Our Orthopedic Bedding Benefits

There's a lot of information to go through when choosing a bed for your best furry friend. The information out there is significant, complex, confusing and often designed to do just that - confuse you. At Rover Pet Products we manufacture our bedding in Australia, with the finest raw materials. We don't use 'pet grade' materials in any of our products - this is for longevity, comfort, design and purpose.

This is both a mini FAQ and key information about our beds.

1: Why is making in Australia important?

Apart from the initial nostalgia and support for the Australian economy there are very simple, real benefits.

Firstly - we have 100% control over the quality and manufacture of our product. As soon as you offshore or outsource a product, you have 0 control over the processes and often materials utilised in the production of the product. This in the pet industry has resulted in many products being manufactured in Asia - in often subpar working conditions - and with subpar raw materials. We will always choose Australian standards.

This doesn't always mean a loss of quality to the naked eye, but we have seen replica products of American dog beds made in China and sold in Australia as Australian designed & made - truly shocking. If companies will lie about makingin Australia plus even where the product was designed - what else are they lying about? The sourcing of raw materials to go into my own dog's bed is extremely important to me, so I wouldn't trust a bed made overseas.

We are proud to be one of the very few Australian manufacturers of dog bedding left - and we won't ever offshore!

If you don't see the Australian made Logo - that should be the first alarm bell that you're looking at something made overseas, most likely in China or Thailand.

2: What are the raw materials used in your beds, and how do they compare to others?

We source almost all of our raw materials in Australia. All of our foams are made in Australia and the majority of our fabrics and cottons are sourced locally too. This is significant, for 2 key reasons:

a) Most dog beds are filled with dacron - this is a recycled plastic that looks furry and can easily be moved around / flattened. It offers nil health benefit and often contributes to ailments such as arthritis, hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia and pressure sores. Companies will often implore you to re-stuff your bed - this means the material utilised is not long-lasting and will readily flatten under weight being placed on it.

b) Most foams (even memory foams) utilised in dog beds are the lowest grade for cost purposes, and they're designed for secondary use - not for bedding. Most foams are also made overseas, where the chemical composition, design and manufacturing requirements are significantly lower than Australian standards. The risk of toxins in foams is most prevalent here.

We utilise foams made by global leaders in the industry, who manufacture in Sydney. We call it Puppy Sleep Cell and it was carefully formulated by us and our foam manufacturers, It is on par with human and healthcare sector grade bedding - so you know it's made to the absolute highest standard. We have a focus on using the best materials for our bedding - we believe we are the market leader in this. This leads to a product that will not only last, but provide your dog with a comfortable and healthy sleep for many years.

3: How is your bedding orthopedic & why is it good for my dog?

Our bedding is designed to absorb, reduce and distribute pressure put into the mattress from your dog's body. Contouring and alleviating the pressure reduces the pressure on the vital skeletal and muscle structure of the body - leading to a more even and restless sleep, allowing the body to rejuvenate to it's maximum potential. Cheap foams and dacron do not do this - they sink and flatten. Our beds have a 5 year warranty against flattening due to our use of human grade materials.

There are a lot of claims about dog beds being orthopedic - and these are simply false. You cannot claim something without the proof of it. If you see this, without any pressure mapping or proof - that company is simply lying. In 2017 we had had our bedding pressure mapped - meaning that one of the world's largest bedding companies has actually opened up their facilities specially for us, and pressure mapped our bedding with participant dog's - to support our claims of pressure absorption and relief. These tests were successful, proving the benefit to using human quality foams specifically designed for dogs opposed to low grade foams.

Below is an example of some of the pressure mapping conducted on our bedding in 2017.

To summarise, both bedding options have pressure relief benefits due to the pressure distribution numbers being below 32mmHg. Average pressure for any bed should not exceed 37mmHg.

The PlushMat! / TuffMat! have an average pressure of 24mmHg

The PlushMat! Plus has an average pressure of 20mmHg.  If you compared the pressure mapping numbers to the other dog beds out in the market which are very weak and soft (filled with Dacron / inferior foams / house insulation), it is concluded that our bedding has far more pressure relief benefits.

These numbers are based on human standards, so from a scientific point of view, whilst it is hard to determine what is the best standard for a K9 - being better than a human grade is best practice.

4: Are there toxic dog beds? Why are yours safe? (Independent testing!)

The use of certain recycled plastics, certain grades of material and the use of subpar foams in many dog beds in our opinion is potentially dangerous to a dog's health. The point is in almost every single dog bed, worldwide - there is limited information available on the materials made to manufacture them. And the regulations in Australia and many other countries are virtually non-existent - so you can have manufacturers and stores lying about what's in their product, with little recourse as the general public simply don't know - and there's no independent information available.

Many companies also now claim that their products are non-toxic, but they have zero proof.

In 2018 we commissioned Qualspec to independently test all of our raw materials. We were the 1st company to do so in Australia! The information is proudly on our website - and to our knowledge no other company has done the same! It can be found here. This proves and supports our claims that our beds are 100% non-toxic.