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 frozen Toppl recipes, even if they can withstand 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!) 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 their frozen enrichment, and it’s Prim’s new favorite toy!
Food-based enrichment, like the Pupsicle or homemade 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 and will even wait in front of the refrigerator until we get it!
If you want to read more about food-based enrichment, check out 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.
The Woof Pupsicle is also a low-cost way to entertain your pup. Woof’s refill pops from Woof can get expensive, 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.
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!
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 homemade dog puzzles or other foraging activities.
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 that took 3 surgeries to fix. During this time, he had varying degrees of mobility restrictions that prevented him 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 entertained 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.
Finally, it’s pretty easy to clean, despite its appearance. If you clean it right after use (we usually don’t), it’s really easy. Hot water can rinse the vast majority of debris off. If you forget to clean it, no worries! We soak it in water to loosen it up and then hit whatever is left with a toothbrush we have specifically for that purpose. It’s super cheap, easy to replace, and works perfectly for reaching the crannies where debris gets caught.
As you can tell, we’re fans of the Pupsicle. We’ve been using ours daily for years and never once had to replace one! It’s even made its way into our dog training plan template as an activity that our pups love and expect.
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 pupsicle treat recipes 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, 6 different options for recipes for the Woof Pupsicle. Here are the flavors they offer:
- All in one wellness (basically a 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.
For reference, we find that specialty options are usually between $2.50 to $3.00 per refill 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.
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 forget!) to make enrichment ahead of time.
The obvious benefit from 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 takes 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 as a backup in case we forget 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 this post. It’s significantly cheaper to make your own Pupsicle recipes than it is to buy refills. We love Woof’s not-frozen Pupsicle recipes, but they can be expensive. If you make your own, there’s no real reason Pupsicle recipes should cost more than $0.50 per refill.
We typically make our own Pupsicle recipes 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!
The treat tray will also allow you to tailor your frozen enrichment around any sensitivities or allergies your pup may have. If you have a pup that is on a special diet, you can even use their normal wet or dry food to make your own Pupsicle recipes 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.
For reference, the Pupsicle treat tray is just under 3/8 cup per refill for the large version.
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. There are exceptions to this, especially if one ingredient is thicker than normal, like dog safe crunchy peanut butter or honey.
We made this infographic for an easy way to create your own Pupsicle recipes with two of our favorites! Let us know your favorites; our dogs love to taste test!
Apple and peanut butter (or PB Fit)
Ingredients (2-3 refills):
- ¼ of an apple
- ¼ cup of PBFit Simply Peanut or 1:1 diluted peanut butter
Next up for Pupsicle refill recipes is peanut butter and apple. We find that this is a perfect option for dogs who like fruit, but even Goomba will eat apples if they are covered in peanut butter. For this recipe, all you’ll need to do is dice the apples and put them in a tray. Pour your diluted peanut butter or PBFit over the apples until it fills the mold. The amount of the ingredients will vary a bit, but you can put any extra in the fridge until you use it again.
We've recently discovered PBFit's pure peanut powder recipe and we're huge fans! Our dogs love it and it has around 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!
This recipe is relatively low calorie if you use PBFit, but even diluted peanut butter is a lot of calories. We try to use higher-calorie options after our pups are more active, such as with our favorite games for dogs outside. If your dog prefers a different fruit (or vegetable), other options can work just as well here. Some of our other favorites are carrots, zucchini, or green beans, but there are a ton of other options. Check our post on which fruits and vegetables dogs can eat for more information.
Beef stew
Ingredients (2-3 refills)
- 2 diced baby carrots
- ¼ cup lean ground beef, unseasoned
- ¼ cup of low-sodium beef broth
This is one of the most convenient pupsicle recipes, and we think your dog will love it! If you’re making something with beef (or any other lean meat), you can remove some before it’s seasoned and use it for your dog’s pupsicle. All we do for this one is to dice up the carrots, add the beef, and fill the rest with low-sodium broth. It’s pretty easy to swap ingredients out if you’re having chicken and you could even add potatoes!
This recipe doesn’t have as many calories as some other options on this list because it’s just lean meat, carrots, and broth. Our dogs love all of them, and it’s a great way to share some of your food with your pup, which occasionally happens anyway. The duration was around the middle of the pack for pupsicle recipes, which is 10-15 minutes.
Chicken & rice
Ingredients (2-3 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 of the tray 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 occasionally. 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 plain oats
- 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/8 cup plain yogurt
- 1/8 cup 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 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 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 (3-4 refills):
- 1/2 cup plain oats
- 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/8 cup peanut butter
- 1 tsp 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 them. The consistency should be similar to a no-bake cookie.
Our dogs love this recipe and it lasts over half an hour easily, which is great for us! We highly recommend it and think your dog will love it, too! You can substitute pumpkin with any other high-fiber vegetable that’s safe, but it’s one of our dogs’ favorite fruits and vegetables dogs can eat. Pumpkin can increase your dog’s stool frequency, which is great if your dog is having issues with constipation.
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 about 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. That’s it! We love using PBFit Simply 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!
We've recently discovered PBFit's pure peanut powder recipe and we're huge fans! Our dogs love it and it has around 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!
Because of the size of the Pupsicle, this recipe isn’t nearly as many calories as a Toppl or
Peanut butter and jelly
Ingredients (2-3 recipes):
- 1/4 cup peanut butter or PBFit Simply Peanut
- ⅛ cup oats
- 2 strawberries
- ⅛ cup of water
Next up on Pupsicle recipes for dogs is peanut butter and jelly! We won’t be using real jelly, but your pup won’t know the difference. Mix your peanut butter or PBFit in with some oats in a bowl. In a separate container, blend strawberries with a bit of water to make a “jelly”. We made it into layers so it was peanut butter/oats, jelly, and then more peanut butter/oats, but you can mix it all together if you’re in a hurry. Either way, your pup will love it! Any pup-safe berries work great, and blueberries can also make a fantastic option, too.
If your pup doesn’t mind recipes for the Woof pupsicle that have berries, this should be a hit! Goomba’s a little picky with berries, but will eat them if they are with other things he likes (peanut butter). We got somewhere between 15 to 20 minutes per refill with this recipe, which puts it on the higher end of this list.
Sweet potato and yogurt
Ingredients (2 refills):
- 1 small sweet potato
- 2 tbsp of dog safe yogurt
Next up on our favorite pupsicle treat recipes is sweet potato and yogurt. Our pups (even Goomba!) love both of these, and the Pupsicle recipe is one of Primmie’s favorites. We put a layer of sweet potato on the top and bottom and sandwiched yogurt between the two sections. This was one of the longer-lasting recipes on this list, and Primmie had a blast with this recipe. As a bonus, sweet potato and yogurt are both cheap ingredients. Make sure you check out our article on yogurt safe for dogs before you use it for your pups.
This recipe is definitely one of the lower-calorie options. Sweet potatoes are surprisingly low calorie and yogurt is too! We’d recommend plain Greek yogurt, but make sure whatever you use doesn’t have any artificial sweeteners. You can even do this recipe without freezing, but it won’t last as long as the frozen version.
Dairy products can interfere with some medicine such as antibiotics and thyroid medicine. If your pup is on any medication, we’d recommend giving these treats a few hours away from any medications to minimize any issues. We recommend checking with your vet if you have questions.
Strawberry and banana
Ingredients (6 refills):
- 1 small banana
- 2 strawberries
- 1/2 cup water
Strawberry and banana is one of our favorite Pupsicle recipes for dogs who like fruit. For us, Prim enjoys this recipe, but Goomba has 0 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 has a decent amount of sugar from the fruit. We reserve the recipes that have higher sugar or higher calories for after playtime, like after 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 or pumpkin.
Turkey stew
Ingredients (4 refills):
- 1/8 cup ground turkey
- 2 baby carrots
- 1 medium red potato
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup of pup-safe broth (preferably low sodium)
This Pupsicle recipe is a bit of prep, but is really 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 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 to 1/8 cup of wet food per ball
- Water (depending 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 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.
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 who 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 honey
- 1/4 cup plain oats
- 1/2 cup Greek yogurt (pup-safe!)
- 2 tbsp PBFit or peanut butter
We were surprised by how much our pups enjoyed this recipe! We used PBFit Simply Peanut (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 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 some 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 Simply 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 to it. We usually get between 8 and 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 a few other similar options. Each offers different pros and cons, although all work for most dogs. We highly recommend all of them, 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!
If you’re interested specifically in other frozen enrichment, check out our favorite frozen enrichment for dogs! Our dogs love them all, and we think yours will too!
Snuffle mats
If you haven’t tried any food-based enrichment before, we’d recommend starting with snuffle mats. They’re extremely easy to use and typically even less motivated dogs participate well. On the human side, all you need to do is spread or hide some kibble in the mat and let your dog sniff them out. If your dog needs some extra motivation, we recommend hiding higher-value treats like our favorite freeze-dried beef liver treats. Our pups go crazy for them!
Stewart's freeze-dried beef liver is our go to option for beef liver! We love it because it's affordable and our dogs love it for the taste. We use freeze-dried beef liver as everything from a reward for training to recipes in frozen enrichment. We find that Stewart's has the best value for beef liver for a product we feel good about feeding to our dogs.
If you want more information about snuffle mats, check out our guide on making your own DIY snuffle mat! It’s easy even if you’re not crafty. If that’s not up your alley, we’d recommend the PetParents foraging mat, and it’s only a few dollars more than the DIY supplies cost. We’ve been using our DIY snuffle mats for years now, and our pups always get excited when they come out.
Lick mats
Lick mats are a great option for 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 even 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 the 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.
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!
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 lick mats. This allows you to toss anything dog safe in it, including any of these pupsicle recipes. 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.
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!
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
Both of our dogs love Kongs and they are a staple in our enrichment rotation! 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!
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 because we’d love to try it out! If we like it, we’ll give you a shout out in the post! Share your favorite with us by emailing Lincoln@TheRulyBully.com or tagging us on Instagram @TheRulyBully !
Have fun!