My Dogs Fight Over This Refillable Puzzle Treat (original) (raw)

By ,a writer at the Strategist covering clothing basics and bath and body. She joined the Strategist as a junior writer in 2022 after interning at the site.

When you have a young puppy, keeping it occupied and redirecting its energy from stealing your socks or chewing on a kitchen-cabinet corner can feel like a full-time job. When we brought home our basset hound, Ringo, it didn’t take long before my fiancé and I came down with cases of the puppy blues — when new owners are suddenly sleep-deprived and feeling overwhelmed — so we enrolled Ringo in kindergarten to learn how to keep him happy in ways that didn’t involve destroying our socks. It was there that we learned the importance of mental stimulation for dogs. With that in mind, we tried everything we could to keep Ringo entertained, from all kinds of lick mats to snuffle mats and more traditional puzzle feeders.

But then at my old local dog store in Toronto, Hounds of York, I stumbled across a product we’d never seen before: pet brand Woof’s refillable Pupsicle,a mental-stimulation puzzle and toy in one. It looked promising and easier to clean than the well-known Kong, and when we brought it home, we found it was simple to use. All you have to do is unscrew the base, pop in one of the premade meat-flavored treats (or use the round molds to make your own),and then screw the back into place. When we gave Ringo the Pupsicle, he carried it off to his bed to enjoy for close to an hour. It’s designed to keep dogs occupied for a while — they lick it until the treat inside gets small and then they can try to pop the remaining treat out of the Pupsicle. Ringo enjoys the Pupsicle so much that he often lets out a few cries of what seem like happiness or delight when he’s licking it. (And maybe a little frustration — our trainer said likely because he can’t get to the treat fast enough for his liking.)

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Ringo is older now, and while he enjoys his Pupsicle every so often, the main Pupsicle fan in our house these days is the four-month-old basset-hound mix, Georgie, we adopted this spring. It started with her stealing Ringo’s favorite toys and then his Pupsicle, but luckily Ringo is a non-territorial big brother and, at around 50 pounds, also now has a large size Pupsicle of his own. Georgie, who uses the small size, will lick her Pupsicle for 30 minutes to an hour. It’s the perfect distraction if I’m on a longer work call or making dinner and can’t give her my undivided attention. We also own and love the small Pupsicle in the Power Chewer finish, which has a heavy-duty exterior that doesn’t get as many bite marks and comes in handy since Georgie’s baby teeth are so sharp.

The Pupsicle does not come without flaws. The premade refillable treats are not cheap (they cost about $1.50 per pop), and the screw-together design can cause the product to become completely stuck together over time from saliva and the post-licking treat goop. To prevent this, I’ve found that if I don’t overtighten it, I’ll still have leverage to open it after my dogs finish the treats inside. I’ve also greased up the screw threads with a bit of coconut oil or olive oil before putting the pieces together. I wouldn’t recommend the Pupsicle for extremely aggressive chewers, as in adult dogs with strong jaws, but it’s worth noting that my parents’ Great Dane does really well with the XL Popsicle.

If dental hygiene is a concern, Woof also sells the Bite n’ Brush, which both my dogs love to gnaw on. And its latest products, the LickWells, a squeezable pouch, and the FlipMats are nice for when they need some downtime from wrestling and running around our house. With the LickWell spreadable supplement smeared onto the FlipMat, the repetitive licking offers them a calming activity that keeps them busy. The Pupsicle will always be their favorite, though — I take Georgie’s full-body wagging when she spots me filling it up as proof.

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