Founded in Washington state by Eric Heilborn.

Furhaven is an American pet bed brand from the Pacific Northwest. On its own “About” page, the company says Furhaven Pet Products was founded in 2004 with the aim of bringing soft, comfortable beds to pets “at a price that families can afford”. It says it is headquartered in Washington state and calls Bellingham its home, placing itself between Mount Baker and Seattle, and it describes itself as a family-based company of pet owners who test their own products.

The trade press tells the same founding story with a name attached. When Global Pet Industry reported on 19 January 2022 that the company had been sold, it described FurHaven as having been founded in 2004 in Washington state and named Eric Heilborn as its founder and chief executive. The report described the business as a seller of pet accessories, including bedding, home and travel supplies, and said Heilborn would join the buyer to drive its e-commerce initiatives.

The company itself writes its name two ways. Its current website uses Furhaven in its copyright line and FurHaven, with a capital H, in some page titles, and trade reports of the 2022 sale used the capitalised form throughout. This guide follows the copyright line and uses Furhaven.

Sold to Worldwise in January 2022.

The change of ownership was announced in January 2022. A release distributed by Business Wire on 11 January 2022 was headlined as the announcement by Worldwise, backed by A&M Capital Partners, of its acquisition of FurHaven. Global Pet Industry explained the background a week later: Worldwise was a California-based pet products company, and A&M Capital Partners had acquired it the previous September, which places that deal in September 2021. The report described the deal as part of Worldwise’s plan to expand its omnichannel retailing.

The same report set out how the combined business would be run. Worldwise’s chief executive, Kevin Fick, would lead it, and Heilborn would join the new management team to drive e-commerce initiatives. In that arrangement, the buyer was taking on not only a range of pet beds but also the founder who had built the brand’s online business, and giving him responsibility for that side of the larger company. Fick was quoted as saying, “Going forward, the Worldwise platform will continue to focus on product development and innovation.” He added that the plan would include “opening new retail channels as well as looking at the opportunity to acquire leading brands”, according to Global Pet Industry.

The report placed the deal inside Worldwise’s wider plans. It listed the buyer’s existing product categories, among them cat and dog toys and accessories and pet travel and safety, and said the company aimed to “significantly increase” the size of the business. FurHaven’s bedding, home and travel supplies joined that range.

Furhaven kept its own name inside the group. Its website still trades as Furhaven Pet Products, and its “About” page still describes Bellingham as home, so Worldwise has owned the brand since January 2022 without folding it into a single group label.

Design and documentation.

The brands in this group all make beds for dogs. Dog bed brands in general sit at many different points in the pet trade, from small workshops run by the people who started them to names that now belong to much larger pet companies, textile manufacturers or investment groups, and a single brand can be sold everywhere from a specialty pet shop to an online marketplace or a hardware store.

A dog bed brand’s identity is usually carried less by one bed than by a name, a mark, its fabrics and colourways and the way its range is described and packaged, because the company behind the name may have changed hands, moved its production or grown well beyond its first product. That makes the questions behind each name worth asking plainly: who started it, who owns it now, and where its beds are actually designed and made.

Each guide separates what independent sources record from what the company says about itself — its founding story, its owners over time, where its beds are made and how its range and packaging have changed — and marks plainly what rests only on the company’s own word.

A catalogue organised by bed shape and pet size.

Furhaven’s catalogue is organised around the bed rather than around a single hero product. Its website sorts beds by type, with sections for orthopedic, cooling, memory foam, sofa-style, curler and crate and kennel beds, and then by the size of the pet, from small dogs to extra-large ones. Alongside the beds it sells replacement parts, furniture covers, blankets and throws, and home and travel gear, and its range for cats takes in cat beds, tunnels, towers and wall-mounted furniture. Those category names are plain descriptions of shape and use, and the site uses them as its main navigation.

The company’s own copy leans into variety and colour. On its “About” page it says shoppers can find a pet bed to suit both “personality and decor”, and it describes a wide range of styles, sizes, fabrics and colours. It also keeps a playful voice, with puns on paws and a list of the pets it designs for, from “the snack snatcher” to “the space invader”. That tone, together with the Pacific Northwest setting it describes, is the clearest statement the brand makes about its own character.

The same page describes how the company says it develops products. “We test our products daily to ensure they are up to the Furhaven Standards,” it says, and it adds that the team is always “asking our pups and kitties for their opinions”. It also says the company draws on everyday experience as pet owners, mentioning the dog that is extra messy, the one that needs a cave to burrow into, and the playful cat.

For a design guide, Furhaven shows how a pet bed brand founded in 2004 could organise a broad catalogue by shape and size, and keep its own name and home town after joining a larger group. Compare Big Barker, the Pennsylvania dog bed brand built around beds for large dogs, and PetFusion, another pet brand that kept its name inside a larger group. For this guide we use evergreen teal, mist and cedar with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

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