About V.I.P. Dog Beds

V.I.P. Beds has been in business for over 25 years! This wool bedding has been sent country wide since 1991, with very few days without orders.

VIP wool dog beds for Very Important Pets

"The World wouldn't do half as much walking if it wasn't for dogs"

Background

As reported by Vivienne Haldane for the September 2008 issue of NZ Lifestyle Block magazine,

It was a gift of two bags of knopped wool and a concern for animal comfort that sparked Barbie Cassidy's business, V.I.P Beds for Very Important Pets. This ex-veterinary nurse and Labrador breeder of Waipukurau, Hawkes Bay, noticed that large dogs often suffered from arthritis and sore joints and were either living in pain or on expensive drugs. She thought they'd benefit from comfortable, warm bedding. Barbie had seen various versions of pet beds that offered draught protection but were filled with cheap, synthetic material. The idea of using the gifted wool and easing the dogs plight galvanised her to design and produce an improved version for her canine friends. She saw the possibility of using the woollen knops she had been given. She sat up in bed at three in the morning and made some sketches. She persuaded a saddler to make up the first beds in two sizes - one for a Jack Russell and one for a Labrador and they sold immediately. That was in 1991 and there has hardly been a day since that an order hasn't been made for a wool filled dog bed.

Knopped wool - the secret ingredient to a comfortable and therapeutic dog bed...

A unique knopping process is used to partially form tiny wool balls - which move slightly to massage inside the covers and do not 'felt down'

Barbie had read about a local man Phil Collins, who had devised a method of using knopped wool for insulation in houses. Being a wool lover she phoned to congratulate him on his efforts and he delivered two bags of woolen knops to her door. Knops are little balls of cross-bred wool fibre created when tiny tufts of wool are whirled in a machine with centrifugal force and blown into partially formed ball shapes. The transformation of fleece into these tiny balls further enhances the insulating properties of wool - its warmth and the ability to repel water by attracting and holding grease and oil. There is only one knopping machine in the North Island that was originally made by Stewart Tucker of Clive.

Mattress filled with these wool balls massage your dogs joints and help relieve and combat arthritis

Merino knops from Christchurch