, dog doors, beds and crate mats all sit in this collection — where a dog sleeps at night and where it goes when the house gets busy. If you are only after a bed, the dog beds page is the shorter way in.

Crates, pens and gates

A crate is a den rather than a cage, and the sizing rule is that the dog can stand up, turn around and lie out flat inside it with no extra room beyond that — a crate with spare space at one end makes toilet training harder, because the dog can use the corner it does not sleep in. MidWest Homes for Pets covers double door wire crates up to XX-Large plus a fitted cover, and Ferplast makes folding crates that pack down for the car. Exercise pens fence off an area without a roof and are the better answer for a puppy that needs room rather than containment; MidWest offers them with and without a door. Pet gates close off a doorway or a staircase instead. Crate mats are cut to fit the floor of a crate without bunching at the door.

Kennels, doors and temperature

For a dog living outdoors, the Ferplast DOGVILLA is a moulded thermoplastic resin kennel, and the PaWise two-way dog door lets a dog come and go on its own. Temperature is worth planning for at both ends: K&H makes a self-warming crate pad and the Cool Bed III, and the Ibiyaya Chill Pad is a cooling mat. An elevated bed on a verandah does much the same job in summer by letting air move underneath.

Beds, briefly

The bedding side runs from plush donut and bolster beds for indoor dogs to steel framed elevated beds for dogs living outside, with orthopaedic memory foam in between for older and heavier dogs. Superior Pet Goods carries most of it, alongside Ferplast, FurKidz, All for Paws, Ibiyaya, KONG, M-Pets and Pawise. Shape follows sleeping style: curlers want walls, sprawlers want a flat open surface.

• Dog beds, orthopaedic and elevated
• Dog carriers and travel
• Superior Pet Goods
• Calming and anxiety
• Training and cleaning
• Cat bedding and housing