The Green Pet Shop Cool Pet Pad - Large, Sage Grey - Self-Cooling, Pressure Activated Mat for Dogs & Cats from 46-80 lbs - Non-Toxic Gel, No Water Needed

Every pet owner should own a "The Green Pet Shop Self Cooling Pet Pad" because it gives our dogs the option to cool themselves down when we humans might not even be aware they are more uncomfortably warm/hot than we realize. So if you don't have a The Green Pet Shop Self Cooling Pet Pad", buy your pup(s) one right now! My three are all laying on one as I speak...no joke.SIZE? Our family of five (3 dogs and their 2 humans) LOVE "The Green Pet Shop Self-Cooling Pet Pads". We bought our first "The Green Pet Shop Self Cooling Pet Pad" back in 2012 and have been loyal since. At that time I bought ONE Large pet pad to accommodate all the dogs at once (and yes-I hoped to save a few bucks). But we soon learned that getting them individual cooling pads was the key as when they got hot cuddled together on the one large cool pad-their body warmth made them separate and the lucky one who didn't move got the spacious cooling pad!TO EACH HIS/HER OWN: Lesson learned and we have a medium sized cooling pad for each of our 3 Cavalier King Charles Spaniels (11lbs to 20lbs) plus a couple extra floating around the house.. All 3 dogs are rescues, but our senior dog (newest to us) who we have had for less than 2 years loves the cooling pads. He may be almost completely blind, but he can find his cool pad quickly (they are all his according to him); we have them scattered throughout the house b/c he likes them so much.OLDER VERSION HOLDING UP WELL: Unfortunately our senior dog also likes to nest on them-or maybe he is marking them with his scent, but he does it vigorously.. We have never bought/used a separate cover for our pads. And the older version of the pads have for the most part held up and not torn from his rigorous digging. The inserts have moved around a bit within the cool pad encasement and it has created bunches in places so the older versions are no longer smooth but the dogs don't care as they work just like they always have: wonderfully cool!"NEW AND IMPROVED VERSION": The new version is fabulous and has held up well; there are no bulges anywhere after many sessions of our elder dog's "nesting behavior." (We do try to stop him from doing this!) In my view the company obviously took into consideration what wasn't perfect about the older version and improved upon it; the new version feels sturdier than the older version and the gel feels thicker.SUGGESTIONS FOR USE: We always have cool pads for road trips whether it is to the vet nearby or to grandma & grandpa's house 8 hours away. We bring them regardless of the weather because it may be snowing outside but inside the car, the dogs can get hot/panting from the heat blowing to keep us humans comfortable/warm. Its all about paying attention to the dog(s). At home, we keep two cool pads on our bed each night for the two dogs that prefer the human bed. And when all five of us (my husband, myself and the three dogs are cuddled together on the couch, we lay down some cool pads to keep the dogs from overheating.WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR FIRST GPS COOL PAD? Please learn from our user error. Unfortunately my husband left the cool pad the car for several (hot) days and the pad became hard as a brick wall as the gel had naturally dried out in those conditions. Again- this was not a problem with the product at all, it was user error on our (his!) part as these pads are not meant to be left in hot conditions. Make sure you store your cool pads as recommended in a cool place and most certainly not in a hot car.GIVE YOUR COOL PADS A BREAK: One thing to be aware of is that these cool pads don't stay cool forever as they aren't intended to stay cool forever! They give several hours of coolness depending on if your dog is laying completely on the pad or just laying his/her head on it. As our senior dog would like to live on them, I have to switch them out because they can become warm from his body heat; I imagine that warmth might feel good on his achy bones, but in the summer months that isn't desirable for his health. So, be aware during long car rides or long couch naps on the cool pad that the pad may need a break to "recharge" as explained in the product description. The pads become cool again by not being exposed to my pups' body heat for a bit...I haven't timed it but definitely less than 30 minutes unless our senior pup has claimed the cool mat for more a good portion of the day.FOUR PAWS AND A TAIL UP! No question our family agrees: 5 stars for sure! We actively use these specific cool pads daily and truly love them; I believe we currently have 5 pads . I have not tried another brand and have no desire to; my dogs clearly love these pads and I feel safe the dogs are not overheating. I can't tell you how often the dogs will come in from a jaunt in the backyard on a hot day, grab a drink of water and seek out a cool pad on their own. Sometimes I'm jealous!HOW I FOUND GPS COOL PADS: Back in 2012, one of our beloved dogs passed away due to complications from an illness just hours after a long summer car ride to visit family. He had been well hydrated with the AC on high but he was still panting. In hindsight I always wondered if he had been hotter than I had known. I came to Amazon.com looking for something that might've helped my sweet pup and found the The Green Pet Shop Self Cooling Pet Pad. After reading about it, I felt relieved, bought it right away for the rest of the pack!After 3 years of using this product -both the old and new versions-I feel satisfied that our pups are comfortable, happy and safe in large part because of The Green Pet Shop Self Cooling Pet Pad!In Honor of Casper who loves his cool pads dearly and in memory of my Mr. Knightley who inspired me to seek out such a fabulous product!Photos from June 2015 Oh dear. The photos are upside down! Well you get the point they are laying on their beloved GPS cool pads!

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 Green 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 just now bought a 2nd mat of the same brand-- We plan to either put it on the floor or in one of the other dogs' beds--- They used to rotate beds a few times during the night, although these days, nobody else gets "his" bed with the cooling mat. 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, aren't nearly as heavy as some make them out to be (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 Corgie-Lab mix. 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 Corgie-Lab mix 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.

Do not use this bed bare.I have a 6 month old puppy who has yet to even put a rip in any of her stuffed animals, let alone anything sturdy. She doesn't chew her crate pad, my clothes, shoes, furniture, nothing. We have had the same beds for her entire puppyhood; not a scratch on them. We do live in the desert, though, so her poor furry self gets very hot. We thought we'd get her this to help.Two days of only supervised use with this pad and she's managed to somehow cause two holes and eat a bunch of the (hopefully) non-toxic gel out. It is now unusable and not patch-able since the gel keeps tape from sticking. How is this "durable"? It didn't seem able to withstand even a few gnaws before giving way.The cooling effect was wonderful, and I'm very disappointed it isn't more durable. She loved it. Honestly not sure if I even want a replacement unless it can somehow be covered to prevent this. That's how silly this situation is; even a slipcover would've been enough to protect against her mild chewing, because she can't break through basic cloth. I didn't realize this bed was basically a freezer cold pack masquerading as a durable dog product. I've left her alone with pillowcases that lasted longer.**UPDATE** The company has provided me with a heartfelt apology and immediate refund. So, good on them. They claim this is the first one to ever be torn open by a dog's mouth, and while I doubt that, I'm willing to give them another try; this time, though, I'll be purchasing a bed with a sturdy zippered slipcover that this can go UNDERNEATH. Like I said, the cooling effect was lovely and my dog very much enjoyed the bed. She misses it.