Helping dogs have more fun with their humans!
For the next part of our series on food-based enrichment toys, we’ll be discussing the Woof Pupsicle. Specifically, we’ll be talking about our favorite Pupsicle recipes that we use as well as the pros and cons of the Pupsicle when compared to similar devices.
Our pups recently discovered that if they chew on their frozen enrichment, the reward comes out quicker. Unfortunately, this shortens the duration of our frozen Toppl recipes even if they can withstand the chewing. (We’d like to give a shout out to West Paw for the durability of the Toppl. That thing can take some serious chewing without ripping!) After some trial and error, my mom gifted our pups a Pupsicle with the calming refill pops (thanks, mom!). This turned out to be the perfect answer to trying to bite out his frozen enrichment, and it’s Prim’s new favorite toy!
Food-based enrichment, like the Pupsicle or DIY snuffle mats, can help keep your pup engaged and active for much cheaper than the average dog toy! Frozen food-based enrichment has become a staple in our dogs’ routines and it’s a fantastic option if you need to entertain your dog for a short time. We love interacting with our dogs, but it’s important to keep a variety of options available for when you need to do something without your pup, too! Prim knows around what time her frozen enrichment occurs at and will even wait in front of the refrigerator occasionally until we get it!
If you want to read more about food-based enrichment, check our Enriching Your Pets Environment With Their Food by VCA Hospitals. There’s a slew of benefits for every pup, even ones who get plenty of exercise!
Why we (and our dogs) love the Woof Pupsicle
The primary reason we ended up trying out Pupsicle recipes is that it’s a great alternative for pups who try to bite their rewards out of Toppls or Kongs. The design of the Pupsicle makes biting much less effective than with more flexible alternatives.
Our favorite!
WOOF Pupsicle (Green, Large)
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$19.99
The Pupsicle is one of our two favorite options for food-based enrichment and it's Prim's favorite enrichment option! It's extremely durable and lasts surprisingly long, even without using the Woof refills. We highly recommend it and think your dog will love it, too!
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03/21/2025 06:50 pm GMT
The Woof Pupsicle is also a low-cost way to entertain your pup. Refill pops from Woof can get pricy, but if you use the optional tray to make your own, there’s no reason a refill should be more than $0.50. We use a lot of enrichment and have large dogs, so our supplies can get expensive. We try to save money where we can and we think homemade Pupsicle recipes are the preferred option for the vast majority of pet parents.
It’s challenging to get pups who aren’t as play-driven, like our Primmie, to move around sometimes. Food-based enrichment is a great way to help mix Prim’s favorite activity (eating) with being active. Even if your pup is using enrichment that doesn’t move much, like a Pupsicle, it’s still a great way to keep them engaged. We routinely make Primmie work for her kibble to keep her from becoming too much of a potato, typically with some DIY dog puzzles or other foraging activities.
Finally, food-based enrichment, like Pupsicle recipes or frozen Toppl recipes, is perfect for senior or injured dogs. A few years ago, Goomba went through 2 knee injuries involving 3 surgeries to fix. During this time, he had varying degrees of mobility restrictions that prevented from his favorite activity (playing) for the better part of a year. We used every food-based enrichment we could find to help keep him interactive during this time and we used a ton of frozen lick mat recipes and frozen Kong recipes during this period. For more information on our experiences, check out our tips for recovering from CCL surgery.
How to use the Woof Pupsicle
Using the Woof Pupsicle is fairly straightforward, but we wanted to touch on some of Woof’s Pupsicle recipes and some of our own favorite options. You can’t go wrong either way, but we recommend giving Woof’s refill pops a go first. It’ll help give you an idea of how long refills will last with the right mixture.
Woof’s refill pops
As of the time we’re writing this, Woof offers 6 different options for refill pops for the Pupsicle. Here are the flavors they offer:
- All in one wellness (multivitamin)
- Calming wellness
- Hip & joint (contains ingredients that promote joint health)
- Allergy & immunity support
- Original chicken
- Original beef
The original flavors are cheaper and the specific health ones are a little more expensive. Our preferences are the calming and original flavors, but that’s mostly because our pups are on some supplements for immunity and joint health already. For reference, we find that specialty options are usually between $2.50-$3.00 per ball and the original flavor is around $2.00. Besides the price, they’re fantastic options. If you don’t want to bother with making your own refills, we’d highly recommend them. Different sizes exist for the 3 different size Pupsicles, so make sure you’re getting the right size.
Prim's favorite!
WOOF Pupsicle Refill Pops for Calming (Large, 7 Count)
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$19.99
We don't always buy the refills for the Pupsicle, but when we do, this is Prim's favorite flavor. They last an extremely long time and are perfect for when you don't have time (or forgot!) to make enrichment ahead of time.
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03/21/2025 06:50 pm GMT
The obvious benefit for Woof’s refill pops is that you don’t have to make your own. We freeze ours to keep our pups as interested as possible, so it will take a bit of planning. The second is that Woof’s refill pops typically last slightly longer than ours do for most of the recipes. We use them for a backup in case we forgot to prep some prior to leaving. Our pups, specifically Prim, are crazy about them, so they get her seal of approval, too!
Woof’s Pupsicle treat tray mold
If you don’t want to purchase refill pops often (we don’t usually), we’d recommend checking out the Woof treat tray mold. This will allow you to make your own Pupsicle recipes, which is what we’ll be discussing in the next section. It’s significantly cheaper to make your own refill pops than it is to buy them. We love Woof’s not frozen Pupsicle recipes, but they’re pricy. We find they usually are between $2-$3 depending on the type purchased. If you make your own, there’s no real reason they should cost more than $0.50 per refill.
Our favorite!
WOOF Pupsicle Treat Tray Mold (Large)
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$11.99
We typically make our own Pupsicle refills and this tray is the perfect tool for it. Woof's tray mold allows you to tailor your enrichment around any issues your dog may have, but we primarily use it because it's a ton cheaper! It works great and is easy to clean, and we highly recommend it!
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03/21/2025 06:50 pm GMT
The treat tray will also allow you to tailor your frozen enrichment around any sensitivities or allergies your pup may have. If you have pups that are on special diets, you can even use their normal wet or dry food to make the balls, as well. For us, it’s been extremely helpful in managing Prim’s weight, as she tries her best to eat as much food as she can con out of us.
Our favorite Pupsicle recipes
There’s a variety of different options for creating long lasting Woof Pupsicle recipes, but there’s no wrong way! Even if you just mix up some broth and water, your dog will enjoy getting it and you can always create more refills. Typically, we have the most luck with a grain/fiber heavy base, some liquid to help everything freeze, and then any specific foods or treats that help with the flavor. You’ll see this pattern repeat in a lot of these recipes, but there are exceptions to this, especially if one ingredient is thicker than normal, like peanut butter or honey.
Chicken & rice
Ingredients (4 refills):
- 1/8 cup of rice
- 1/8 cup of chicken
- 1/4 cup of low sodium chicken broth
As far as Pupsicle recipes go, this is one of our pups’ favorites. We use unseasoned chicken to make homemade stuffed bones for our pups, so we typically have that on hand. You’ll need a small amount of rice, a bit of chicken, and some chicken broth. Shred the chicken and stuff it into one of the tray molds with the rice. Fill the rest with low sodium chicken broth and that’s it!
If you want some other options, the meat can be whatever dog safe option you have. Turkey, beef, and fish are all great options, as long as they are unseasoned. You can swap the grain, too, and we use quinoa as a substitute. Our choice is usually based on what we have on hand more than an actual preference. As a tip, the more grain you use, the longer Pupsicle recipes last.
As long as your pup can handle chicken and rice, this is a fantastic option for any dog. We find that most dogs are crazy for chicken and it’s extremely easy to prepare. If you don’t want to cook, we have plenty of other options that don’t involve as much prep.
No-bake treat refills
Ingredients (6 refills):
- 1 cup of plain oats
- 1/4 cup of pumpkin puree
- 1/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce
- 1/8 cup of plain yogurt
- 1/8 cup of peanut butter
This was Prim’s favorite recipe, and it lasted over half an hour! It’s a little more work to make, but we think it’s worth it. Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl (no blender required!) and stir them around until they’re evenly mixed. Scoop out the mixture into the tray and you’re done. The consistency should be thick, like a no-bake cookie when you’re done mixing.
This is a great recipe for any dog, but it’s a little higher calorie than some other options. Our dogs go crazy about it and we have to cut Prim off after half an hour sometimes! If you want it to be fewer calories, you can use fewer oats, but that will also shorten the duration, as well. The ingredients are cheap and most people have at least half of them on hand.
Oat and pumpkin
Ingredients (3 refills):
- 1/2 cup of plain oats
- 1/4 cup of pumpkin puree
- 1/8 cup of peanut butter
- 1 tsp of honey
Oats and pumpkin make our favorite Pupsicle recipe and our pups love it, too! It’s a few ingredients, but it’s easy to mix up and cheap, two of our favorite qualities. It’s a different take on our previous no bake recipe, which doesn’t need to be frozen. We keep them in the refrigerator, especially if we’re not using them in a few hours.
This recipe is easy to create and doesn’t require a blender. Toss all the ingredients in a bowl and mix it until it’s even. The consistency should be similar to a no bake cookie.
Our dogs love this recipe and it lasts over a half an hour easily, which is great for us! We highly recommend it and think your dog will love it, too!
Peanut butter and banana
Ingredients (8 refills):
- 1 small banana
- 2 tbsp of peanut butter or PBFit Pure Peanut
- 3/4 cup of water (varies because of banana size)
In our other frozen enrichment guides, peanut butter and banana recipes have always been a favorite and this is no different! Our dogs are crazy for peanut butter. We use a blender for this one, but you can mix it in a bowl, too. Combine all 3 ingredients and stir them together until “blended”. That’s it! We love using PBFit Pure Peanut powder since it’s about 40% of the calories and much easier to mix in recipes like this. Make sure whatever peanut option you use is pup-safe and you’re good to go!
PBfit Simply Peanut Peanut Powder 24 Ounce
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$14.25
We've recently discovered PBFit's pure peanut powder recipe and we're huge fans! Our dogs love it and it has almost 1/3 of the calories, which makes it a great option for training and enrichment, especially for dogs with weight issues! The Pure Peanut recipe also only has 1 ingredient, which makes it perfect for dogs with allergies, too!
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03/21/2025 05:39 pm GMT
Because of the size of the Pupsicle, this recipe isn’t nearly as many calories as a Toppl or
Strawberry and banana
Ingredients (6 refills):
- 1 small banana
- 2 strawberries
- 1/2 cup of water
Strawberry and banana is a great Pupsicle recipe for dogs who like fruit. For us, Prim enjoys this recipe, but Goomba has no interest in it. All you’ll need to do is mix the three ingredients together and pour them into the tray mold. Like the peanut butter and banana recipe, this one is easier with a blender, but it’s possible without one. The amount of refills varies by the size of the banana. If the recipe makes more than 4 refills, we just keep whatever’s left in the fridge and pour it into the mold once the first round freezes.
This recipe isn’t high calorie, but does have a decent amount of sugar from the fruit. We reserve the recipes that have higher sugar or higher calories for after playtime, like using our homemade flirt pole! It’s super easy to make and Prim chases it around our house. As with the peanut butter and banana recipe, if your dog doesn’t like banana, you can easily substitute it with a different option, like sweet potato.
Turkey stew
Ingredients (4 refills):
- 1/8 cup of ground turkey
- 2 baby carrots
- 1 medium red potato
- 1/4-1/2 cup of pup-safe broth (preferable low sodium)
This Pupsicle recipe is a bit of prep, but real easy to put together after the prep is done. Most dogs love this recipe, unless they’re picky about root vegetables. We diced 2 baby carrots and 1 medium red potato after cooking it. We “cooked” it the lazy way by cleaning it, puncturing it with a fork a few times, and microwaving it for a minute. It comes out soft enough and we use a similar trick for our sweet potatoes when we’re feeling lazy.
After that’s done, we took 1/8 cup of unseasoned ground turkey from a meal we were making. Any other dog-safe meat works fine, too. Turkey is just what we had on hand and were using. Stuff it all into one of the tray mold slots and fill the rest up with a low sodium broth. That’s it!
Our pups always get excited when they get to eat human food and this is no different! Even Goomba likes this one and he’s super picky about vegetables.
Wet food mixture
Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp – 1/8 cup of wet food per ball
- Water (depends on your preference)
If your pups are like most (and ours), they love wet food! This is one of their favorite Pupsicle recipes and it’s extremely easy to make. Take some wet food and mix it with water in the Pupsicle treat tray and you’re good to go! We broke ours up a bit, but blending it will help distribute the wet food flavor more evenly. If you have an extremely motivated pup, like Primmie, it may not make a difference either way. We used Purina Beyond Natural wet food for our mixture, as it seems to be our dogs’ favorite food.
Our dogs' favorite!
Purina Beyond Natural Organic High-Protein Pate Variety Pack 6-13 oz cans
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$19.81
Our pups love this wet food! It's relatively cheap, our pups love it, and works great for food-based enrichment. We like mixing this with other foods in our lick mats, Kongs, and toppls and end up getting a ton of uses from one can.
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03/21/2025 12:46 am GMT
How long this Pupsicle refill lasts depends highly on the type of wet food you use. We’ve had as low as 10 minutes and as high as 20 minutes with this recipe. We find this recipe is best for pups with food sensitivities, calorie restrictions, or are picky eaters. Technically, you can do this with soaked dry food, but our pups are snobby about it. Check out the section on soaked dry kibble in frozen Kong recipes for more information about that.
Yogurt and oats
Ingredients (4 refills):
- 1 tsp of honey
- 1/4 cup of plain oats
- 1/2 cup of greek yogurt (pup-safe!)
- 2 tbsp of PBFit or peanut butter
We were surprised by how much our pups enjoyed this recipe! We used PBFit Pure Protein (again!) for this recipe, but peanut butter works fine, too. The powder is easier to mix by hand, especially when you have ingredients like honey and oats. We had all the ingredients on hand, but even if you don’t, they’re extremely cheap and you can get a ton of refills from them. Make sure that the yogurt and peanut butter are safe for dogs before using them!
Both of our dogs loved this recipe, even Goomba, despite our apprehension. It lasts in the 10-15 range for us, which is good for a cheap recipe. If your dog doesn’t like yogurt, you can substitute a similar ingredient, such as cream cheese, if you need to. We’d recommend increasing the oats if you want the recipe to last a bit longer.
The kitchen sink
Ingredients:
- anything dog-safe!
This is our favorite Pupsicle recipe because it’s extremely convenient for us! We use it to clean out our fridge if we don’t think we’ll get to food before it expires. If you use a grain or fiber-heavy food, we find the recipes last longer. We used a bunch of stuff we had on hand for ours, so it’s all over the place. Our recipe had oats, Purina Beyond Natural wet food, chicken broth, chicken, shredded cheese, and PBFit Pure Peanut Powder.
We highly recommend the PBFit Pure Peanut Powder if you use peanut butter for your dog as treats or for training. It has 40% of the calories as normal peanut butter and mixes great with frozen enrichment. Make sure you get one that’s dog safe, as some have other ingredients. Pure Peanut only has 1 ingredient in it: peanuts.
This recipe will vary greatly in how long it lasts based on what you add in to it. We usually get between 8 – 15 minutes with this recipe, but it’s extremely cheap as you’re using ingredients you already have or that may expire.
Alternatives to the Woof Pupsicle recipes
If you’re looking for something other than Pupsicle recipes, we have 3 other options that are similar. Each offers different pros and cons, although all work for most dogs. We highly recommend all 3 and our pups have used them all extensively!
A lot of these alternatives (and other canine enrichment toys) are great if you’re trying to crate train your dog. Check out our guide on the benefits of crate training to learn more, as well as an easy way to crate train your pup!
Lick mats
Lick mats are a great option to less food-motivated pups or if you’re just starting to try food-based enrichment out. Pupsicle recipes take longer to freeze, but lick mats freeze quickly or you can use them without freezing. We find that even less motivated dogs typically do well with lick mats because the treat is much more visible and accessible than in other options. We have a few different guides for lick mats, so check out our favorite lick mat recipes (not frozen) and favorite frozen lick mat ideas for more information.
Lick mats do not last as long as Pupsicle recipes or the other alternatives on this list. They’re also a little more difficult to clean, especially if yours isn’t dishwasher safe. We highly recommend dishwasher safe options. Our favorite choices are Frisco’s lick mats and the Messy Mutts lick mat. We’ve been using both for years at this point and even with Goomba’s biting, they’re still in great shape.
Our favorite!
Frisco Silicone Lick Mat, 2 Pack
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$12.41
The Frisco silicone lick mats are our favorite lick mats that we've tried. They're cheap, safe, and work great! We use these more than any of the other options we have. They're the perfect size, even for our 80 lb dogs, and have a double lip on the outside to prevent spilling. We also love that they are dishwasher-safe, which makes cleanup a breeze!
Pros:
- Made of silicone (food-safe & flexible)
- Easy to clean & dishwasher safe
- Extremely affordable
- Extremely durable
Cons:
- Only available on Chewy
- Smaller than some other options
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03/20/2025 12:16 am GMT
If you like the dog bed Prim’s laying on, we made it ourselves! Check out our guide to making a DIY dog bed for large dogs if you want more information. It’s extremely easy and even I can make one, which means anyone can do it!
Toppls
Our next alternative to the Woof Pupsicle is the Toppl by West Paw. We’re huge fans of the Toppl and have 4 (!) different Toppls so that we can batch prepare enrichment for our pups. The Toppl has a wide opening, similar to the lick mats, which allows you to toss anything dog safe in it. Most of the time, you shouldn’t need to blend anything unless you want the flavor distributed better. We find that the Toppl is a great middle step between lick mats and Kongs.
Our favorite!
West Paw Toppl Dog Toy Puzzle (Large 4", Tangerine)
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$25.95
We love this take on a treat holder by West Paw! It's a great alternative to a Kong, especially for those pups who are more inclined to bite the treat than lick it out, like Goomba. It's extremely easy to clean and has a wide opening. The Toppl is one of our pup's favorite sources of enrichment!
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03/20/2025 11:04 pm GMT
Toppls last longer than lick mats, but not as long as Kongs. We don’t have many cons for the Toppl since it works great, but it is more expensive initially than lick mats or the
Kongs
Our last alternative to using Woof Pupsicle recipes is the Kong Extreme. It’s a more challenging version of the Toppl, so it makes a great option for extremely motivated pups. Like the Toppl, you can throw anything dog safe in the
Our favorite!
KONG Extreme Dog Toy for Large Dogs (Black)
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$14.99
Both of our dogs love Kongs and they are a staple in our house! You can dump anything pup-safe into them, they're relatively easy to clean, and they are durable. Goomba's been intermittently biting his for years and it's still holding up well. In our 5 years of owning them, we've only ever had to replace one!
Pros:
- Great affordable way to entertain your dog
- Easy to clean with the right approach
- Very durable
Cons:
- Dogs that have a low food drive may not be as interested
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03/20/2025 11:04 pm GMT
The
The primary issue we have with the Kongs is how difficult it is to clean them. The small hole that makes the recipes last longer also makes it much more difficult to clean. We typically use a combination of soaking and a bottle brush to clean ours, but it’s still difficult to be confident it’s completely clean.
Conclusion
The Woof Pupsicle has quickly leapfrogged into one of our top enrichment toys for our dogs. Prim loves these Pupsicle recipes and it’s definitely her favorite form of food-based enrichment. Goomba prefers his Toppl, but the Pupsicle is a close second.
What are your favorite Pupsicle recipes? Have a favorite that we missed? Let us know, we’d love to try it out! If we like it, we’ll give you a shout out! Share your favorite with us by emailing Lincoln@TheRulyBully.com or tagging us on Instagram @TheRulyBully !
Have fun!
