Are machine

Aug 28, 2023

As long as I’ve been alive, I’ve been a dog lover. My only time without a dog was briefly after I got married, when my husband, who never had a pup, was hesitant about getting one. (Thankfully, he's now a convert.)

So it has always baffled me when people say they don't have a dog because of the mess. For me, the love and affection they bring far outweighs their dirty paws and sometimes unsavory food choices. Well, most of the time anyway.

The times I’ve questioned that statement have been when my dog decided to empty his bladder all over our rug. He has chosen to unleash on not one rug, not two, but every rug we’ve ever owned. Multiple times. His preference for rugs as a restroom is rivaled only by his preference for couches.

We’ve tried pet sprays and carpet cleaners. We’ve tried preventative measures, like doggy diapers (which, in short, he hated) and keeping him contained while we were out of the house (which is when we learned he's a master escape artist). No matter what we did, our rugs always wound up serving as a very expensive indoor grass patch.

After purchasing and disposing of at least six different rugs in our four years owning him, we decided it was time to try a different approach: a machine-washable rug.

I had heard a lot about a company called Ruggable, which makes rugs that consist of two components: a bottom waterproof pad that resembles a large piece of thin Velcro with a rubber underside, and a removable rug cover that lays on top of it. The rug cover is "100% machine-washable, water-resistant, and stain resistant," according to the website.

While the rugs aren't terribly expensive — they range from about $150 for a doormat to more than $900 for a 9-by-12-foot rug — we’ve always stuck to a tighter budget for rugs. But in the company's collaboration with the iconic designer Iris Apfel, I found a rug I loved and decided to bite the bullet in January on a 6-by-9-foot rug and pad for about $400 (on sale).

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The rug came promptly, and once we assembled it, it looked beautiful. The rug topper is quite thin — somewhat like a blanket — and feels like such underfoot. It also had a slightly strange, residue-like feel to it. Still, I was quite happy with how it looked, which, up until that point, was my main priority.

But soon enough, my dog put the rug to the ultimate test when he developed bladder stones. In the past three months, we’ve had to wash our rug in the washing machine four times. Each time requires removing the rug from underneath our sectional, taking the rug cover off to wash it, then putting it back on and placing the rug back under the sectional. It's a monumental task.

Getting the rug cover back on the pad so that it sits straight and has no wrinkles is a crapshoot. Ruggable's website recommends rolling the cover out over the pad, but that didn't work for us, so we devised our own method that involves each of us hovering the cover over the pad and trying to lay it straight on top. We get it on about the tenth try.

Putting the rug back under the sectional is a borderline nightmare. If you roll the rug up at all, it begins to peel away from the pad and wrinkle, and trying to lift a two-piece sectional to slip a precarious rug underneath is like an Olympic sport. Needless to say, I dread washing the rug.

However, with all that said, it has, so far, washed like a dream. I see (and smell) zero evidence of stains, it fits well in the washer, it hasn't shrunk, and the colors are still vibrant. For other less odorous spills, spot-cleaning it is very simple. This feature alone is well-worth any additional cost or nuisance.

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So, would I recommend others buy this rug? If you have kids and/or pets, absolutely. The company has numerous design options, and washing it — once you get beyond the disassembly and reassembly — is a breeze. But if you’re looking for something a bit plusher or with natural fibers, or if you plan on placing a lot of furniture on it (and then have to move said furniture to wash it), this may not be the rug for you. To be fair, the company does have thicker rug topper and pad options. We opted for the thinner, cheaper pad, but we are considering buying the thicker one in the near future.

As for my dog, at the time of writing this, he just had surgery on his bladder, and I’m getting ready to go pick him up from the vet. The doctor said it went smoothly, and if all goes well, he will be back to normal in a couple weeks.

But I know that "back to normal" will still involve an accident every now and again. And I’m OK with that.

Email your questions to Theresa "Tess" Bennett at [email protected]

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