You Could Buy a Dog Paw Cleaner. Or Just Use an Old Rag.

The Paw Plunger is enormous.

When we opened the box, Mel and I were actually shocked. It’s not as though the size isn’t written plainly in the product description, but unless you’re holding this thing in your hands, you don’t quite get the full effect.

It is the size of a human head. Mel’s head, to be exact.

If this item’s cranium size seems like too much, you’ve got options. The Paw Plunger actually comes in three sizes—petite, medium, and large—based on your dog’s weight. So it can accommodate paws of most sizes. My dog, Buddy, is 50 pounds, so I chose the medium, per the brand’s guidance. Mel chose the same size for 65-pound Dave.

The company said the petite size can also work for cats. I cannot even imagine a scenario where you would want to attempt that. And I don’t have a cat, so all I can say is good luck to any cat owners who try it.

The Paw Plunger’s cylindrical container comes in three colors: blue, black, and pink. And it has an insert with nylon bristles. The instructions are simple: Fill the container up to the top row of bristles (for the medium size, that comes to about 48 ounces of water), and then snap on the top. Then insert your dog’s paw, moving the container in an up-and-down motion. All three sizes have a large handle, to assist you as you plunge your dog’s paw.

After you’ve cleaned your dog’s paws and patted them dry with a towel, just dump out the dirty water, hand-wash or rinse the container clean, and leave it to dry. (Putting the Paw Plunger in the dishwasher is not recommended.)

I was very surprised at how quickly Buddy resigned himself to his fate. Putting him into a sitting position and then slowly dipping his paw into the Paw Plunger was much easier than I’d expected it to be.

Dave’s reaction was similar to Buddy's. “I did have to bribe him with treats through the process because he was definitely weirded out at first, but he didn’t resist very much,” Mel said. “With hand wiping, he usually tries to walk away before I get to the third or fourth paw. For this, I think he was so confused, he just waited for it to be over.”

It helps that the device works quickly—just a few dips and you’re done.

When I was cleaning Buddy’s feet, I found myself wanting to use the washer in a back-and-forth motion, holding the handle to swish. It worked fine when I used it in an up-and-down and in a side-to-side motion, for both sand and mud.

Although I like that the snap-on lid is intended to prevent spills, it’s pretty leaky. I wouldn’t fill the container until I was ready to use it. And I certainly wouldn’t want to put 6 cups of water in it and then have it spill all over my car, since it’s both larger and leakier than a Stanley (quite a feat!).

But the bigger issue is this thing’s size. Carrying it and storing it felt like a burden. I brought it to the beach to clean Buddy’s paws before we got in the car, and I mistakenly put it in my bag so that I could wash his feet right as we got off the sand. The device was cumbersome to carry around, and it was too big to fit in Buddy’s hiking-supply bag. It doesn’t seem worth it to take up trunk or backseat space when a rag will do.

Mel had a similar reaction. “The Paw Plunger is overkill. Way too big, and it uses a ridiculous amount of water,” they said. “And you can’t see the water level inside, so you have to keep sticking your own damn paw inside to feel where it stops.”

The MudBuster, by contrast, is much smaller. It’s basically a plastic cup with a soft-bristled silicone mat inside and a twist-on ring at the top.

This design leaves the device open, so you wouldn’t want to fill it beforehand. The MudBuster comes in three sizes and colors (blue, gray, and fuschia). For Buddy, I ordered the medium size (Mel also got the medium for Dave), which is about the size of one of those protein shaker bottles.

MudBuster goes by a dog’s paw size, rather than by weight, to help you figure out which is the correct fit among small, medium, and large sizes.

With the MudBuster, you insert the paw and twist back and forth (similar to how you use the Paw Plunger). Again, we tried both directions (up and down and side to side), and it worked fine both ways. Also, with the medium MudBuster, we used about 20 ounces of water, so this device is significantly less water-intensive than the Paw Plunger. The MudBuster was easy to rinse out, and I laid the bristle mat flat on a towel to air-dry it.

Neither dog was resistant to the dip-and-wipe process of the MudBuster.

“The MudBuster is far easier to use than the Paw Plunger, and seemed like it took off just as much filth,” Mel said.

Buddy and Dave both tolerated the paw washers fairly well. The process was a little awkward at first, but with a fairly quick toe dip and wipe, they were on their way. Prepping ahead was key, to ensure room-temperature water was already in the washer; that meant filling the washer from a water bottle when we were on the go.

If we had to choose one plastic paw-cleaning device, it would be the MudBuster—due to its size, portability, and water usage alone. Yet even though it cleans dirty paws a bit faster than a damp rag, we still don’t think it’s better.

Vets agree. “It’s as simple as just a clean dish towel, sometimes with a little warm water, just to wipe them down. And that’s sufficient,” Amy Nichelason, DVM and professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, told Mel in a phone interview.

Any old rag or unscented, water-based wipes will do. But we like the Utopia Towels Kitchen Bar Mops and Seventh Generation Free & Clear Wipes.

Once the MudBuster was set up, it cleaned our dogs’ paws more quickly, and the silicone scrubbing pad made fast work of the muck between their toes. However, this device wasn’t so fast that we think it’s worth the effort of carrying around the container or trying to fill it while keeping a filthy dog from escaping your grip and jumping on the furniture. And you might still have to clean their undercarriage with a rag anyway.

You can’t really see what’s happening to your dog’s paw once it’s inserted into either of these paw washers. So we would caution against using this product if your dog has cracked nails or foot pads. Buddy had a cracked dew claw that became worse after using the devices. We think this is an edge case, and we can’t directly attribute it to either product. But the advantage of using a towel or wipes is that you have the opportunity to visually inspect your dog’s feet for any damage.

If you need to clean your pet’s paws while you’re on the go, you can put a wet rag in a zip-top bag and a dry one in another bag; this is a much more efficient and compact option than either of the dedicated paw cleaners. Although it sometimes takes a few swipes to get the job done with a wet cloth, we think this is a cheaper, low-impact way to clean up those paws.

As for the Frito toes: In our experience, only wet wipes help with that.

This article was edited by Lauren Sullivan and Ben Frumin.