The Quiet Hour I Found With a LickiMat

The first time I used a LICKIMAT, I was on my bathroom floor with Pepper, my six year old cattle dog mix, and a pair of nail clippers. Pepper is 42 pounds of hard chewer and faster than she looks. She had already backed away twice. I spread a thin layer of plain yogurt on the mat, set it on a towel, and put it in front of her. She licked. I took one paw. She kept licking. I finished four nails before she looked up.

I have looked after other people's dogs in my home in Tehachapi, California, for nine years. Most weeks there are two or three guest dogs here, and the first evening is often the hardest. A dog that does not know my house will pace, whine, and follow me from room to room. I do not want to crate a dog that is already worried. A LICKIMAT gives that dog a job at floor level.

I bought the LICKIMAT Classic Soother three years ago. I own two. The mat is rubber, about eight inches across, and it goes on the top rack of my dishwasher. A thin layer of plain yogurt or canned pumpkin lasts about ten minutes. If I freeze it flat first, it lasts closer to twenty. It is a mat you spread food on, and the dog has to work at it with her tongue.

The first guest dog I tried it with was a beagle staying for a long weekend. She came in wired, walked the same loop around my kitchen table four times, and would not settle. I put a LICKIMAT down on the tile with a towel under it. She stopped pacing. She licked for maybe eight minutes, then lay down on the rug and slept. I am not going to tell you a mat fixed that dog. She needed time. The mat gave her something to do while the time passed.

Pepper still gets both walks. She still chews. She still needs the KONG Extreme at seven in the evening, and she still needs me to pay attention to her. The LICKIMAT did not replace any of that. What it did was give me a tool for the times when I need her to stay put and stay quiet: nail trims, bath night, and the first evening of a nervous guest. That is a small thing until you have spent a half hour holding a forty two pound dog still with one hand.

Pepper let me finish four nails before she looked up. Three years later, that is still the clearest thing this mat has done for me.

Bath night is the other job. I wash guest dogs in my bathroom, and a dog that has never had a bath in this house will try to climb out of the tub. I set the mat on a towel on the floor beside the tub. I learned that the hard way with a suction cup mat years ago. Pepper pulled it off in the first week and chewed the cup, and I threw it out. The LICKIMAT stays on the floor where I can see it. While the dog licks, I wash. By the time the yogurt is gone, the bath is usually done.

I use plain yogurt, canned pumpkin, kibble, or peanut butter with no xylitol. I do not pile it on. A thin layer is enough, and a thick layer just makes a mess. If I freeze it flat, it lasts longer and gives a guest dog something to work at on a hot afternoon. The mat goes in the top rack of the dishwasher, and I keep two so there is always a clean one. One guest puppy left a small chew mark on the corner of one mat. That was my fault for leaving it down a minute too long. Now I pick it up the moment it is licked clean.

The nervous guest is where I noticed the biggest difference. A young lab staying for the week would not stop moving on her first evening. She circled the kitchen, whined at the back door, and could not decide where to lie down. I put a LICKIMAT in the hallway, away from Pepper, and sat on the floor nearby. She licked, sighed, and finally lay down with her chin on the towel. I did not train her. I did not fix her. I gave her a quiet job, and that was enough to get her through the first night.

There are limits. This is not a chew toy. Pepper is a hard chewer, and I would not leave her alone with it. The same goes for any guest dog. I supervise food toys, one dog per toy, in separate spots. If your dog is a power chewer who destroys rubber, this mat will not survive a determined session. If your dog is sick, hurt, or truly unable to settle, that is a conversation with our vet, not a shopping decision. A mat is a tool for a normal dog in a normal moment. It is not a switch.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

I would tell you to buy two if you are going to use it at bath time or nail time. One is always in the dishwasher. I would tell you to keep the layer thin and to use food your dog already tolerates. I would tell you to put it on a towel on the floor, because a mat that slides is a mat a dog will chase. I would tell you not to expect it to replace a walk or a chew toy. The LICKIMAT is a small, useful thing. It buys you ten quiet minutes at the exact moment you need ten quiet minutes. In a house with guest dogs, that is worth having.