CoolPaws Cooling Pet Mat

I am naturally sceptical of advertiser & seller claims for products, but thought we'd give one of these a try for our 13-year old "Half-scale Otter Hound" mutt, who has the same double-thick, oily coat of Otter Hounds and many other water dogs. He's always panting, particularly at night, and wanting to go outside several times a night, even in deep winter cold, to cool off, which is a pain for us, as he needs help getting back up the steps and into the house, due to arthritus. Additionally, he needs a soft dog bed to rest his painful joints, but the bed makes him heat up quickly, so he's continually moving to the bed, to a cool, hard floor, struggling to get up, and panting all the time. We got this cooling mat about a month ago, and he avoided it for the first 2 days, then settled onto it sometimes, and seemed OK with it. Around the 4th day, I moved it to his dog bed, and WOW-- what a change! No panting at all, he seeks it out every time he lays down, and obviously prefers it. Even more, he sleeps so much better, so that in the mornings, despite his tired, old joints giving him a lot of pain, he even RUNS around the yard, and RUNS to meet my wife when he wants to come back in. He plays more with our other 2 smaller dogs, and overall seems a LOT more comfortable and happy. The Pet Cooling Mat in his dog bed is HIS Spot, now, and he's learned on his own to get off for about half an hour to let it "re-charge", and then gets back on.I have heard the other dogs "digging"/"scratching" the fabric the middle of their beds sometimes, just like he used to also do, and I think it's an instinctual canine reactionj to being "too hot", i.e., "digging down to cooler soil", so we'll see how this goes. If it goes well, we'll probably order a Small cooling mat for our smallest dog. The mats seem quite durable(my wife has severe spinal stenosis and bad arthritus, and she said to leave word in this review that she has no problem at all handling them. My only regret is that we didnt get some of these years ago. A very good product, and it seems well-made, to last a very long time!

FOLLOW UP, about a week after I posted this item, above: We received the 2nd cooling mat, and right away put it in the "medium-size" dog bed, normally preferred by our 3-year old girl. She avoided it the first day, although our "big" dog that we bought the first cooling mat for, went for it right away, switching back and forth from each cooling mat-equipped bed, as needed. The 2nd night, our girl finally discovered what it was all about, and now, if not sleeping on one of our laps, prefers to sleeping on "her" mat atop "her" dog bed. So, now I have 2 dogs that love these cooling mats. Our "little" dog, a Jack Russell-Shi Tzu mix has a thin coat, and thus looses body heat easily, but I suspect as summer comes on (this is 13 May), we might buy a another mat sized for her, as well. Suffice to say that our dogs seem to really like this product, and I can heartily recommend it.

P.S.: When the dogs go out to the back yard, to chase squirrels, bark at passing dogs, or do other "Dog Stuff"-- I've learned that picking up each mat and holding it up vertically so that both sides get air helps cool it off quicker, so that even if they're outside for just a few minutes, they return to a cold mat. The original mat we got for our "big" (actually only 85 lbs) dog is still large enough for him to sleep on half of it, then roll over to the "cold half" for more comfortable sleep. Although he has still panted for short periods, at night on it lately, mostly he just dozes off and snores for hours at a time-- a refreshing change from having him panting and moving around restlessly all night before we got the mats. Some reviews of Dog Cooling Mats suggest putting the mat into the refrigerator, but I think that would be far too much cooling in a short time-- these things are cold to the touch when you pick them up-- and the object is to slowly draw off the dog's body heat without over-cooling it, and they do that very well. We're quite satisfied.

got it for my dog he loves but sometimes its taken over by his sister

One side is cooling. Works well.

seems real soft and a nice big size.my pup is already using it.

Got the small dog size and it’s perfect, it’s bigger than expected, very soft and great for hotter days. It stays cool no need to put in freezer/refrigerator. Highly recommended for your pets and you.