The Best Friend Mobility dog wheelchair is a lightweight and adjustable wheelchair that enables your pets to continue living an active and enjoyable life.
An enjoyable life doesn’t stop at being able to play, run, or walk. It also deals with essential exploration and socialization. Giving mobility back to your dog means providing them the opportunity to live a well-rounded and healthy life.
This particular wheelchair (also known as a dog cart) is the brainchild of Best Friend Mobility, which has been in business since 2005. Their latest iteration of the dog wheelchair delivers on the original intention to provide adjustable dog wheelchairs that are a lot more accessible to both humans and dogs.
In this Best Friend Mobility Review, we take a closer look at the unique design, the options available, and which dogs can benefit the most from this bestselling dog cart.
Best Friend Mobility Review: The #1 Dog Wheelchair?
Best Friend Mobility prides itself on innovation and development. With these watchwords in mind, it was the first company to design, build, and market a self-actuating assisted sit and stand pet wheelchair, known as the SitGo.
Many imitators have arrived on the scene since then, but few of them have lived up to the build quality and functionality of the BFM models.
The Best Friend Mobility dog wheelchair is available in several sizes ranging from XX-Small to X-Large:
- XX small
- Extra-small
- Small
- Medium
- Large
- Extra-large
The frame of this dog wheelchair is made from non-rust and lightweight adjustable aluminum. Its non-rust quality ensures that it lasts for a long time. The deluxe neoprene front and rear harnesses offer complete support to your dog. The design has been created and tested by K9 orthopedic surgeons, meaning this is one of the most rigorously tested pet wheelchairs on the market today.
The Best Friend Mobility dog wheelchair is created to provide mobility support to dogs that suffer from the following diseases:
- Degenerative myelopathy
- Hip dysplasia
- Arthritis
- Injuries to limbs
- Lameness
Pros
- Easy hex wrench makes adjustment of width, height, and length easy
- The design allows your dog to use the bathroom with minimal mess
- The all-terrain polyurethane wheels come with a sealed bearing
- This design provides either assisted walking or full hind leg support with zero hind leg weight-bearing
- Easy and quick to assemble thanks to the lightweight frame
Cons
- The design might not be suitable for some dog breeds, such as dachshunds
- Some users claim the bars are not robust enough to deal with larger dogs
- Side adjustments might require constant tightening depending on the breed
Buying a Dog Wheelchair From Best Friend Mobility
The most important step when buying a dog wheelchair is to measure your dog and ensure that you get a device that is suitable for your best friend’s size.
With that in mind, the six sizes available on BFM cover the large majority of breeds that could benefit from a pet wheelchair. The exact weight range covered is 5 to 175 lbs, which gives you some perspective on how inclusive this brand is for dogs in need!
Once you’ve measured up your dog’s sizing requirements, you can match it to their size chart – seen below:
As you can see, the company boasts an extremely high successful fit rate – for the majority of dog breeds.
A wheelchair that fits is one thing, but the question you’re probably asking is – “Will my dog actually use and like the wheelchair?”
Here we have to add the caveat that every dog will respond to a dog cart differently. Some will love them and get up to speed in no time, others will take days of gentle persuasion before they’re willing to oblige.
Best Friend Mobility recommends giving pets 1-2 weeks to grow comfortable with their wheelchairs.
During this time, most dogs will learn to see the advantages of regaining their active lifestyle.
Here’s a lovely demonstration of the assembly and the rewards:
Pros and Cons of Best Friend Mobility Dog Carts
Placing your dog in the Best Friend Mobility dog wheelchair can help improve your dog’s health and overall wellbeing.
One of the most glaring benefits has to be the physical benefit, as your dog will be able to seamlessly move around, fight off signs of deterioration and strengthen its remaining functional limbs.
As a pet owner, you can also consider the emotional benefit of using a dog wheelchair. When a dog cannot move around and requires assistance just for the simplest things, it can be frustrating, especially if the dog was once highly active. Providing an opportunity for your dog to walk again via the Best Friend Mobility dog wheelchair enables your dog to play, socialize, run and walk.
All of this, in turn, improve your dog’s outlook and attitude.
You should understand that it can take time for your dog to get used to its dog wheelchair or other mobility aids. It could also be love at first sight for your dog; every pet is different. There are a lot of variables to consider during this process. You have to consider your dog’s age, general strength and leg strength, and health, personality, and condition it suffers from.
These can influence how long it takes for your dog to become comfortable in the wheelchair.
The Best Friend Mobility dog wheelchair helps speed up this process thanks to its deluxe neoprene rear and front harnesses. The material used to create the harnesses provides complete comfort, which can be a blessing to a dog in pain – and a big upgrade on most ‘custom’ DIY dog wheelchairs.
One thing to note is that while the Best Friend Mobility wheelchair is designed to be comfortable, it is not recommended for long usage. For instance, if your dog is just getting used to the wheelchair, it is best to limit the time spent in the chair to about 10 minutes.
This time should be used to help your dog strengthen its forelegs. This could mean walking over a hard surface in the wheelchair for a couple of days before upping the intensity. As your dog’s strength increases, you can extend the amount of time spent in the chair.
While you do this, you should note that the Best Friend Mobility dog wheelchair, as with any other dog wheelchair, is not intended to be used for long periods. A pet wheelchair is supposed to help you, and your dog makes the most of the time outside, either exercising, playing, or socializing. After some time in the wheelchair, your dog will most likely want to relax.
The Best Friend Mobility dog wheelchair design ensures that your dog can relieve itself without obstacles in the way. Being in a wheelchair and taking your dog for a walk reinforces your bathroom schedule.
The Best Friend Mobility wheelchair ensures your dog can still interact with other dogs, especially healthy dogs.
One of the major benefits that any pet wheelchair brings is socialization, so it makes sense that this wheelchair furthers it rather than hinders it. And while some dogs might feel uneasy around a dog wheelchair at first, they tend to quickly get over it and simply begin playing as if nothing else matters.
Is The Best Friend Mobility Wheelchair Worth It?
Dogs, by nature, are extremely active, even if in spells, so having a dog that can’t be active due to mobility issues can be disheartening for the dog and you, the owner. Before the invention of the pet wheelchair, the only option dog owners had was to simply put their disabled dogs down.
Thankfully, that isn’t the case anymore, as dog wheelchairs like the Best Friend Mobility (as well as rivals like Walkin’ Wheels) offer disabled dogs the chance to regain their mobility and freedom again.
The Best Friend Mobility dog wheelchair is a great option for mobility as it has been created to be comfortable. A lot of attention has gone in to the build quality so that your best friend feels comfortable on the move – and it shows.
It also helps that it doesn’t hinder toilet time, enabling your dog to eliminate without getting it everywhere.
As one of the pioneers of the space, the Best Friend Mobility models are some of the most reliable dog wheelchairs you can find.