5 Benefits of Lick Mats for Dogs and Why We Love Them!

Do you have a dog that loves to lick everything? Lick mats are an excellent solution for dog parents who are looking for an effective way to entertain their pups. We’ll be taking you through the top benefits of lick mats for dogs and common types of lick mats and how to use and clean them. Your dog will be enjoying the benefits of lick mats in no time!

Benefits of lick mats for dogs

Without further ado, our favorite benefits of lick mats for dogs! These are our favorite benefits, but aren’t necessarily in order.

Extends meal time

Perhaps the most obvious of the benefits of lick mats for dogs is the ability to extend mealtime. If you have a high food-drive dog, like Primmie for us, mealtime probably lasts less than a minute. While not a big deal in itself, eating too fast is associated with potential health risks, such as choking, bloat, and GI issues.

Even if you don’t believe your dog will have any of these issues, extending your dog’s mealtime means more enjoyment for your dog. Our pups get excited about anything food-based, but they especially love frozen enrichment. If you’re serious about extending your dog’s meal time, we highly recommend considering options such as frozen Kong recipes and frozen lick mats.

Reduce stress & anxiety

One of our favorite benefits of lick mats for dogs is reducing our dogs’ stress and anxiety. Lick mats make a perfect distraction from an unpleasant trigger and are one of our favorite techniques to distract our dogs for uncomfortable, but not scary situations. For example, if your dog isn’t comfortable with their harness or muzzle (check out our harness training or muzzle training articles if you need help) a lick mat can help make them think the harness is a positive experience.

Licking, whether it’s from a lick mat or a frozen Pupsicle recipe, even releases endorphins for your dog that can help calm your pup down. Check out PetMD’s Why Do Dogs Lick You article for some additional information on licking.

Reinforces positive associations

Another benefit of lick mats for dogs is the ability to reinforce positive associations for your pup. Using lick mats or any of your favorite dog enrichment toys can help turn an uncomfortable situation into a positive one. This won’t take your dog from freaking out at the delivery driver to being excited when they arrive, but it can help gradually nudge them in the right direction.

It’s much easier to help your dog when they are uncomfortable with a situation instead of full-blown scared. Primmie used to get scared when our washing machine was off balance and made more noise than normal. Through some time and very little effort, she does not care about the washing machine, even when it’s off balance, at all anymore. We did a similar process for thunderstorms‌, even though it’s a bit more difficult to predict.

If you want a more thorough process for desensitizing your dog to things they’re scared of, we highly recommend Spirit Dog Training’s Tackling Reactivity course. Steffi and her staff are great, and we’ve been using their resources for years.

Can occupy your dog when you are busy

Another of our favorite benefits of lick mats for dogs is the ability to occupy your dog when you’re busy. Whether we’re cooking or working out at home, there are times when we aren’t able to interact with our pups as much as we’d like to. Lick mats are the perfect option for this! We think everyone should have a few of these activities available, and they were perfect when Goomba was recovering from CCL surgery. We probably ran through at least one lick mat and DIY stuffed bone every day for the better part of 6 months!

Here at The Ruly Bully, we’re all about cheap sources of enrichment for your pup! Lick mats can provide a fantastic source of low-cost entertainment for your pup. After the initial purchase of the lick mat (about $10 for two of these Frisco lick mats), the only cost is whatever foods or treats you use for lick mats! Most of our lick mat recipes are around $0.50 per serving, which is a steal for how much our dogs love them!

Improves dental hygiene

Similar to how dentists recommend brushing your tongue, lick mats can help clean your dog’s tongue! The repeated licking motion from your dog can help scrape bacteria off, which will help their breath smell fresher. In addition, licking helps stimulate saliva production, which helps reduce plaque and tarter. This means fewer trips to the vet for your dog and less cost for you, which is a win for everybody.

We’ve had our dogs for over 8 years and haven’t ever had to get their teeth cleaned at the vet. Between cleaning their own teeth on toys, treats, and enrichment, as well as PetSmile’s enzyme-based toothpaste, our dogs’ teeth stay squeaky clean! Primmie thinks her toothpaste is a treat and looks forward to it before going to bed every night. Check out our PetSmile toothpaste review if you want more information!

Even though improving dental hygiene is one of the most helpful benefits of lick mats for dogs, it’s often overlooked. Having good dental health can save a lot of grief and cost down the road for both you and your pup.

Types of lick mats

One of our favorite benefits of using lick mats for dogs is that they’re flexible for a variety of situations. Different types of mats work best for different situations, and there’s typically an option that works for whatever situation you’d like to use one in. We’ll take you through the most common ones so you can see for useful why lick mats are great for dogs!

Flat mats

Flat lick mats are the most common and the easiest to use. These mats give all the benefits of lick mats for dogs and are typically the most useful, too. You can use flat lick mats on the floor or any other flat surface, and are manufactured with various materials, but we like silicone the best. We like silicon the most because they give the most flexibility in how and where to use your lick mat. Flat silicone lick mats are also the easiest to clean, which is important for us.

Our first lick mat was a Messy Mutts lick mat, which we purchased during Goomba’s recovery from CCL surgery. It worked great and is still in great shape years later. We highly recommend it, especially if you have a larger dog and want to clean your mat in the dishwasher.

Wall-mounted

Wall-mounted lick mats are a great alternative to flat mats and are extremely useful in specific situations. The primary difference is that they mount on a vertical surface with suction cups, which allows some different options in how to use them. If your dog doesn’t like grooming or baths, this is the style of lick mat for you. We use them the most for nail trimming or baths, and they make a fantastic distraction.

We prefer mats that have as many suction cups as possible on the back, like Woof’s silicone lick mat, to improve their ability to stay on a wall. Woof is the same company that makes the Pupsicle, which is Primmie’s favorite type of frozen enrichment. Check out our favorite Pupsicle recipes if you want to join in the fun!

Specialty lick mats

Another benefit of lick mats for dogs is that they can come in a variety of different designs as well! For example, LickiMat’s wobble cranks up the difficulty of your pup’s mat, which is a great option for extending the duration of your enrichment. Lick mats for crates are also a great way to reinforce a positive association with crate time. Although you can’t use them for freezing, stainless steel lick mats are even an option if your dog is still in their destruction phase.

Our favorite of the specialty options is the crate-mounted option, which is a great option to help your pup have a neutral or positive association with crate time. Check out our article on the benefits of crate training if you want more information.

How to use a lick mat

If you want to experience the benefits of lick mats for your own dog, you’re in luck! A lick mat is one of the easiest enrichments you’ll find. Put food on the lick mat and give it to your dog..that’s it!

If you want to make it harder, work the food into the corners of the lick mat. We’ll take you through some of our dogs’ favorites, too.

What type of food should I use?

This is one of our favorite benefits of lick mats: you can use anything dog-safe on your pup’s mat! Stuff that is a thick spread works the best (think peanut butter or yogurt consistency), but anything is possible. If you’re willing to put a little more effort in, blending or freezing your lick mats allows even more flexibility.

If you’re looking for lick mat specific recipes, check out our favorite lick mat recipes and frozen lick mat recipes! Both will give you a slew of different options you can use for your pup, even if they have allergies or a sensitive stomach.

How do I clean this… mess?

Our preferred way to clean lick mats is the dishwasher. We already make enough dishes, and if I could, I’d run everything through it. One feature we prioritized was being dishwasher-safe, and fortunately, most lick mats are. The dishwasher does a much better job of getting into the crevices of the lick mat, and it’s zero effort for us.

If your lick mat isn’t dishwasher-safe, it’s still possible to clean it. We used a combination of soaking and scrubbing to get ours clean before we had all dishwasher-safe lick mats. We used a bottle brush initially, but pivoted over to an unused toothbrush. It’s our preferred way to clean any hard to get spots in our dogs’ enrichment toys and is super cheap.

Freezing lick mats

A way to get even more out of lick mats is to freeze your pup’s lick mat. There are a few different reasons we recommend this if your mat is freezer safe.

Freezing your dog’s lick mat significantly extends the duration of the activity. There are a few ingredients that last a long time by themselves, like peanut butter, but most are much easier to lick off when they are at room temperature. Even peanut butter lasts significantly longer when it’s frozen, and our dogs love it! Frozen lick mat recipes are a great way to help your dog cool off after an intense physical activity, like using DIY agility equipment.

Freezing also allows for a wider variety of ingredients to be used on your pup’s lick mat. Ingredients like broths, treats, or cheese don’t last very long normally, but if they’re frozen, you can use these (and many other) options on lick mats, too! If you’re willing to use a blender, even larger ingredients, like carrots or boiled chicken, are perfect options. We typically combine a blender with freezing, and our dogs love the results!

Our favorite lick mat recipes

Peanut butter and banana

If we had to pick one recipe that our dogs liked the most, it would be peanut butter and banana. Primmie goes bananas (sorry, had to!) and Goomba loves it too. It’s also cheap, easy to make, and dogs love it. We can get about 4 lick mats from one banana, which is perfect if you want to prep your enrichment in advance. Strawberries work great, too, but make sure you check out our guide on if strawberry preserves are safe for dogs!

To create your mat, rub the banana over the lick mat like a glue stick from when you were a kid. After that’s complete, drizzle some pup-safe peanut butter over the entire thing. If your pup hates bananas, try ‌sweet potatoes or pumpkin puree. All of them work great for spreading on a lick mat.

If your dog can’t have a lot of peanut butter, reduce the amount you use or try out PBFit pure peanut. It’s an easy to make, single-ingredient peanut powder that’s fantastic for dogs who have problems with their weight. It’s been a game changer in helping Primmie not become a potato and has about 40% of the calories of traditional peanut butter.

If you are interested in more low calorie dog treats, check out our favorites! Our dogs love meat-flavored ones the most!

Pumpkin and cream cheese

Pumpkin and cream cheese is one of our pups’ favorite lick mat combinations, and we think yours will love it, too! To make this recipe, grab some pumpkin puree (the only ingredient is pumpkin) and mix with some unsweetened cream cheese. You can soften it up some in a bowl or put the whole combination through the blender with a little water. For the image above, we mixed them up separately, but your dog won’t care if you put it all together.

Cream cheese is typically a safe option for dogs, unless your pup has an issue with dairy. Pumpkin is even beneficial, especially if your pup has a sensitive stomach. The fiber can help keep things normal, and it’s Goomba’s favorite of vegetables that dogs can eat. If your pup doesn’t like pumpkin, any of the fibrous vegetables (sweet potato, potato, zucchini, or banana) can work great for this recipe, too.

Wet food mixture

One of our (pups’) favorite lick mat combinations is using blended wet food. It’s simple, cheap, and perfect for pups with weight management issues. If your dog normally gets wet food, just keep some back from their normal meals and blend it with water. You’ll definitely want this one to freeze because most wet dog food isn’t too willing to stick to the mat.

If your dog is particularly food-motivated, you can do the same thing with dry kibble. For kibble, soak it in water or a low-sodium broth to soften the food and then repeat the same process as with the wet food. If you can find a dog-safe, low-sodium bone broth or stock, it goes a long way.

Our dogs love Purina’s beyond organic wet food, and it’s our preferred option. It’s basically the same price as not organic wet food, and most of our local stores stock it.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best material for a lick mat?

There’s no right answer to this, but we find that the benefits of lick mats for dogs are the greatest with silicone. Rubber is probably our second choice, as long as it’s non-toxic and easy to clean. Other materials, like stainless steel, are also fine, but aren’t as flexible in their use. 

We don’t recommend anything that is porous, like uncoated ceramic or wood, because it is nearly impossible to clean, even with a dishwasher.

Where can I find lick mat recipes for dogs?

We’re biased, but we think our guides are great. Frozen lick mat recipes and ideas for dog lick mats are a great spot to start. 

If you’re willing to use a blender, anything dog-safe is an option. Any of our enrichment guides (Toppl recipes, Pupsicle recipes, or Kong recipes) are possible, too. 

Don’t be afraid to get creative with your recipes. While chicken and peanut butter seems odd to us, it’s our dogs’ favorite combination of food.

What are some alternatives to lick mats?

Recently, there’s been a huge increase in the types of food-based enrichment available, so there are plenty of options. If you’re looking for something that lasts a bit longer, Pupsicles and Toppls are our dogs’ current favorites. 

If you’re looking for something easier, our favorite DIY dog puzzles are easy to slide the difficulty up or down depending on your dog. Snuffle mats are our most used enrichment, mostly because of their ease of use.

How can I move a lick mat without spilling it?

We had a bit of a learning curve with this one, but our loss is your gain. The easiest way is to use a cutting board to move your pup’s mat to the freezer and then remove it once it’s frozen.

If you have enough room, you can also make your lick mat in the freezer. We usually do this option because our freezer has a mostly useless shelf that is the perfect size for 2 lick mats.

Conclusion

Lick mats are a valuable tool for dogs that can help reduce anxiety and provide mental stimulation. They’re also a great option when you need to distract your pup for a few minutes. The benefits of lick mats for dogs far outweigh the cost of the mat, whether you’re working on reducing stress or extending meal time. Don’t be afraid to get creative and try weird flavor combinations!

What are your favorite benefits of lick mats? Share your stories with us on Instagram by tagging @therulybully! We love to hear from you!

Have fun!