After browsing through what seems like hundreds of different pet beds both online and in stores, this is the one I finally selected for our 19lb terrier's kennel, and I have no regrets about it. I ordered the small (30" x 20") grey bed. The exterior dimensions of the kennel are 30"L x 21"W x 24"H, and this bed was a PERFECT fit inside the plastic tray on the bottom, as if it was tailor made for the kennel. At 5" thick, I was worried the bed might block a big chunk of the entrance and make it difficult for my dog to enter/exit, but there's still plenty of room for him to get in and out. The quality of the bed is excellent, and I'm happy with the price I paid for it. You just can't beat the value in this bed, period! But the success or failure of a pet bed rests (no pun intended) on whether the dog takes a liking to it or not, right? Our dog is just about eight years old, and has only known one bed his entire life (one of those pillow type beds with fiber fill and cedar chips), and boy does he love that old bed. Naturally, I was worried how he'd take to this new bed. Son of a gun, I was worrying about nothing! It took a minimal amount of coaxing to get him to lay on it fresh out-of-the-box, and once he did he was hooked. He is the epitome of contentment when he's laying on that bed. I've also caught our other dog, several times, sneaking into this one's kennel to lay on the bed. All in all, I think this is truly a 5-star product. I highly recommend it. The only caveat to that statement is that my dog is still fairly young and doesn't have arthritis or joint problems. Ortho beds are specifically marketed for older dogs and especially ones with hip/joint problems. I can't speak 1st-hand to that aspect of this bed, but I fail to see how this bed _wouldn't_ help those kinds of dogs. It's the thickest ortho bed I've run across, and it provides plenty of support (again, keeping in mind that my dog is only 19lbs). ------------- UPDATE 10/1/2012 ------------- I had to give in. As I mentioned, the second dog liked this bed so much that he would go into the first dog's kennel to lay on it... and he had a pretty darn good bed of his own! Nevertheless, he liked this one better; so I ended up buying the second dog a bigger kennel just so I could get him one of these beds for his own. The bed arrived a week ago, and I had barely gotten it into the kennel when the second dog grabbed a toy, ran inside, and sprawled out on it (see my customer image). He loves it! The second bed is green, and I regret making that choice. It's a putrid shade of green with a clashing topside color (I LOVE the first grey bed, though!). Now that I have two of these beds to compare side-by-side, one brand new and the other an older well-used one, I can see that the older one has sagged over time. So these beds don't hold up over time "as well as" they should (IMO). I mean, even human mattresses sag with time, so it's not like I wasn't expecting this with the dog bed; but it hasn't even been two years yet and the amount of sag seems disproportionate for that time frame, considering my dog isn't really that heavy. Long story short, I'm lowering my rating from 5 to 4 stars. However, even with a little sag, this is still one heck of a good bed, and still provides ample support for my dogs (the 2nd dog is 23lbs, BTW). The cover on the first bed is still in pristine condition after almost two years; i.e. no holes, no stitching coming apart, no broken zippers, the top is still soft and comfortable, not a lot of color fading, etc. The cover is admittedly a lightweight material, and although several other reviewers apparently associate lightweight with cheap, my two years of washings with no noticable deterioration of the fabric or its construction disproves that notion! I'm pretty happy with the cover and prefer the lightweight material over most others I've seen. This is also the only bed I've run across where the zipper opens lengthwise instead of widthwise, which makes it a whole lot easier to get the pad in and out of the cover! The zipper handle isn't exposed, either; there's a pocket of material covering it when closed. FYI: I wash the cover and flip the pad every month, so take that into consideration when evaluating my statements. All things considered, I still think this is an excellent dog bed and I'm VERY happy with my two purchases, as are the two dogs! -------------------------------------------- ------------- UPDATE 5/3/16 ------------- The cover on the first bed--bought in December 2010--has finally seen its last days. K&H makes replacement covers (allegedly)--I think I found ONE place on the Web that sold them--but they're more expensive than the bed! What a shame, because the cushion is still in great shape. Two things to keep in mind about the cover: First, part of the reason it finally tore is because the OTHER dog started digging at it. Second, a few years ago I decided to cut a piece of memory foam from an old 1.5" mattress pad to fit the bed and stuff it inside the cover along with the original pad, so I was stretching the cover beyond its normal use. Not coincidentally, I'm sure, that's about the time the other dog started digging, also. If it weren't for the overstretching & digging, I'm convinced the cover would still be in good shape today. So call it "cheap" if you like, but as I've pointed out before, lightweight is not low quality. --------------------------------------------
