Developing new dog beds can be a challenging exercise. What size and what colours is one of the trickiest issues. Dog bed buyers appear to buy beds that are bigger than they need  - like buying a kingsize bed for a single person!  So we tend to sell a disproportionate number of larger beds because every dog owner wants the biggest bed possible for their dog. 

Two other important aspects in developing a quality dog bed is its tensile strength and water repellency properties.  Dogs are not gentle on their beds, they scratch them, wet them, try to turn them into nests, and chew them. The net effect is that they don't last very long and very quickly begin to look worn out and scruffy.

Our search for the best technical solution often takes time. It is difficult to find a fabric that is both strong and water repellent. We have been testing samples recently - both Polyester and Cordura. The water repellency results are shown below. The first one is the fabric used in our existing Inka Dog Bed which holds water, while the second group of samples simply absorb the water - not good! But we are now sourcing fabric for our next production, which will hopefully be more water proof but remain breathable for greater comfort levels.

Written by Philip Hartman

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