14 AugEpisode 72 | There’s so much to love about snuffle mats! Buy or make a fabric work-to-eat toy
We are obsessed with work-to-eat toys at School For The Dogs! Snuffle mats are one type of work-to-eat toy we recommend all the time. Made of fabric, they’re great for hiding dry food or treats. They pack well, are easy to wash, and you can even make them yourself. Annie talks about some of the ones sold at storeforthedogs.com and gives instructions on how to make your own.
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Transcript:
Annie:
Hey folks. Today, I just wanted to talk a little bit about one of my favorite kinds of work to eat toys. As you might know if you've listened to this podcast before, we are huge fans of toys that give dogs jobs. I like to joke that we're trying to solve the canine unemployment problem — that if you can figure out a way to engage your dog’s brain and body, even if it's just their tongue or their paws during meal times, that it's a really good way to channel energy that might otherwise go towards activities that you might not be that into.
So there are lots of different kinds of work to eat toys. And one of them is, the broad category would be called snuffle mats. Now this is kind of a newer sort of work to eat toy. I think I first saw a snuffle mat maybe five or six years ago when we first started carrying the Buster Activity Mat. Which I right away thought was like the coolest thing ever.
It is a mat that is pretty heavy duty. It has snaps on it, with these components that you can snap on. And the components, kind of origami-style, can be folded and manipulated in different ways. They can be used separately from the mat. It's very, very cool. It also comes in this adorable little turquoise duffle bag, which I like to use for things other than the mat sometimes, just because it's cute. But it's neat because there are so many different ways you can use it, and it can travel really well.
Now, snuffle mats in general are easy to pack, and some of them can be used in different kinds of ways, but the main component is that they're soft and you can hide dry food or dry treats in them in different ways. They're not great for use with wet food. Some of them you could even hide toys in them.
So anyway, the Buster activity mat, I think, was my first introduction to the world of snuffle mats, or we sometimes also call them activity mats. And then, I think I was at a trade show when I first saw the Wooly Snuffle Mat. And the Wooly is a much simpler product. It kind of just looks like a bath mat. Like a bath mat with really plush, long tendrils. It's gray, it — you know, one thing I like about snuffle mats is they make me think of Snuffleupagus scoop is my favorite character on Sesame street. And the Wooly probably looks most like Snuffleupagus, I guess, except gray, easy to clean.
We use them all the time at School for the Dog, so you can throw it into the washing machine. And the Wooly is most similar to the kinds of snuffle mats that we sometimes make ourselves at School for the Dogs, and which I often suggest people make. I'm going to talk a little bit about DIY stuff on Madsen a minute. I just wanted to run through some of, some of the ones out there.
The most recent kind of snuffle mat that I've discovered and that we sell at School for the Dogs is the fleece activity mat. These come in a few different sizes and they're basically pieces of fleece that have other pieces of fleece. So on to them in different configurations so that you can hide yummy stuff in the little nooks and crannies also super easy to wash and to travel with. I'm a big fan. And actually I use these to entertain my 19 month old daughter to hide Cheerios in them. And she gets lots of lots of entertainment from them.
So the snuffle mats I've been mentioning are ones that we sell in storeforthedogs.com, but you can totally make your own snuffle mat. And it can be something super simple, or it can be something a little bit more complex. Now on the more complex side of things, if you're into sewing, you can make your own version of one of these fleece activity mats. Fleece is great for this because it can wash really well. It's pretty inexpensive. You can cut it and you don't really need to sew the seams. It's not going to fray, so you can go crazy making different shapes and kind of emulating one of these commercially made snuffle mats.
There's actually someone on Etsy who is making some beautiful homemade fleece snuffle mats. The store's name is “DogNmat,” I believe. And their handmade snuffle mats are just super cute. They have ones that look like tacos, and one that looks like a sushi roll, one that looks like a picnic blanket with these little things sewn onto it made out of fleece that you can hide treats in. And you don't have to make anything that elaborate, but it's certainly pretty adorable.
You can also make a no-sew snuffle mat with strips of fleece, or even just strips of rags, old tee shirts, that kind of thing, tying them on to something. It could be something flat. I've made them using that kind of industrial kitchen rubber mat that you can get from a hardware store. They have big holes in them and you can just tie big strips of fleece to that, to make something really lush that you can then hide treats in. You can also use the kind of rubber thing that you put in a sink to keep cups from breaking that might have holes in it or plastic, or you can get like metal ones of those, same idea.
If you have a dog who tends to chew through things, I wouldn’t suggest using any of these rubber options, since they're not meant to be chewed on, and you don't want your dog chewing off pieces. You could also get burlap and thread pieces of rags through the burlap. I have also used colanders, or the inner part of a salad spinner to tie pieces of a rag or whatever to that, and make a kind of snuffle bowl.
You can do the same thing with something like a milk crate, tie pieces in, so that like the whole inside of the milk crate is full of spaces to hide stuff. It's basically like you're creating kind of rugs that your dog has permission to snuffle and snarfle in.
And my favorite super easy homemade snuffle mat is probably just getting a mop head and throwing that on the ground with some treats on it. Obviously not like a sponge mop head, but like the kind like long stringy type of mop head can make a really good snuffle mat. And in a pinch, if you're on the road or something, you can usually find these at supermarkets or drugstores.
Lastly, I wanted to talk about the Destructo ball, which is kind of a similar idea. Destructo balls are — actually I just found someone selling these on Etsy too, although it's certainly something you can make yourself. You use one of the Hol-ee Roller toys, which we have in our online shop. They're made by J dot w pet. They're these rubber balls that are holey. They have holes all around them.
Those are great for stuffing with fabric. You can take fabric, basically roll some treats up in the fabric, and then stuff the fabric in the toy and do that until the toy — they come in different sizes. But usually I like using one that's like, I think it's like the larger, the extra large, like maybe eight inches wide. Just stuff that full of these treats wrapped up in rags. And, if you have a dog like my dog who loves skinning tennis balls and pulling things apart, pulling the stuffing out of toys, that's a really kind of nice snuffle mat type option for those pups.
So, if you have experimented with work-to-eat toys I think that you will really like using a snuffle mat with your dog. If you haven't tried one yet, would love to know what your dog thinks of it. Feel free to reach out, DM us on School for the Dogs on Instagram is a good way to do that. We're just @schoolforthedogs. And I am going to leave it there. I will talk to you guys next week.
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