What's the best type of fabric for my sofa if I have a dog?

Dogs, puppies, doggos, puppers, woofers, slobber pusses, fur monsters. Do you have one of these? OK, great. What's the best sofa fabric for a dog? Well, it's gonna really depend on the dog, of course, as all things do. I mean, there are big dogs and small dogs, and shedders and non-shedders. And you know your dog better than I do, but give up some of that information, we'll help you steer kinda in the right direction.

I think things to look for, for fabrics are going to be fabrics that are cleanable, and cleanable kind of comes on a few different factors. I think there's vacuumability, if that's a word, it is now. Cleanability, scrubbability. Because dogs are going to shed, dogs are going to drool, and jump up on the sofa with muddy paws. Now, we're of course talking about misbehaving dogs.

Good dogs that never do these things, well, they only do them when you're not home. So ultimately, you have to think about this a little bit. I think even with a perfectly well behaved dog it's still wise to think about, OK, my dog's gonna be at worst lying down at my feet, there's gonna be a little bit of pet hair. How do I clean it out? Is it gonna be an issue? Some fabrics are grabbier than others, some velvets really, really grab onto fur, but on the flip side, because it's a cut pile, because there's no way for the fur to kind of get woven into the fabric, you could vacuum it out and you're done, right? Other fabrics, depending on the breed like short hair dogs, their shedding can get woven into some fabrics and get matted in there, it's a little bit trickier. So I think probably coarser weave is maybe something to avoid, you probably want a tighter weave for that.

Cleanability, we deal a lot with performance fabrics. It's a very popular option for our customers for a wide range of reasons. Usually people have a dog or a kid, or some combination, or a husband that can't keep the ice cream in the bowl, whatever it might be. A lot of good reasons to have a fabric that's easily scrubbable, that you can use a wide range of cleaning products on to get that grime back off. So there are some fabrics out there that are washable, launderable, that's nice to have too.

We do occasionally look at slip covers for folks. And we can also always do additional secondary set covers for your seat cushions and back pillows so you can swap them out, makes it a little bit easier, extends the lifespan a bit.

So generally speaking, what's gonna be good for durability for kids is also gonna be good for durability for dogs, durability for high-traffic environments, again, good for dogs.

One note, we have some fabrics that are pretty great because they are coarser weave but they do not snag. A company that we do a lot of work with, a textile company called Nassimi, has a few really lovely performance fabrics that are super durable, they're super cleanable, but they also don't snag even though they have a coarser weave. That would be nice if you are going for that look but want a little bit of extra protection. So hit us up, talk to us about that, we'll be happy to steer you in the right direction.