We love having fun with our dogs, but it’s important to have a few activities that they can do without you, too. Whether it’s window watching, doggy daycare, or puzzle toys, these activities will help whenever you inevitably need to do something that can’t involve your dog. Frozen enrichment is one of our favorites, and our dogs love it, too!
We’ll be taking you through a review of one of our favorite enrichment toys, the Woof Pupsicle. It’s one of the two enrichment toys our dogs love most, and we’re fans, too. We’ll be covering refill options, pros and cons, additional tips, and a comparison between similar devices. Come with us as we make having a dog easier and more fun!
What is the Woof Pupsicle?
The Woof Pupsicle is a distraction toy for dogs into which you place a pre-formed treat. Your dog then licks the treat through the hole in the device.
The Pupsicle is made from a non-toxic rubber with threads in the middle. In our experience, the device catches a lot more drool than other distraction toys, which is great if your dog usually makes a mess with food-based enrichment. It comes in a variety of sizes and colors, so you can get whatever combination is perfect for you and your dog.
We highly recommend checking out Woof’s Pupsicle sizing guide for detailed information. For reference, our two 70-90 lb dogs use a large, but could handle the extra large one, too.
Options for Pupsicle refills
One of the principal features we like about the Pupsicle is the flexibility with refills. There are a few different options and we’ll touch on all of them in this Woof Pupsicle review.
First, and by far the easiest, is pre-made refills from Woof. They come in a variety of flavors, which means you can probably find something that your dog loves. They’re the most expensive of the three options, but by far the easiest. Our dogs haven’t met a flavor they don’t like and they average around $2-$3 per large refill, but they last half an hour.
Next up is the Woof Pupsicle mix. It’s similar to the pre-made refills, but comes in a powder instead of a formed ball. They come in similar flavors, but not exactly the same. In our experience, they last a little shorter per refill, but are much more affordable. They’re the middle ground of the cost and effort options, as you’ll still have to freeze them. They’re what we’d recommend to most pet parents.
Finally, we have DIY pupsicle recipes. They’re a fantastic option if your dog has dietary restrictions or food allergies. We typically make these the most, but that’s because our pups have a couple of different issues we need to avoid most of the time. They’re also the cheapest by far. Depending on what you use for your refills, they can last between 10 and 30 minutes. Check out The Ruly Bully’s favorite Pupsicle recipes for some easy and cheap options.
For the Pupsicle mix and DIY Pupsicle recipes, you’ll need a tray, but it’s a one time expense. We have a Woof 4 refill one and an off-brand 6 refill one. Both are nice and dishwasher safe, but we use the off-brand one more because it’s stiffer and easier to move to the freezer.
The Pros and Cons of the Woof Pupsicle
Now, the part you’re here for: our Woof Pupsicle review. We’ll be going through the things we like about the Pupsicle and what isn’t as good as some other enrichment toys. Every dog will have their own preferences, and we highly recommend trying a few to see what you and your dog like best!
Pros of the Pupsicle
The thing we love the most about the Pupsicle is that it’s fun for our dogs. The whole point of enrichment is for your dog (and you) to have together and the Pupsicle makes this easy. It’s even better if you have a few ways for your dog to entertain themselves that don’t involve you as much. We recommend checking out Why Puzzle Toys Are One Of The Best Ways To Keep Your Dog Mentally Stimulated for why the Pupsicle, and other puzzle toys, are great for your dog.
Our next pro for our Woof Pupsicle review is safety. The Pupsicle is extremely safe for your dog, as long as you size it properly. We haven’t had any issues with it and its shape makes it harder for it to get completely into your dog’s mouth. It’s great for senior and mobility restricted dogs, as long as you account for the calories. It’s a great way for an older dog to have fun that’s easy on their joints and we used a ton of food-based enrichment for our dog when he was recovering from CCL surgery.
Cleaning is definitely a pro with the Pupsicle. Compared to almost every other distraction toy, cleaning the Pupsicle is a breeze. To start, it’s dishwasher safe, but we typically just clean it with a toothbrush we use for this purpose. We’ll soak it in a large cup with water and soap, rinse it, and then give it a scrub with a brush. The threads being large and easily accessible makes this much easier than other two-piece toys.
Because the Pupsicle has pre-made and DIY options for recipes, it gives a lot of flexibility to dogs with food allergies or sensitivities. If your pup can’t eat certain foods, you can simply make recipes without them. Whether you feed fresh food, wet, or dry food, you can incorporate any of these into your DIY Pupsicle recipes. As a bonus, the Pupsicle refill tray is also dishwasher safe and extremely easy to clean.
From earlier in our Woof Pupsicle review, we mentioned the flexibility of refill types for the Pupsicle, but we wanted to touch on that again. We typically make DIY recipes for our dogs, but we try to have some pre-made refills on hand, too. They’re great if you forget to prepare the enrichment in advance, and we like using them as inspiration for some of our recipes, too!
For our final pro, the Pupsicle is less messy than other enrichment toys. It’s not completely drool-free, but it’s pretty close. Woof has droll slots designed into the Pupsicle, but we mostly just notice the lack of a puddle when they’re done. Compared to our second favorite device, the Toppl, the difference is extremely noticeable.
Cons of the Pupsicle
The cons we will be discussing in our Woof Pupsicle review are limited, but they are some.
First, it does require more upfront costs than other enrichment options.The Pupsicle itself is around $20-$25 most of the time, but the refills can be $2-$3 per refill. The tray is less than $15, maybe even cheaper if you find an off-brand one, but this will allow you to make much cheaper DIY pupsicle recipes. Although they are slightly expensive, we haven’t had to replace either one after years of use yet. If you shop at the Woof Store and use the code TheRulyBully, you can get 15% off, which will help out a lot!
Second, while it is easier to clean than the vast majority of distraction toys, it still takes a bit of work to clean without the dishwasher. The best way we found is a combination of soaking and toothbrush scrubbing to get into the cracks. This gets worse with stickier recipes. It’s definitely not as bad as the Kong, but it is more work than the Toppl.
Tips and tricks to make your life easier with the Pupsicle
Next up: our favorite tips and tricks after using the Pupsicle for years. It’s pretty straightforward, especially if you’re aware of the pros and cons from this Woof Pupsicle review, but there are a few things you can do to make your life easier.
First, even though the Pupsicle isn’t as messy as the average distraction toy, it still can make a bit of a mess. There are a few ways to get around this that are easier. First, waterproof beds are fantastic. By themselves, they’ll solve your problems. If that’s not an easy option, the cheap $3 blankets from Walmart are great options, too. Sometimes, we combine both, and nothing gets too wet.
Next up is adjusting your DIY Pupsicle recipes depending on what you need. If you check out these frozen Pupsicle recipes, you’ll get a good idea of how to do that. The short version is that if you use less water and more ingredients, the refill will last longer. If you use thicker fluids instead of water, it lasts much longer. Ingredients like honey, peanut butter, or yogurt will go much further than broths and water. We use both but bias it toward what we need for the specific combination.
What type of dog is the Woof Pupsicle best for?
The Woof Pupsicle is good for most dogs, but it’s best for dogs who get excited about mealtime or who are anxious. Any dog who has a medium amount of food motivation will probably enjoy the Pupsicle, and it’s a great way to make enrichment last longer. We also highly recommend it for any dog who has food sensitivities, calorie restrictions, or is usually anxious. Check out How to Help Your Dog Feel Calm & Confident for more information on addressing that.
The Pupsicle is not the best option if your dog has very little to no food motivation. All dogs have some degree of food motivation, but if your dog rarely enjoys food-based activities, we’d recommend trying one of the easier options for a distraction toy, like a lick mat.
Comparisons with other common distraction toys
Most of these distraction toys will work for every dog, but we wanted to give a little advice on when some of the most common ones will work best (or not) for some types of dogs.
First off, the lick mat. It’s one of the most common distraction toys and for good reason. It’s definitely the easiest of these and where we recommend starting if you (and your dog) haven’t done any food-based enrichment before. Even low food-drive dogs will participate most of the time. As long as you make sure you get a dishwasher-safe one, it’s super easy to clean, too. We like freezing our lick mats and recommend checking out these dog lick mat ideas as a great starting place.
The next distraction toy is the Toppl. Compared to the Pupsicle, it’s definitely easier to clean. The material itself is easier to clean, and the opening is much larger. It is also easier to get to the treat, so it’s easier in difficulty than the Pupsicle, too. It is higher capacity than the Pupsicle, which is both a pro and a con. In our experience, it seems slightly less durable than the Pupsicle, but ours have lasted years with only minor damage.
Finally, the Kong. It’s by far the hardest difficulty of these distraction toys. If your dog isn’t super motivated, they’ll likely lose interest at some point. We’re a little less of a fan of the Kong than the rest of these because of cleaning. The design makes it tough to see in and clean, and the dishwasher certainly doesn’t get it clean, even though it is dishwasher safe. It’s extremely durable though and is a great choice if you don’t mind putting a lot of effort into cleaning it.
Is the Woof Pupsicle worth it?
To summarize our Woof Pupsicle review, we believe the answer is yes! For the vast majority of dogs, the Woof Pupsicle is a great option to entertain your dog and stretch out mealtime. Our dogs love it, and we really like the flexibility for refills, durability, and relative ease of cleaning. Our dogs’ favorite refills are the calming and peanut butter and chicken ones, but they love them all!