ZippyPaws Burrow Review: The Plush Puzzle Toy Dogs Can’t Stop Digging Into

The Burrow has been a fixture on best-seller lists for years, and the reason isn’t complicated: it takes a dog’s natural instinct to dig and forage and turns it into a tidy, repeatable game. Pull the chipmunks or hedgehogs out of the log, get a squeak and a little rush of success, then (ideally) let your dog help you stuff them back in for round two. That loop is exactly what makes plush puzzle toys such a popular category, and the Burrow is one of the originals that popularized it.

It also helps that the price is low enough to feel disposable. At around $13 to $17, it’s an easy add-on to a Chewy or Amazon order, an easy stocking-stuffer, and an easy toy to replace if it does eventually get torn up. With well over 13,000 ratings and a 4.7-star average, it’s clearly earned repeat purchases across a huge range of dogs and households, not just a one-time viral spike.

In practice, most dogs figure out the game within seconds: nose into the openings, pull, squeak, repeat until every critter is out on the floor. For scent hounds, terriers, and other dogs bred to dig or hunt small prey, this hits a real behavioral itch — it’s a low-effort way to give a dog something to "solve" without needing a walk or a training session. Owners often report using it for rainy days, crate downtime, or as a way to burn off a little mental energy before a dog settles for a nap.

The squeakers inside each critter add a layer of reward that keeps dogs coming back, and the fact that the critters are removable means you can also hide a few in other spots around the room for an easy scent-work variation. The plush shells are machine washable, which matters more than it sounds like it would — between drool, dirt, and the occasional zoomies-through-mud incident, being able to toss the whole set in the wash keeps it from turning into a dingy, smelly toy after a few weeks.

This is a plush toy, not a hard rubber puzzle, and it won’t hold up the same way. It’s a good match for gentle-to-moderate chewers who mostly want to extract the critters and squeak them, but a dog that likes to shred and destroy will get through the fabric quickly. Once the seams or critter fabric start to fail, the small stuffed pieces and squeakers inside become a genuine choking hazard if a dog manages to tear one open and swallow the stuffing or the squeaker itself — this is the toy’s biggest known drawback, and it shows up consistently in owner feedback. The safest approach is to treat it as a supervised toy rather than one you leave out unattended, and to retire any piece that’s starting to fray at the seams.

If you have a small or medium dog that enjoys foraging, digging, or squeaky toys, and you’re comfortable supervising play, the Burrow is an easy, low-cost way to add real enrichment to their routine. It’s inexpensive enough to try without much risk, machine washable enough to stay in rotation, and simple enough that dogs of almost any age pick it up immediately.

If your dog is a determined destroyer who treats every plush toy as a demolition project, this isn’t the toy that will survive that instinct — look instead toward hard rubber puzzle feeders or reinforced chew toys built for heavy destroyers. But for the large middle ground of dogs who just want something fun to dig through, it’s easy to see why this one keeps selling.