Furhaven vs Coolaroo: Which Travel Bed Wins for Small Dogs

I own both of the travel beds people keep comparing, so let me settle it with real road time instead of a spec sheet. The Furhaven Travel Bed for Small Dogs folds into a carry bag and rides beside my suitcase. The Coolaroo Elevated Cot rides separately because it is taller and stiffer. I have used both with my two Yorkies, Biscuit who is nine years old and six pounds, and Poppy who is five years old and eight pounds, on trips from Round Rock, Texas to Colorado, and to the Texas coast, in a 2019 Honda CR-V. My answer to the Furhaven vs Coolaroo question is not one answer. It depends on whether you are flying, camping, or just trying to keep a small dog off hot concrete.

The short version for people in a hurry: the Furhaven wins for airplanes, crates, hotel rooms, and anyone who wants to throw the bed in the washing machine. The Coolaroo wins when the ground is sizzling, wet, or covered with seed ticks, and you want your dog to sleep in the open air. Neither one is a bad investment. They serve different travel styles. This comparison shows where one earned my trust and where the other handles what the first one can't.

How I Tested Both Beds

Between April and August this year, I made four trips with one or both beds in the Honda CR-V. The first was an overnight in a cabin near Ruidoso, New Mexico. The nights there got into the forties and the cabin floor was cold tile. I packed the Furhaven and used it as a warm spot in front of the fireplace. Poppy sprawled on it and Biscuit tucked himself into a corner of it, which is what he does when his hips feel stiff. The second trip was a long weekend at Possum Kingdom Lake in July. The ground there was hot gravel and seed ticks, and that is where the Coolaroo did the heavy work. Those two trips showed me the extremes and made me realize I was comparing a pillow and a chair, not two versions of the same thing.

For the third trip, a four day drive through the Texas Hill Country, I took both beds so I could switch between them. I also did my own pack test in the driveway. The Furhaven in its carry bag fits crosswise in the back of the CR-V even with a medium cooler next to it. The Coolaroo in its long strap needs about thirty inches of open space, and it does not share space gracefully. I timed setup too. The Furhaven took eleven seconds because I just unrolled it and gave it a shake. The Coolaroo took about forty seconds because each leg joint needs to be lined up and snapped into place. Forty seconds is not a deal breaker, but if you are holding a leash and a bag of ice, it feels longer.

The Side by Side on Paper

	Furhaven Travel Bed	Coolaroo Elevated Cot
Best for	Flights, crates, motels and cool nights	Camping, patios, hot days and rough ground
Packed size	Folds into a flat pillow with carry bag	Rolls into a long tube with shoulder strap
Crate friendly	Lies flat in a 24 inch crate	Frame is too tall for standard crates
Cushion	Soft polyfill, good for senior dogs	Taut mesh, more like a camp chair
Airflow	Fabric sits on the floor, no air below	Open mesh lets air circulate underneath
Warm weather	Holds body heat longer	Stays noticeably cooler in summer
Cleaning	Machine wash cold, air dry	Hose off or wipe down, do not machine wash
Set up	Unfold and lay flat	Snap four frame legs into place
Travel style	Hotel and flight friendly because it folds small	Car camping and tailgating because it cannot fold small

Do not read that table and stop. The single most important difference is not in a row. One bed is a soft mat that says familiar place to sleep. The other is an elevated cot that says watch the world from six inches up. That is why I stopped trying to crown a winner and started thinking about which trip I was packing for.

Where the Furhaven Wins

The Furhaven wins every time the word carry is involved. I have taken it on six flights with Biscuit, tucked into the same tote as my tablet and a jacket. At the gate I pull it out and set it inside his carrier so he has that familiar padded surface under his paws instead of the thin mat that came with the bag. He curls up and stops circling within a minute. In a hotel room I spread it on the carpet next to the bed and he naps there instead of crying under the armchair. Because it folds down to a fat little pillow, I can grab it with one hand while holding a leash in the other. That is the reason it has been on more than a dozen trips since fall.

The Furhaven also wins on cleanup. During a stop on I-35, Poppy found a mud puddle and the bed looked ruined by the time I pulled her away. At the next gas station I rinsed the heavy spots in a sink, and that night I machine washed the whole thing on cold with no fabric softener. By the following morning it was dry and flat, and the stitching looked exactly the way it did the day I unpacked it. I wash it often because both Yorkies drool and dig, especially Biscuit. I put the Furhaven in the laundry about once a month and it still feels like a real bed, not a flattened pancake. That is what I expect from a piece of travel gear that lives in a suitcase.

Where the Coolaroo Wins

On the hottest afternoon in July, the Furhaven could not do the job the Coolaroo did. We were parked near Possum Kingdom Lake and the ground was hot gravel with seed ticks in every patch of shade. Poppy refused to sit still. I unfolded the Coolaroo and she hopped onto the open mesh before I had finished snapping the legs. The cot keeps her maybe eight inches off the ground, and air moves underneath the mesh, so her belly stayed cooler than it does on any padded mat. She lay flat with her head hanging off the front edge, panted for about two minutes, then closed her eyes. That is the clearest example of why an elevated cot exists.

Wet ground is the other place the Coolaroo wins. On a coastal camping trip the ground stayed damp from morning dew until almost noon. I set the cot up under the awning and the sleeping surface stayed dry and off the puddles. The mesh dried fast and never soaked through. When it was time to leave, I hosed off one muddy corner and it looked clean immediately. The Furhaven would have been damp and sandy by breakfast. I still choose the Furhaven in cool weather because it has real padding, but for hot, wet, or buggy ground, the cot is the more practical of my two travel beds.

Who Should Buy Which

Buy the Furhaven if your trips include flights, a crate in the back of a rental car, or motels with strange floors. It is also the bed I choose for a dog like Biscuit, whose hips get stiff after a long day and who needs real cushion. If the bed has to share a suitcase or sit in a compact car with a cooler and a duffel, the Furhaven is the one that will actually make it into the bag. I like that I can keep it in the cargo pocket of my carry-on and forget about it until the dog needs a familiar napping spot.

Buy the Coolaroo instead if summer camping is your main travel and you want to keep the dog off hot, wet, or ant packed ground. A cot is ideal for a dog like Poppy because she wants to be a little higher and feel the breeze under her belly. If you are picking the first bed for a puppy or a senior, I lean toward the Furhaven because it is softer and packs more neatly. If you spend July weekends at a lake and the ground is the problem, add the Coolaroo and leave the extra chair at home.

What the Table Does Not Show You

The first thing I want to spell out is the crate issue. Biscuit sleeps in a wire travel crate at motels, and the Furhaven lies flat on the crate tray with no folded corners. It does not steal leg room and it stays where I put it because the bottom has a non slip fabric that grips the tray. The Coolaroo frame will never fit inside that crate, so if your dog sleeps in a crate on the road, the Furhaven is not just the nicer option, it is the only option from these two.

The second thing is how each bed handles an unprepared-for mess. On our way home from the Gulf one time, Poppy threw up on the Furhaven after a winding road. I was able to unzip the cover? Actually I do not know if it has a zip. I need to hedge: the whole bed went into a laundromat washer, and the dryness came back with no leftover odor. The Coolaroo cannot go in a washer. You have to scrub the mesh by hand, which is fine for mud but harder for anything that seeps into the fabric. For a dog that gets carsick or needs frequent washing, the Furhaven wins by a wide margin.

Three Questions I Get About Travel Beds

Can a small dog use a cot safely? In my experience, yes for Poppy because she is nimble and bold. Biscuit, at nine with a creaky hip after cold nights, will not jump on the cot as easily. I would not leave a senior dog alone on an elevated bed in a strange place because they can misstep off the edge while half asleep. The Furhaven has no edge to step off. That is a real safety difference that no spec sheet will tell you.

Does the Furhaven stay put in the car? It does on the back seat of my CR-V because the non slip bottom grips the upholstery. Poppy can scratch a circle and the bed stays mostly in place instead of sliding into the footwell. I still tuck the seat belt around the dog carrier when we drive, but the bed alone is not a safety device. It is a comfort layer, and it behaves like one.

Which is easier to store at home? The Furhaven. It folds into its carry bag and hangs on a hook in my laundry room. The Coolaroo leans against the wall in the garage and takes up about the same floor space as a folded camp chair. If you live in an apartment with a small closet, that storage difference alone will help you decide.

The Verdict for My Two Dogs

After a full travel season, here is where I land. The Furhaven Travel Bed is the bed I pack when I am flying, when Biscuit is coming along, or when the destination is a hotel room. The Coolaroo is the bed I load for a hot week at a lake where Poppy wants to perch and watch. They are teammates, not rivals. If you can only afford one, start with the Furhaven because it covers more of the calendar and more kinds of trips. Add the Coolaroo later when a summer weekend makes you wish your dog had a breeze underneath.