If you are a dog owner, then you probably also own a dog bed, and chances are that bed stinks. Regardless of how well you clean your pet, your dog bed holds onto those bad odors and it never seems to go away. Washing your dog bed is difficult or impossible, and it's tough to ever get them fully cleaned. The solution is to properly clean your dog bed, or to purchase a dog bed constructed with odor free materials.

Padded Materials Hold Onto Odors Longer

Almost all of the fluffy, padded material used in dog beds has a tendency to retain odors. Instead, Suspension dog beds use a vinyl bed material similar to a trampoline or an outdoor awning. This vinyl material is soft, flexible, and most importantly, it's odor free. In addition to the bed material, you can also purchase a separate sheepskin pad that attaches to the top of the pad. These pads can be removed and cleaned easily.

Some Dog Beds Cannot Be Washed

Some styles of dog beds cannot be washed in your normal washing machine. These special dog beds are hand wash-only and are very difficult to get entirely clean, and even some of the machine washable dog beds lose their shape after going through the wash. The frame on a raised dog bed allows you to remove the vinyl material and sheepskin pads so that they can be properly washed, and the vinyl material can be cleaned with a simple disinfectant spray. The additional sheepskin pads can also be machine washed.

Properly Cleaning Dog Beds

In oder to really get your dog bed clean, you have to ensure that it can be machine washed and tumble dried. The dog bed can't go into the wash with any other laundry or else it will lose its shape, and you shouldn't use regular laundry detergent. Instead, you should apply dish detergent to the primary trouble spots, and use a mild odor reducing spray before placing the bed into the wash. The bed should be the only item in the wash, and it should be either transferred to the dryer immediately afterwards, or removed from the wash and set out to air dry.

If you use a raised dog bed with vinyl material, you can spray the bed with "Simple Green" or any common disinfectant spray, Wipe down the material and then let it air dry for a few minutes. If you also have a pad on top of your raised dog bed, it should have clips that will allow you to easily remove the padding to place them in the wash. Most raised dog bed padding can be washed with the remainder of your pets laundry (like sleeping pads, towels, toys, etc.) and works fine in a tumble dryer.