Why are we so careful about what goes into our dogs but not what they sleep on?

 

Something rather strange has happened in the way we care for our dogs.

We’ve become incredibly particular about what we put into them.

We turn over bags of dog food and read the ingredients. We look for fillers, additives and preservatives. We debate raw versus cooked, compare protein percentages and buy supplements, prebiotics and probiotics.

And quite right too because we want our dogs to be healthy, comfortable and with us for as long as possible.

But there’s one part of their lives we seem to have largely forgotten to question.

What are they sleeping on?

Think about where your dog’s nose is.

Dogs sleep a lot and when they’re not actually asleep, they spend plenty more time lounging, snoozing and generally occupying the most comfortable spot available.

Which means their bed isn’t just another piece of furniture.

Their nose may be pressed against it for hours. Their skin and coat are in direct contact with it. So whatever ends up on that coat can eventually be injested when they groom themselves.

Yet when did you last turn over a dog bed and ask “What is this actually made from?“

We ask that question about their dinner so perhaps we should ask it about their bed too.

What’s inside a conventional dog bed?

Take one apart and you may find polyurethane foam, memory foam, synthetic fibres, adhesives, dyes, treatments and various other man-made materials.

Some polyurethane foams and associated materials can emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) particularly when new.

Then there are the treatments that may be used in textiles and foams to meet performance or fire-safety requirements.

None of this means that every synthetic dog bed is dangerous.

That’s not the point.

The point is much simpler:

If our dogs spend thousands of hours lying on something, shouldn’t we at least know what that something is?

That was the question I couldn’t get away from.

Once I’d thought about it, I couldn’t unthink it

When I began looking properly at what my own dogs were sleeping on, my reaction was immediate.

Why am I allowing this?

I was already careful about their food.

I cared about what went into their bodies.

So why was I paying so little attention to the materials their bodies were lying against every night?

Once I’d asked the question, there was no going back.

So I started looking for options and discovered that there were very little and not adequate ones.

So I went back to basics. Basically back to Nature.

The natural order

Wool. Organic cotton. Natural latex. Coconut fibre.

These became the building blocks of Hixx beds.

Not “natural” because it sounds nice on a label.

Natural because these materials are extraordinarily good at what we need them to do.

Organic cotton gives us a natural fabric next to the dog rather than relying on synthetic fibres.

Organic British wool breathes, helps regulate temperature and is anti microbial and anti bacterial.  This means bacteria that create doggy smells don‘t like hanging out there.

Natural latex provides resilient support without conventional polyurethane or memory foam.

Coconut fibre has an open structure that provides firm, breathable support.

No complicated reinvention required.

Sometimes innovation isn’t about adding more.

Sometimes it’s about looking at what nature has been doing brilliantly all along.

Nature is at the very core of Hixx. Not as a marketing idea. It’s simply how we think things should be made.

A dog bed should do more than look comfortable.

I don’t think choosing a dog bed should simply come down to whether it looks soft, matches the sofa or has the word “orthopaedic” printed on the label.

I think we should ask more of it.

What supports the dog?

What allows air to move?

What helps manage temperature?

What is their nose resting against?

What is touching their skin and coat?

Also, perhaps most importantly:

What’s actually inside it?

Because once you start asking those questions, a dog bed stops being just a cushion on the floor.

It becomes part of the environment your dog lives in every day.

That’s why, at Hixx, we’re changing the way dogs sleep.

Not by inventing ever more complicated materials.

By going back to some remarkably good ones.

If I can give my dogs a bed that supports them, breathes naturally and avoids materials I don’t want them spending thousands of hours against…

why wouldn’t I?

And actually…

why wouldn’t everyone?