The Dog Bed My Murphy Finally Stopped Ignoring

For four years Murphy slept wherever he pleased, and mostly that meant the middle cushion of my couch. The bed I had bought him was a flat, thin pillow from a big box store, and within a few months of bringing him home it had gone lumpy in the center like a deflated football. He would step on it, turn around twice, and step right back off. I would come downstairs and find him on the couch with his chin on the armrest, giving me a look that said the whole arrangement was my fault and he was being patient about it.

I am not a trainer and I am not a vet. I am 63, retired after 31 years driving a school bus out of Toms River, and I have had dogs my whole life. What I am is a person who buys a great deal of gear for one 28 pound beagle mix and will admit it out loud. Frank, my husband, says the dog lives better than we do. He is not entirely wrong.

So in July I ordered the Bedsure orthopedic dog bed, the medium 28 inch one, and I ordered it braced for disappointment. I had already been disappointed twice. What I wanted was not complicated. I wanted a bed Murphy would get on by himself, without me standing over him coaxing like a nervous hostess at a party.

The first thing I noticed is that the Bedsure bed has some height to it. The listing puts it at 6.5 inches thick and 28 by 23 inches across, with bolsters on all four sides, so it is not a pillow lying flat on the floor. Murphy walked over, put one paw on it, and climbed in. No treat, no coaxing, no nothing. Frank looked up from the paper and said, well, that was quick.

He was on it that first night and he has been on it every night since, four months now. He naps there most afternoons too, usually after the second walk, with his nose tucked under his own tail. The bed sits in the living room corner by the window where the afternoon sun comes in, and that is where the dog is.

Four months in, he still walks to that bed on his own. I have not once had to talk him into it.

The bolsters turned out to matter more than I expected. He sleeps with his chin propped over the front one, which is something he never did with the flat pillow. A dog that likes to be pressed against something finally had something to press against.

Three times now I have taken the cover off and run it through the machine on cold, then hung it over the porch rail to dry. It comes off and goes back on without a fight. The foam itself never goes in the machine. I wipe it with a damp cloth if something lands on it, and that is the whole of the upkeep.

The foam has held up. There is a slight dip where Murphy curls, which I would expect from any foam after four months of a 28 pound dog landing on it, and no flat spots beyond that. The listing puts the limit at 30 pounds, so he is near the top of what this bed is built to carry. If your dog is 50 pounds, order the bigger size and do not try to make this one work.

One thing I did not count on was how it handles a wet dog. He came in from a wet walk in September, twice in the same week, and flopped down before I could get a towel on him. Nothing went through to the floor. That alone was worth the trouble.

I want to be clear about what this bed is. It is a place to sleep. It did not fix anything medical and I would not expect it to. Murphy is six and healthy, with a strong nose and a habit of pulling my arm out of the socket when he catches a scent. Anything that hurts, you take to our vet, not to a pet bed listing. The couch is still here, too. He still gets up on it when Frank is watching the ballgame, because Frank is a soft touch and we both know it. But the couch is no longer where he sleeps. It is where he visits.

I paid for the bed out of my own pocket, the same as everything else I write about, and nobody from Bedsure has ever spoken to me. I am telling you about it because it is the first bed in four years that my dog chose on his own.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

If you were standing in my kitchen asking whether to buy this, I would say three things. First, weigh your dog and buy for that number, because the medium is rated to 30 pounds and Murphy sits at 28 and fits it with room to spare. Second, put the bed where the family actually sits. Ours is in the living room corner, not tucked in a spare bedroom where nobody goes, and I think that is half of why he uses it. Third, take the cover off and wash it in the first week, so you learn how it goes back on before you are doing it in a hurry with company coming.

Four months ago I had a dog sleeping on my couch and a lumpy pillow bed headed for the garage. Today the pillow is in the garage and the dog is on the Bedsure bed by the window, snoring with his chin over the bolster. That is not a dramatic story. It is just the one I have.