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There’s a lot to be excited about when those cold winter days are behind us. But for our dogs, summer weather often comes with some tradeoffs, like more panting and hunting for a cool spot to snooze. One appealing alternative to naps in the bathtub is a dog cooling mat.
Cooling mats can make a difference in a dog’s summer comfort—and the market is full of options, ranging from long-lasting gel mats to ice-based freezer beds and soakable mesh pads.
To find the best, we tested the popular gel-based Green Pet Shop Cooling Mat.
Key Features: Size, Cooling Power, Price
The Green Pet Shop Cooling Mat is a versatile mat that can be used just about anywhere: in a dog kennel, on the living room floor, in your dog’s favorite shady spot, or even in the car.
It’s filled with cooling gel that activates with pressure, and it automatically recharges after 15 to 20 minutes of non-use—so you don’t have to charge, fill, refrigerate, or freeze it.
It comes in five sizes to accommodate pups of all dimensions, and it’s easy to clean by wiping down.
What it’s not, however, is chew-proof—though the gel is non-toxic, it can still give your pup a stomachache.
The Green Pet Shop Cooling Mat
To test the Green Pet Shop Dog Cooling Mat, we let our resident bed tester, Ruby the Bernese Mountain Dog, give it a whirl. She’s usually skeptical about new accessories, but even Ruby couldn’t resist the charm of this cooling pad for long.
Though Ruby usually spends her day within six inches of her favorite person (me), at night her long fur got to be too much for her, and she discreetly curled up on the mat for a test snooze. Here’s what we found over the next several weeks.
1. The Green Pet Shop Mat offers decent cooling with no prep.
We had some doubts about the cooling power of a gel that doesn’t get filled with water or frozen—but cool it does. We could feel it working when we held a hand to the impression Ruby left in the mat.
The effect isn’t as dramatic as an ice-filled cooling pad’s, but it certainly provides a cool place to land, and two of our three testers migrated to it regularly when they were hot. The mat’s chill lasted for two to three hours, and it only took about 20 minutes to recharge.
Ruby spent an entire night on the mat, which tells us that it was also quite comfortable for extended naps.
2. The cooling mat is (mostly) portable.
Because of the gel filling, the mat itself is surprisingly heavy, with the extra-large weighing just over eight pounds. Though it’s probably not a great option for your suitcase, we found it easy enough to drag to a new location in the house.
It can even go outside: on a particularly hot day, we plopped it in the yard and let our good friend Hershey give it a test ride. He was up for the challenge and had no issues lounging on it while we monitored the kids running through the sprinkler.
Hershey, living his best life.
We also tried the cooling mat in the kennel. It provides a decent amount of support and is a great option for the summer when you don’t want a mat with a lot of padding or material that only adds to the heat. Luckily, we found the sizing for each mat correlates well with kennel sizes.
3. This mat stays put!
This might not seem like a big deal, but for Ruby, a mat that moves is a deal breaker. Ruby is not a graceful dog. She doesn’t daintily recline; she plops her 90 pounds down hard. This means that the bed needs to stay put, or she’s not interested. Sabine, our other dog, agrees; she’s a multi-turner and takes a minimum of five spins each time she lays down. If the mat moves, the process begins anew.
Fortunately, the weight of the Green Pet Shop mat and the material are such that it stays where you put it, no matter if it’s on a tile floor, on hardwood, or out in the yard.
Sabine the Spinner, finally settled.
4. The Green Pet Shop Dog Cooling Mat is a little pricey.
Ruby and Hershey are both all-in on this cooling mat (Sabine is too busy hogging the giant fluffy calming dog bed we reviewed a while back), but what they don’t know is that the cooling mat is a bit pricey, especially if you need a larger size.
The extra-large (27.5″ x 43.3″) retails for around $85, the medium at $50, and the extra small at $25. That’s a little more expensive than most cooling mats on the market.
Final Verdict: A Solid Cooling Tool Worth the Price
Our testers gave the Green Pet Shop Cooling Mat full marks, especially compared to some of the more traditional foam cooling mats and the freezer mats that perspired. They stayed on it longer, it provided a coolness that we could feel, and it kept its shape as they lounged.
Who will like the Green Pet Shop Cooling Mat:
- Dogs who need a mat with a moderate, long-lasting chill
- Pet parents who want to set it out and forget it—no prep work or maintenance required
- Big pups who like a mat that won’t move when they sit
Who won’t like the Green Pet Shop Cooling Mat:
- Dogs who like a really cold mat (check out ice-filled mats like the CoolerDog)
- Senior pups and dogs who like a lot of padding or bolstered edges (check out the Arf Pets mat, which we tested on two fussy cats)
How We Chose
The dog cooling mats featured here were selected based on a combination of our own hands-on testing and a comprehensive look at customer reviews across a wide variety of retail platforms. Our review prioritized effective and long-last cooling capacity, portability, stability, and price. We’re also guided by the experience of living and playing alongside our own much-loved and strongly opinionated pets, who are never stingy with their feedback. (Thanks, Ruby!)
Further Reading
Looking for more products to help keep your dog cool?
- Our 9 Favorite Dog Cooling Vests to Beat the Heat
- Testing a Dog Pool Float: Does the SwimWays Raft for Pups Hold Up?
- Should You Buy a Swimming Pool Just for Your Dog?
- Review: Timbuk2’s Muttmover Dog Backpack Is an All-Purpose Winner
- The 8 Best Cooling Beds to Get Your Dog Chilling
- 7 Must-Have Dog Water Bottles and Travel Dog Bowls
