The Snuggle Is Real: Why This Bagel Dog Bed is My Pup's Favorite Place to Sleep

A bagel bed—sometimes called a cuddler, nester, or bolster bed—has raised sides all around that form a soft nest for dogs that like to sleep curled up or pressed against the side of something. This one was... easier to unstuff and restuff than any other cuddler bed we tested.

The outer ring allows dogs to keep their heads propped up while they’re resting, and both the outer ring and inner circle are stuffed with polyester-fill pillows, which have held up well in the four years we've used it.

Wirecutter’s pets writer and the pet-bed guide author Mel Plaut, bought this bed in blue Suede for their rescue dog named Dave. Mel crawled into it when it first arrived to try it out and found it comfortable, especially the inner cushion’s balance of loft and support. And the texture of the microsuede was softer than some of their own bed sheets.

“Majestic's bed stands out from the competition because they overstuff their inserts,” said Mel. “So when it naturally settles, it's not completely flat and the dog can still lie comfortably.”

This bed has quickly become Dave’s favorite spot in the house, where he alternates between sleeping belly down with his chin on the bolster, and stretching out on his side with his head hanging over the edge.

Buddy is a chewer and a scratcher. I’ve owned two covers, the Suede and the Villa. The materials are made from similar stuff: according to the manufacturer, the Villa and Suede are both upholstery grade fabrics. Still, they feel different: the Villa has more visible texture, while the Suede is softer and smoother.

Buddy has ripped both the Villa and the Suede versions of the bed, but it took him years to rip the Villa, whereas the Suede got damaged in a matter of weeks. We recommend the Villa if your dog is anything like Buddy.

I initially repaired the rips to the Villa with both a sewing machine and hand stitching but then decided to just leave them as he wasn't creating further damage beyond the initial tears.

You can see some of the mesh lining exposed in the ripped areas, which started to annoy me, so I eventually swapped out the greige for one of the replacement covers that Majestic Pet sells. I chose the green-ish? color Azure Villa, which I thought was fun but my 12-year-old immediately dismissed as looking like the Statue of Liberty. Can’t please everyone!

The base, which the company says is made of "a heavy duty, water resistant 300/600 denier fabric," has fared much better, with no damage at all.

Dave, who is not a digger like Buddy, has been sleeping on the Suede version every night for six months now with no damage.

The two smaller sizes of the Bagel Dog Bed, for pups ranging from 10-pound niblets to those weighing about 45 pounds, can tolerate getting tossed in the laundry in one piece, with the stuffing intact. The two larger sizes, for gentle giants between 45 and 110 pounds, require unzipping the cover and removing the stuffing before washing.

I’ve only washed the cover a handful of times since I've owned it—once when it was first passed on to us from the original product tester, and a couple of times when Buddy threw up on the cover after eating some mystery detritus from the yard. In our testing, the Villa was slightly more difficult to spot clean, as dirt and grime got stuck in its weave.

When I washed mine, the cover zipped off quickly and cleaned up well on a cold, gentle cycle. The care instructions say you can tumble dry the cover on low, but I hung mine out in the sun for a few hours. It was easy to put back together—no fighting with the lining.

I love that I don't have to buy an entirely new bed should I decide I want another color or pattern on the cover (or if the damage he inflicts to it becomes much worse), and Buddy having a truly favorite place that's all his own is priceless.

This post was originally part of our 2021 “52 Things We Love” series, an ode to Wirecutter picks that have withstood the test of time. Read the entire series. The current version was edited by Joshua Lyon and Rachelle Bergstein.