The present disclosure is directed to a foam-based dog mattress with improved features related to its construction and cleaning.
In the wild, dogs instinctually dig and scratch away their sleep surface before bedding down. The reason is to dig away wet or hot earth in order to create a cool and dry sleep surface. Wild dogs will also seek out protected areas to sleep in order to prevent attacks from predators. These protected areas typically are a wall, a fence, or a bank of trees that provide shelter/protection in at least one direction. As dogs typically live/sleep in packs, having something warm to nestle into is another common behavior.
Domesticated dogs still carry over this behavior. Further, it is becoming more common for domesticated dogs to sleep indoors with their families. Thus it is beneficial for dogs to have a bed of their own that respect dogs' instinctual needs for sleep and comfort. It is also important that a dog bed offer ease of use, durability and care/maintenance to afford simplicity for a typical pet owners modern lifestyle.
The design choices in most prior-art dog beds are primarily cost-driven. The cheapest stuffing or fill material is a loose fiber (typically polyester). This loose fiber filling can shift around and compress very easily. The negative aspect of fiber shifting is often advertised as a way for dogs to prepare the sleep surface as in the wild. But since the material being shifted is also the sleep surface, the dog ends up pushing the soft, insulating material away and sleeping on fabric only.
A large category of dog beds are called “bolster” beds. They provide a raised perimeter for a dog to nestle into. Nearly all bolsters are filled with loose fiber (as noted above). Loose fiber has no structure and cannot hold its shape. The loose fiber may fill the fabric cover to give the appearance of structure. But in actual use, the raised bolsters splay open and compress flat very easily. This ends up providing no real support or protected pocket to nestle into. This also leads to the dog bed flattening out prematurely and looking sloppy within the pet owners home.
Some dog beds use loose fiber and/or foam combinations for construction. Foam is an ideal filler as it provides great support and resiliency. But foam does not look good when stuffed into a fabric cover. It is much firmer than loose fiber and usually cut with flat faces and edges. These flat and firm faces result in a dog bed that looks very rectilinear and square. While foam is good for the dog's comfort, this square look is dissonant with most interior furnishings within the pet owners home. Furthermore, foam pieces are typically very sticky and hard to stuff and un-stuff from the fabric cover. Similarly, loose fiber filled pillows are equally hard to stuff/un-stuff from the fabric cover as they are different sizes/shapes and overstuffed to give the appearance of fullness and structure.
Further, the majority of dog beds are not washable. As dogs are inherently messy creatures, a dog bed can quickly become soiled and dirty. Dogs are also naturally curious. They will seek out things to chew on or tear apart. Making a dog bed with a washable fabric cover is often done by making a zippered cover. Once the dog bed needs cleaning, the pet owner will unzip the fabric cover, remove the inside filling (loose fiber in a pillow case or foam pieces) and wash the cover. But a loose zipper can often be chewed on by a dog or drag on and scratch a pet owner's floor.
Accordingly, there is a need for an indoor mattress for domesticated dogs that provides a soft and supportive sleep surface that is also easy to clean.
The accompanying figures, where like reference numerals refer to identical or functionally similar elements throughout the separate views, together with the detailed description below, are incorporated in and form part of the specification, and serve to further illustrate embodiments of concepts that include the claimed invention, and explain various principles and advantages of those embodiments.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.
The disclosed embodiments provide dogs a protected and comfortable place to bed down by allowing them to prepare their sleep surface as in the natural world. The disclosed embodiments also improve the pet owner experience, including making the assembling, washing, and maintaining of the dog bed as enjoyable, memorable, and easy as possible.
The disclosed embodiments are designed specifically to comport with the nature of dogs and their sleeping habits. Specifically, dogs in the wild like to burrow and find protected places to sleep. This is done for temperature regulation (where wild dogs will dig away wet or hot dirt to access a dry and cool place to sleep) and for protection/refuge (dogs will typically be down next to a wall or large trees to protect themselves from predators while asleep). Dogs sleep in a variety of positions depending in part on the ability of dogs to regulate temperature while sleeping. Dogs are poly-phasic sleepers and average 23 sleep/wake episodes per day.
The disclosed embodiments include an foam-based dog bed (with no loose fiber) comprising 5 components: 4 identical internal bolsters and 1 internal mattress. Both the internal mattress and bolsters may be comprised of 2-layers of different foam qualities. The foam pieces are wrapped in a slippery fabric to make stuffing and un-stuffing into the outer fabric cover very easy. Additional combinations of bolsters and internal mattresses may be used.
The outer fabric cover is comprised of a top fabric, border fabric, and bottom fabric. The top fabric incorporates specifically tailored wrinkles to allow a dog to dig, scratch, and prepare their bed. On the bottom panel of the dog bed is an outer perimeter zipper. The outer zipper starts and stops at a zipper pocket, which also serves as a hinge to open/close the bottom panel. The zipper pocket holds the zipper pull to prevent a dog from biting at it as well as keeping it protected from scratching a pet owner's floor.
The inner zipper panel captures the inner foam mattress. The foam bolsters are captured between the inner and outer/perimeter zipper and fabric panels. Capturing both the mattress and foam bolsters with fabric on all sides provides a significant structure and durability.
The solution may arrive to the customer with the foam pieces compressed and rolled up in a plastic bag. Once the foam bag is opened, it inflates and rises quickly, which is very fun to experience. There may also be a dog toy hidden in every box as a surprise.
Although this description shows a dog bed in a rectangular format, the dog bed may be formed in a square, circular or oval configuration.
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All of the raised front bolster cover 122, the front right controlled corner radius 106, the raised right bolster cover 116, the rear right controlled corner radius 104, the raised rear bolster cover 120, the rear left controlled corner radius 102, the raised left bolster cover 118, and the front left controlled corner radius 108, and the inner sleep surface cover 114 may comprise a microfiber-based fabric.
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The raised front bolster cover 122, the front right controlled corner radius 106, the raised right bolster cover 116, the rear right controlled corner radius 104, the raised rear bolster cover 120, the rear left controlled corner radius 102, the raised left bolster cover 118, and the front left controlled corner radius 108 may be constructed as a tight perimeter around the other structures of the dog bed 100. This is in contrast with the inner sleep surface cover 114, which is constructed as a loose and soft around the other structures of the dog mattress. Moreover, the inner sleep surface cover 114 includes a wrinkly top 115, which are specifically tailored wrinkles into the top cover so that dogs can scratch, dig, and push material around without impacting the foam-based comfort surface below.
A front outside perimeter 112 is located below the raised front bolster cover 122. The front outside perimeter 112 may comprise a woven border. A label 110 may be sown onto the front outside perimeter 112. The woven border of the front outside perimeter 112 is repeated on the left, right and rear sides of the dog bed 100 (not shown).
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The mattress topper memory foam 210 may be visco-elastic polyurethane and have the following physical characteristics:
The mattress core polyurethane foam 220 nay be conventional polyurethane foam and have the following physical characteristics:
The physical properties of the bolster topper polyurethane foam 230 may be:
Further, as will be discussed below, the bolster are fabricated in a very specific manner to create extra bulge at the ends to help fill out the outer fabric cover better.
4. The physical properties of the bolster core polyurethane foam 240 may be:
In other embodiments, the mattress may consist of a first horizontal layer selected from the group consisting of latex and latex-like foam, above a second horizontal layer comprising memory foam, all above a third horizontal layer consisting of polyurethane foam.
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The hinge 356 also secures the outer bottom cover 308 and inner bottom cover 305 to the rest of the dog bed even when the outer zipper pull 352 is at the outer zipper teeth 358.
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Each of the lower sides of these items may have a darker appearance so that the lower side of each item is easily ascertainable. In addition, foam inherently is sticky. Thus the foam bolsters are surrounded by foam sheaths that make stuffing and unstuffing into the outer fabric cover easy.
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Each of the upper sides of these items may have a lighter appearance so that the upper side of each item is easily ascertainable by the user when installing the bolsters and mattress in their respective channels in the dog bed. This is particularly useful for the mattress, which is shaped the same way on the upper side and the lower side (unlike the bolsters which are shaped differently). Thus, the two-toned color structure ensures that the mattress will be installed within the mattress channel in the proper orientation. This ensures that the mattress topper memory foam 210 is above the mattress core polyurethane foam 220. Any two-tone color structure may be used to accomplish this goal. In the alternative, a two-tier fabric structure may be used to identify the proper installation of the bolsters and mattress.
In addition, the size of each of the four bolsters may be the same so that they may be interchanged one for the other when placed in the dog bed bolster channels. This improves ease of installation of the bolsters into the bolster channels.
Given the dog bed's multiple covers, multiple removable bolsters and removable mattress, there are a number of configurations that the dog bed may take when being assembled.
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The bolsters 520, 530, 540, 550 are composed of a foam shaft surrounded by a sheath.
The construction of the dog bed described above provides the following beneficial properties:
In the foregoing specification, specific embodiments have been described. However, one of ordinary skill in the art appreciates that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the claims below. Accordingly, the specification and figures are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense, and all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of present teachings.
The benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essential features or elements of any or all the claims. The invention is defined solely by the appended claims including any amendments made during the pendency of this application and all equivalents of those claims as issued.
Moreover, in this document, relational terms such as first and second, top and bottom, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. The terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “has”, “having,” “includes”, “including,” “contains”, “containing” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. An element proceeded by “comprises . . . a”, “has . . . a”, “includes . . . a”, “contains . . . a” does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains the element. The terms “a” and “an” are defined as one or more unless explicitly stated otherwise herein. The terms “substantially”, “essentially”, “approximately”, “about” or any other version thereof, are defined as being close to as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The term “coupled” as used herein is defined as connected, although not necessarily directly and not necessarily mechanically. A device or structure that is “configured” in a certain way is configured in at least that way, but may also be configured in ways that are not listed.
The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features are grouped together in various embodiments for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separately claimed subject matter.
REFERENCE To PRIOR APPLICATION This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/375,466 filed on Aug. 16, 2016, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62375466 | Aug 2016 | US |