Bedding is very important for a dog, especially a puppy which has just been taken away from its mother. In fact, if you can arrange it, it is a good idea to leave a blanket with your puppy while it is still with its mother and siblings, that way the blanket will remind him of home, which will be a big comfort to it in its early days of loneliness.
The best material to use for your blanket is wool. Wool is absorbent and so retains some moisture and smells, which will help the animal feel at more home. Wool is also pretty tough and warm, not that warmth is really a priority for a dog that lives in the house.
There is no need to buy a purpose-made blanket for your dog. You can cut down an old blanket of your own, a metre square is roughly right. This is big enough for any dog, will fit in a dog basket comfortably and is yet not too big to go in the washing machine every couple of of months. If you do not want to run to the expense of using a blanket of wool, you could use an old towel, as towels are also absorbent.
Most dog owners permit their pets to sleep in the house and some even permit their dog to sleep on the bed. If you allow your dog to sleep in the house, it is best not to feed him after around six or seven o’clock or you will have to let him out or take him out late at night.
It is better to feed your dog twice a day than just once and be careful of leaving food down all day, particularly if there is no-one at home during the day to let him out.
If you decide to leave your dog in the garden all day and night, you will have to supply even more shelter for him. A kennel or dog house is the best way of doing this. A kennel ought to have a wooden floor which is a couple of inches above the ground.
You could put a couple of inches of straw in the kennel for your dog to make his bed and you can put a blanket or two in there too. Do not worry about what you think it should look like, your dog knows best in these matters. If you can not run to either blankets or towels, believe it or not your dog will be just as pleased with crumpled up sheets of newspaper for bedding. Newspaper is soft, absorbent and surprisingly warm, which is why tramps use it. It is also cheap and easy to replace when it gets dirty after rainfall.
A dog instinctively tries to form a nest to sleep in. I am sure that you will have noticed that dogs walk around in a circle three times before lying down. This is to flatten the grass before lying down and they do it whether there is grass beneath them or not. If you supply some form of bedding he will not be wasting his time.
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a variety of subjects, but is now concerned with Personalized Throw Blankets. If you want to know more, please visit our website at Woollen Blankets.