Dog Lick / Licky Mats

Printable licky-mats that you can fill with various foods to keep your dog entertained for a while.

These are 3d-printable licky mats that you can fill with your choice of pet-safe food (peanut butter or yogurt for example; you can freeze it to add the level of difficulty / time required) for your dog to lick at and keep them busy for an hour or more.

There are a few designs so far but I can add more as I think of new ideas (feel free to suggest some)! The first has cone shapes and is fairly easy for your dog to extract the food from. The second model has mini dog-bone shapes which are NOT tapered towards the top, so the deeper the dog gets into the design they harder it gets for them to get it all out. Our (VERY food-motivated) 1-year-old Boston Terrier gives up after about an hour, with a bit left in the bottoms. The grooves are 5.5mm (~7/32") deep, so if this becomes a challenge for your puppy, try scaling the Z axis to about 75% so that the grooves are only about 4mm (5/32") high instead (keep the X and Y axis to 100% scale).

The square design is 100mm (~4") wide, about 15mm (19/32") high in total (the outer edges are higher than the design inside). Be sure to clean them thoroughly between uses and keep an eye on your puppy to make sure they're not trying to chew it. The one I printed is fine in the dishwasher, but do a test run first - it may vary with water temperature, detergent used etc. Thermoplastics have been proven to be safe for food (human or otherwise) as long as they are thoroughly cleaned immediately after use.

UPDATE: I've added a Puppy shaped lick pad which is slightly longer but roughly the same volume as the square lick pad. The dog-bone shapes inside are spaced wider apart and are only 4.25mm (5/32") high, so it should be a little easier for your pup to get all of the food. I've successfully used this as a tool to help our doggie get over separation anxiety: by giving her this right before I leave, she associates my getting ready to go with a yummy treat to play with while I'm gone, and is focused on her task rather than my 'abandoning' her. Since adopting this strategy, she has stopped getting into trouble while I'm gone.

I recommend printing in TPU to make it a little more rugged. TPU also seems much more dishwasher-proof than PLA / PLA+.

I suggest using a standard 0.4mm nozzle with the following settings:

Layer height: 0.2mm
Top / bottom layers: 4
Infill: ~10-15%
Support: not needed
They should print fine without a brim, but one can be added if needed for some of the 'appendages' (paws / tail).