Snuffle Matt
What you’ll need to make your very own snuffle mat:
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1.5-2 yards of fleece fabric
Rubber floor mat with holes in it
Sharp scissors
A note on the materials I used:
I had stocked up on fleece ahead of time at Jo-Ann Fabrics. If you have dogs and like to DIY
toys for them, I HIGHLY recommend checking out the sales at Jo-Ann’s and stocking up when
fleece is on sale. In addition to their sales they almost always have a 20% off coupon available
online; you can save it right to your smart phone and scan it at the counter. I got 5 yards of
fleece for under $15 on my last trip!
For the rubber mat I purchased an entire shop mat from Lowes and cut a section off, I plan to
make some more of these for gifts in the future. You should be able to find a regular door mat
with holes cheaply enough. If you plan on going the route I went with the shop mat make sure
you have some sturdy scissors to cut the mat with; it’s thick. I used the poultry cutting scissors
from my knife set since I never used them for anything else.
Directions:
You’re going to want to start by cutting up a whole friggin’ bunch of fleece strips. I made mine
about 2″ wide by 9″ long. You can make these all the same color, or a few colors, or all different
colors; it doesn’t really matter. Your dog is going to love this thing whether it is one solid color
or every magical color of the damn rainbow.
I used three different color strips to make
mine, because I happened to have three colors on hand that went nicely together. I didn’t count
these or make sure I had the exact same number of each color, because it really doesn’t matter.
Then, if you’re going to be cutting your mat to size, you can go ahead and do that. Make sure to
cut it neatly, so there are no loose rubber scraps your dog can rip off the edges. This was
probably the most difficult part of the project for me, if your mat is thinner than mine it shouldn’t
be as bad.
Here is what the mat I was working
with looked like after I had cut it to size.
Next you will want to begin lacing your fleece strips through the holes. The ends of the strips
should be on the top side of the mat, sticking out of two consecutive holes. You may find it’s
easier to flip the mat upside down and thread them through from the bottom. It won’t make
much difference now, but once you’ve got fabric through each hole it becomes much easier to
work from the bottom. Start threading on the outermost row of your mat.
Here you see the mat from the top, with the ends of the strip
sticking up through two consecutive holes.
strip will look like from the bottom of the mat.
Here is what your
Next you’ll want to take those two ends that are sticking up on the top of the mat and tie them
together. A single knot will do just fine, but make sure you pull it nice and tight.
Here is the strip tied on the top of the mat.
Now go ahead and thread the strips through all the way down the rest of the row. Each hole
should have two strips through it when you’re finished. When you get the row finished you can
flip it over and tie them all. Go ahead and thread the entire border of your mat like this.
Starting to tie my strips along the first row.
Here’s what the top of my mat looked like when I
had finished with the border.
mat looked like from the bottom once the border was complete.
And here is what the
Next I went through and laced all the horizontal rows the same way we did the border.
About half way through lacing the horizontal
rows.
horizontal rows were complete.
Here is what my mat looked like from the top once the
Next you’re going to get to work on the vertical rows, but now is a good time to take a break and
play with your dog! If your dog is anything like mine, they have been watching you with the
utmost curiosity up to this point. Go give your pup some love and then come on back!
Waiting patiently for mom to finish up whatever
she’s doing.
Ok, break time’s over. Back to work on those vertical rows. It becomes a little more timeconsuming at this point, as the mat is already covered in fleece. It takes a minute to make the
ties; take your time and make sure your moving the fleece out of the way so you can tie the knot
securely right up against the mat.
Beginning to work on the vertical rows.
Here is what the mat looks like on the bottom once all the
horizontal and vertical rows are finished.
Once you’ve finished up all your vertical rows you’re mat is complete! I, however, made too
many strips and ended up with some left over. If you did too, you can go ahead and lace them
diagonally in the mat. I only had a few extra, so I randomly spread the diagonal ties out around
the mat.
Tie your extra strips diagonally, like the purple strip seen
here.
Here is the bottom of my mat once I was
completely finished; you can see the diagonal ties randomly dispersed around the mat.
Here is the top view of my finished snuffle mat.
Now comes the fun part, take a handful of kibble and sprinkle it onto the mat. The first time you
use it just let the kibble sit on top of the fleece; once your dog gets the hang of it (which won’t
take long,) you can ruffle the mat with your hand to bury the kibble farther down in the layers of
fleece and make it more challenging.
Minnie-approved!
Nose deep in the snuffle mat.