Sustainable Wool Dog Crate Mat

Sustainable Wool Dog Crate MatHere at Chimney Sheep we're often lucky enough to be privy to funny tales about our customer's pets. Often these stories involve dogs. Dogs seem to love wool. Time after time we've heard all about sneaky canines running off with their owners brand new Chimney Sheep chimney draught excluder and using it as a mat or a bed to lie on. So, we decided to produce something a little more comfy than a 'Sheep'; something that would fit into their already

Here at Chimney Sheep we're often lucky enough to be privy to funny tales about our customer's pets. Often these stories involve dogs. Dogs seem to love wool. Time after time we've heard all about sneaky canines running off with their owners brand new Chimney Sheep chimney draught excluder and using it as a mat or a bed to lie on. So, we decided to produce something a little more comfy than a 'Sheep'; something that would fit into their already existing dog crate. A cosy natural wool crate liner that's not only functional but sustainable too! In fact, we wanted to have sustainability at the forefront when it comes to these wool felt cage liners so we made sure to source only the highest quality renewable materials for their production. All the cotton used is organic and free from artificial chemicals, whilst all of our wool comes from quite literally just up the road. Paired with our low energy, low waste, small batch production methods we've created something that is well and truly sustainable, and that has minimal impact on the environment - and is completely compostable at end of life too!

Carefully hand-crafted in our Cumbrian factory next to the Lake District National Park, our high quality natural crate beds are filled with locally sourced Herdwick wool felt. Like all of our Herdwick products the wool for these crate liners has been sourced directly from local Lake District farms, and the farmers paid a fair price for the their wool.

These delightfully colourful wool crate beds are covered with a wonderfully tough natural dyed organic cotton. The organic cotton itself is water resistant, meaning these wool crate liners are easy-care. In fact, they're not just wipeable, they're machine washable too. You can pop this natural crate mat into the washing machine on a 30 degree, gentle wash and simply air dry if it ever gets mucky. No need for mucky pups lounging on mucky beds here - it's that simple!

What size natural wool crate liner should I purchase?

Crates come in all kinds of different sizes. There's no real standard and it really depends on the brand of crate you have as to the size it is. This means our sizes of small, medium and large crate liner won't necessarily directly match up to the size of crate you have. With this in mind we highly recommend you measure the dimensions inside your crate to figure out which size of wool crate liner will fit best.

For reference our natural wool crate liners are available in the following sizes:

• Small- 63cm x 50cm
• Medium- 80cm x 55cm
• Large - 103cm x 70cm

As our natural crate beds are made with compressible, pawesome wool there is quite a bit of give to them, so if your crate internal measurements are a few centimetres smaller than the closest crate bed size, don't worry it should squash into place pretty well.>

We simply recommend purchasing the natural crate liner that is closest in measurement to the size of your crate, they're very forgiving if the crate bed is a little too large, and there's no harm in leaving a small gap if the wool crate bed is a little smaller, it'll still create a wonderfully cosy space for your dog to lie on.

The natural crate beds are also available in a range of colours (black, grey, red, green, yellow and blue), perfect for putting your pups personality on display.

How will this wool crate mat help reduce my pup's carbon pawprint?

>Every single one of our handcrafted crate beds is made from entirely natural materials. There is absolutely no synthetic content and we don't use any non-sustainable materials in its production. The outer cover is made of completely organic, naturally dyed, water resistant cotton. Whilst the inner is made from 100% natural locally sourced Herdwick sheep wool. Even the thread we use is natural. There's absolutely no reliance on any sort of non-renewable, non-sustainable, synthetic or oil based products when it comes to the materials used to make our fantastic crate liners. Plus, because we want sustainability to be truly at the forefront of we've made sure that our production practices are truly environmentally friendly too. Our making methods are low energy consumption and low waste - plus we're making sure to produce in small batches to not only ensure these wool crate mats are quality, but there'll never be any going to waste. A truly low carbon product - the perfect one to swap to if you're conscious of your pups carbon pawprint.

Why should I choose a wool felt crate liner?

Dogs can spend quite a bit of time in their crates, whether that be because they're travelling around and need to be transported in a crate, their cage is their safe space and bed, or perhaps they're comfortable being left at home in their cage while owners go off to run errands or do a couple of hours work. Crates should be comfy, cosy safe spaces. Choosing a wool felt crate liner is one way to help make a cage that little bit more homely.

Wool is a bouncy, conforming naturally comfortable material, it feels soft underfoot and is lovely to lie on. The perfect liner for a hard crate floor. As well as this, wool is naturally antibacterial, meaning it won't accumulate bacteria and in turn won't develop a strong smell easily. Perfect if your dog is going to be spending a fair bit of time in their crate for whatever reason.

Wool is also breathable and naturally insulating, meaning it's fantastic for regulating temperature and keeping things warm or cool as needed - perfect dog bed material indeed.

Our wool crate beds in particular are completely plastic, solvent and glue free, this means your furry best friend won't be exposed to any kind of plastic whilst laying on the bed. They're produced with the environment in mind, using only the highest quality natural materials. They're made using methods that are low carbon and all in one warehouse so the carbon footprint of this particular wool crate liner is nice and small.

By choosing a British wool product you're also choosing to support British farmers - a great thing!

Why is it important to choose environmentally friendly pet products?

As dogs have become more and more popular over the years. So too have dog products- things like apparel, bowls, beds and even fashion. Whilst this is all fantastically fun, it comes at an environmental cost. Nearly all pet products are made of synthetic materials such as plastic. This is because plastic and other synthetics are cheap, easy to get a hold of and are easy to produce on a huge scale. Unfortunately this does mean the quality of some of these unsustainable products is pretty low, almost as if they were designed to break with time and need replacing.

Unfortunately, the majority of pet products are made of a variety of synthetic materials and plastics, this means many aren't recyclable at end of life and are ending up in landfill or even worse, in the ocean. Astonishingly now, 100% of baby sea turtles have some level of plastic or microplastic contamination within their systems. A terrifying thought. With approximately 5.25 trillion macro or micro pieces of plastic floating in the ocean alongside them. It's awful to think pet products are contributing to this environmental disaster.

But, as dog owners there are things you can do to help minimise any further damage to our oceans and the environment. One step you can take is to make more environmentally friendly choices when it comes to the products they need. Avoid plastics where you can and make the move to natural materials when it comes to their collars and leads. Why not take a look at our natural pet product range for some inspiration? But, it's very easy to make some like-for like swaps for more eco-conscious products - it can even be as simple as swapping your dogs toys out for a natural version. Tiny pawsitive changes add up so we want to encourage you to get started as soon as you can- so you can help reduce your pups carbon pawprint!