This Double Crochet Trick Changed My Pet Bed Game 😍🐾

If you’ve ever finished a crocheted pet bed and thought, “this looks great, but something feels off,” you’re not alone. For years I made pet beds that were technically fine — they held their shape, they were soft enough, and my cats definitely used them (mostly to knock them off shelves, but still). What I couldn’t figure out was why they never looked quite as thick and luxurious as the ones I kept saving to my Pinterest boards. The texture was flatter than I wanted, the whole piece felt a little floppy, and no matter how many rounds I added, I couldn’t seem to get that chunky, cloud-like fullness I was going for.

Then I stumbled onto a double crochet technique that completely changed everything I was doing, and I genuinely haven’t made a pet bed the same way since.

I’m not talking about a complicated stitch that requires watching a three-hour tutorial seventeen times. I’m talking about one simple adjustment to the way you work your double crochets that makes your finished fabric look denser, stand up taller, and have that irresistible squishy texture that makes both pets and their humans want to curl up inside it. Once you understand it, you’ll start applying it to blankets, baskets, and basically anything else you crochet in the round.

Let me walk you through everything.

Why Pet Beds Are Actually a Great Test Project

Before we get into the trick itself, I want to make the case for why pet beds specifically are one of the best projects for learning and experimenting with crochet techniques.

First, the stakes are low. Your dog doesn’t care if you frogged it three times. Your cat has already decided the cardboard box it arrived in is superior. This means you can try things, redo them, and try again without the pressure you’d feel making a gift for a friend’s baby shower.

Second, pet beds are large enough to really see the difference a technique makes. A swatch is just a swatch. A pet bed is a full round of stitches repeated over and over, which means any change you make gets amplified across the whole piece. If a technique adds height to your double crochet, you’ll see it clearly over forty rounds. If it creates a tighter, more structured fabric, that becomes obvious in a project this size.

Third, pets use their beds hard. They knead them, circle them, sleep on them with all their weight, and occasionally drag them across the floor. A pet bed has to be functional, not just pretty. So if a technique improves durability and structure, a pet bed will prove it. And if it doesn’t hold up, you’ll know quickly.

The Problem With Standard Double Crochet in the Round

Most pet bed patterns written for beginners use standard double crochet worked in the round. You chain a small number of stitches, join, and start building. It works. It’s fast. It uses up yarn at a satisfying rate, which makes it feel productive.

But here’s what standard double crochet in the round tends to do, especially when you’re working with a bulky or super bulky yarn: it creates a fabric that lies flat in a way that reads more like a thick coaster than a cozy nest. The stitches have height individually, but because you’re working into the top two loops of each stitch as usual, the rows essentially stack in a way that compresses rather than builds.

The finished fabric also tends to have a little stretch in all the wrong directions. It’s not structured enough to hold the round shape of a bed on its own, so you end up stuffing it with what feels like an unreasonable amount of polyfill or folding a pillow insert in half and hoping for the best.

And then there’s the aesthetic issue. Standard double crochet in a chunky yarn gives you a fabric that looks a bit like a grid. The stitches are visible, which can be lovely in certain contexts, but for a pet bed, you typically want something that looks lush and full rather than open and airy.

Enter the Back Loop Only Double Crochet — And Why It Works

Here’s the trick: work every double crochet through the back loop only.

I know, I know. Back loop only stitches aren’t new. You’ve probably seen them recommended in patterns before. But in the specific context of crocheting a round pet bed in a chunky yarn, working double crochet through the back loop only does something remarkable to the finished fabric, and I want to explain exactly why so you can understand when and how to use it beyond just this project.

When you insert your hook into only the back loop of a stitch, the front loop is left free. On the current round, this doesn’t look like much. But on the next round, when you come around again and work into the back loop of those stitches, the previously freed front loops begin to stand up slightly, creating a horizontal ridge around the exterior of your work. Over multiple rounds, these ridges stack, and the visual effect is of a tightly wound, textured spiral that looks dense and intentional rather than flat and loose.

But the visual effect is honestly the secondary benefit. The structural benefit is the main event. Back loop only double crochet creates a fabric that has significantly more body. It resists stretching in the way that can make a pet bed lose its shape. It compresses more slowly under weight, meaning the bed will maintain its cushion longer. And because the loops interlock in a slightly different way, the whole piece holds together more cohesively — it doesn’t want to separate or gap even after a lot of use.

For pet beds specifically, this means you need less stuffing to achieve the same amount of loft. The crochet fabric itself does more of the work, and the stuffing you do use stays evenly distributed rather than migrating to the edges while the center goes flat within a week.

Combining Back Loop Double Crochet With a Bulky Yarn

If back loop only double crochet is good, back loop only double crochet worked in a super bulky yarn is extraordinary.

Most of the pet beds you see on Pinterest and in craft shop windows that look unbelievably thick and pillowy are either made with arm knitting (which is beautiful but doesn’t last as long) or with super bulky yarn and a technique that maximizes the structural quality of each stitch. Back loop only double crochet in a size 6 or size 7 yarn does exactly that.

When you work this technique with a chunky yarn on a larger hook, typically somewhere between a 10mm and 15mm depending on the yarn’s weight and your tension, each stitch becomes tall enough and substantial enough that the horizontal ridges created by the freed front loops become almost sculptural. The finished bed looks almost woven. It has genuine dimension. And it feels, when you press your hand into it, like memory foam that gives and springs back rather than that flat compressed feeling of a bed that’s been used a few times.

Yarn choice matters here, though. You want something with a little loft — a wool blend or a chenille-style yarn will give you the best texture. Very dense, tightly spun cotton or acrylic can work, but it won’t give you the same cloud-like effect. If you can find a yarn that has a slight halo or that’s been spun loosely, the back loop only technique will bring out every bit of that softness.

How to Actually Do It: A Round-by-Round Breakdown

Let me walk you through the basic construction of a small to medium pet bed using this technique. This is sized for a cat or a small dog, but you can easily scale it up by adding more stitches to your starting chain.

What you’ll need: approximately 200 to 400 yards of super bulky (size 6) yarn, a 12mm crochet hook, a yarn needle, polyfill or a pillow insert, and scissors.

Starting your magic circle or foundation chain: Begin with a magic circle or chain 4 and join to form a ring. Chain 3 (this counts as your first double crochet), then work 11 more double crochets into the ring — 12 total. Join with a slip stitch to the top of your chain 3. This is Round 1.

Round 2 onward — the key change: From this point forward, when you chain 3 and begin your double crochet stitches, insert your hook through the back loop only of each stitch. For the increases needed to keep your circle flat, continue working 2 stitches into certain stitches as your pattern requires, but always through the back loop only.

You’ll notice immediately that the fabric starts to feel different under your hands. It has more resistance. It feels like it’s building rather than just spreading. By the time you’ve completed four or five rounds, you’ll be able to see and feel the horizontal ridges forming around the outside of your circle, and the whole piece will sit noticeably flatter and more evenly than it would have with standard double crochet.

Building the sides: Once your base is as wide as you want it, stop increasing and simply work one back loop only double crochet into each stitch around. This will naturally cause your work to turn upward, forming the walls of the bed. Continue until the walls are as tall as you want — typically four to six inches for a small pet bed. The back loop only technique keeps these walls firm and upright rather than floppy and leaning.

Closing and stuffing: Finish off your walls, leaving a long tail. Before you seam the top closed or add any additional edging, stuff your bed. The structured fabric will hold the stuffing more evenly than standard double crochet would. You’ll find you need less polyfill than you might expect.

Tips That Will Actually Make a Difference

A few things I’ve learned from making more pet beds than I can reasonably count at this point:

Tension matters more than usual with back loop only stitches. Because you’re not engaging the full stitch, it’s easier for your tension to loosen without you noticing. Keep checking your work as you go, and if your fabric starts to look airy or open rather than dense, tighten up slightly.

Don’t be afraid to go down a hook size. The standard recommendation for super bulky yarn is a 10mm or larger hook. But if you want maximum density and structure, try dropping to a 9mm or even an 8mm. Yes, it’s harder on your hands and the work goes slower, but the resulting fabric is noticeably more substantial.

Color blocking works beautifully with this technique. Because the back loop only ridges create such clean horizontal lines, striping your colors along those ridges produces a result that looks incredibly professional. Even a simple two-color stripe is stunning.

If you’re making a removable cover, work the base and walls in separate pieces and seam them together. This makes washing the cover far easier, which your future self will thank you for extensively.

Making It Washable (Because You Know You Need To)

I feel strongly that pet beds need to be washable, and I’ll die on this hill. A pet bed that you can’t throw in the wash is a pet bed that becomes biologically interesting within a month.

If you want a machine-washable bed, choose your yarn carefully. Many wool yarns, even when worked tightly in back loop only double crochet, will felt in the washing machine. A superwash wool, a cotton-acrylic blend, or a pure acrylic super bulky yarn will survive machine washing without changing shape. Chenille yarns are gorgeous and soft but tend to mat slightly with repeated washing, so factor that in.

The dense fabric created by back loop only double crochet actually holds up better in the wash than looser standard double crochet, because the tight interlocking of the stitches prevents the structure from shifting or distorting as much. The ridges may soften slightly after washing, but the bed will maintain its overall shape much better than you might expect.

Why I’ll Never Go Back to Standard Double Crochet for Pet Beds

After the first pet bed I made using back loop only double crochet throughout, I stared at it for a solid five minutes before my cat immediately walked over and sat on it with the particular air of profound indifference that cats reserve for things you’ve worked really hard on.

I took that as approval.

The difference in the finished object was genuinely striking. It looked like something from a boutique pet shop. It had height and dimension. The ridges caught the light beautifully. And when my cat settled into it and began kneading the walls with that slow, satisfied rhythm, it held its shape rather than collapsing under her paws.

The structural benefits alone would be enough to justify the technique, but combined with the aesthetic improvement and the fact that it requires no additional skills beyond the double crochet you already know, this is one of those rare crochet tips that delivers on every front.

There’s something deeply satisfying about making something with your hands that your pet actually uses and clearly finds comfortable. Pet beds are humble projects in the grand scheme of crochet — they’re not the heirloom blanket or the intricate shawl — but they get used every single day, often many times a day, and every time your pet curls up in something you made, that’s a small quiet win that never gets old.

Try the back loop only double crochet on your next pet bed. Start with the base and feel how different the fabric behaves within the first few rounds. I promise you, once you feel that density and structure under your hands, and once you see how the finished piece looks compared to everything you’ve made before, you’ll understand why this one small adjustment changed everything.

Happy hooking. 🐾