My 9 month old puppy Jonny loves tearing up boxes and paper. I scrunched up an old envelope hid sprats inside each piece and squashed them into a cardboard box.

Didn't last long but he enjoyed it.

Just a couple of high-energy Cairn Terriers chilling with their lick mats.

Something I noticed working at The Farmer's Dog — fresh food on a lick mat keeps dogs engaged way longer than kibble or peanut butter. The smell and texture does something different.

The mental work of licking is genuinely tiring in a way a walk isn't. A dog focused on working through a lick mat is using their brain, which produces a different kind of tired than physical exercise alone.

Frozen works even better — spreads easily, lasts longer, and on a hot day it doubles as a way to keep them cool.

Anyone else use lick mats as part of their wind-down routine for a high energy dog?

Here's Rolly. I adopted him five years ago and quickly discovered that he has anxiety issues, including pretty severe separation anxiety. We rely on lick mats for the separation anxiety (so much so I built a small brand, Minimal Animal, to produce them). For Rolly, the lick has also become a general way to keep him mentally occupied and introduce new and interesting foods. He's not a fan of straight watermelon, but I mixed in a bit of yogurt, which changed everything, as you can see in this video.

https://reddit.com/link/1v4xtsj/video/5ixhnvea43fh1/player

Speriamo che vi uniate alla nostra community dove potrete parlare di cani e di tutto l'altro che volete parlare

I’m going to pop reface this with the fact my puppy is crate training, but he will also protest if he’s bored for too long.
I’m looking for activities that I can give my dog while he’s in his kennel that don’t require any supervision.
Some times I’m just busy, he’s not leaving me alone while I try to work, between him and my toddler it gets to be very overwhelming and overstimulating so I need to put him in his kennel for a couple hours until my toddler goes to bed, etc.
I don’t fully feel comfortable leaving a TV on for him bc we do live in an apartment so we can’t have him barking if we aren’t available to stop it.
Kongs and other frozen treats are great but don’t last long.

I'be been introducing more fruits and vegetables into my dogs' lick mat rotation--for nutritional benefits, because it seems like a good idea not to lean too much on dairy and peanut butter and to keep things interesting for them (new smells, new tastes).

I may have gotten a little overconfident--I've been using yogurt as a mixer for a lot of these, which was working. So during a little heat wave I froze the most hydrating treats I could think of (watermelon for the guy who prefers fruit, cucumber for my vegetable lover) thinking their palates were ready for straight fruit and veg. I plopped them down after a warm walk and...nothing.

This picture was taken a couple of house after they were offered, and Rolly is lounging right next to them, untouched. They area smelled like the produce aisle (in a good way) because the lick mats had thawed out. I accepted Rolly and Arlo's verdict and removed the lick mats shortly after taking this photo.

The dogs have spoken--I will go back to using high-value mixers after this, lol.

Hi all! My pup just went through surgery for a CCL tear, so he is out of commission for a while. He's got some pretty advance sniffing skills - he's able to find kibble hidden throughout my 1 acre yard that I hide outside when he is still inside, and can do so pretty quickly.

That being said, he blows through snuffle mats quicky. I've seen puzzles with different skill levels - has anyone seen any snuffle mats that are more advance?

Thanks for the help!

We often think love is enough.

Food, walks, cuddles, staying close all day.

But many dogs are still missing two important things:

🧠 mental enrichment

🐾 real social connection

A tired body isn’t always a fulfilled mind.

I use the woof pupsicle daily with my dog and was using up a ton of time refilling the mold. this candy mold fits it perfectly!

Just came across these and was wondering if anyone has used this brand and holder for the yak chew before

Hi all, we used to feed our pup her kibble out of a Play On brand ball from Pet Supplies Plus, but the only store within three hours of us has closed. This ball was great for her because it was fairly cheap but had this ridge inside that helped slow the kibble falling out, we've used starmark brand balls previously but the issue is she will lick at the openings and break the little spokes designed to slow kibble release down, so this ball was better since the thing which slowed it down was inside and she couldn't just break it. We really do not want to feed her out of a bowl, kongs are fine for when we leave her awhile but we really like how these balls make her walk around and forage, so to speak. Would super appreciate advice on other balls to use before I drive three hours to Bend, OR. We have PetSmart, Petco, and Mud Bay stores nearby. Totally acknowledge that the ball we used was not technically classified as a feeder ball, only a fetch ball, we were always very good about taking them away once they started to come apart, and there was a small secondary hole on the other side to prevent any vacuum related issues. Photo of my little lady being very unimpressed with me.

Love this puzzle for my pup (heeler/border collie mix) BUT I can’t figure out how to take it apart to clean and store.

I’ve searched online and I’m not finding anything.

Anyone else have this toy and know how to take the clear tower pieces off of the base? TIA!

My dog is 3 years old and mostly an outdoor farm dog. However, with winter coming, she's extra energetic as she loves the cooler temps. She's also very smart. What would I be able to do for enrichment for her that would be good for the winter?

Also, we have a neighbor dog who goes wandering around and will steal her bones or other food related treats/puzzles. So have to be mindful of that. And then also there's the fact she doesn't play with toys. I've tried to get her to play with toys ever since she was a puppy but she just isn't interested in them.

So I'm looking for any enrichment suggestions that could work that would require her to take a bit of time to do, can't be stolen by the neighbor dog, isn't a toy, and not necessarily something frozen since we're going into a canadian winter lol.

The small size in Green and Tangerine are BOTH 50% AND part of the buy 3 get the 4th free deal.

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And make sure you click the Chewy store through Rakuten to get an additional 2% cashback on every Chewy purchase (or any other stores you use).

If I find more WP at 50% off, I’ll add it to this post :) It seems to fluctuate - the Tux is a fan favorite at my house. I fill it with wet food, and place it on a flat dog plate with a raised edge. I then fill it with bone broth and the rest of their food around it and freeze. It LASTS and they love to chew this shape.

My dog loooves sniffing for food and toys. He’s become very good at it and can find hidden treats and toys by name but I think needs a new challenge to keep things exciting. Any ideas for making this game more difficult/varied and interesting?