Licky mats

[Juniper68]

Has anyone had one? I just got one for my elderly dog as licking apparently settles dogs and stops them being so bored.

He's used it twice and just got it today. Am hoping he's not as restless tonight?

We have a bowl one for our greyhound and he loves it. Usually plain yoghurt with one of peanut butter, salmon pate, steamed sweet potato, mushed sardines. Yoghurt is good for his guts and licking has drastically improved his breath.

Primula cheese. Make sure you really get it into the mat.

@TurquoiseBaubles my lab has chewed it up too so I use egg boxes instead as a cheap alternative. She destroys so many toys!

Just checked and the Tesco salmon paste we use doesn’t have vitamin a in it, so it should be ok

Charlie even made a dent on the toughened licky matts so it’s frozen slow bowls for him

I found that freezing the lickimats is what prompted my lab to try and eat them. Soft wet food and she'll lick it off, frozen stuff and she's not going to sit and lick it, she'll use her teeth instead! Lost a few nubbles on our tuff lickimat before I worked that one out!

My beagle tried to eat his licky mat so we now stuff natural treats and freeze those instead - it works in the same way but it doesn't matter if he eats the outside

He was never a fan of Kongs but he loves stuffed cows hooves (you can buy them empty and fill them with whatever you like), and we also did similar with buffalo horns when he was a puppy.

A lickimat (spread with peanut butter) is the only thing I’ve tried that helped to distract my dog when there are fireworks happening. She’s always been absolutely inconsolable in the past but this NYE she was, if not exactly calm, MUCH less stressed than in previous years.

Our lab loves his - he's got a Tuff one that has a hard plastic backing and he's, so far, not attempted to eat it and am aqua one with suction pads on it that is brilliant to distract him when he's being Mud Daddy washed, dried off, showered, eye drops put in, groomed.... Lots of uses! We use peanut butter, cream cheese, liver pate and I smear a pretty tiny smear of it, he doesn't need much.