Tips for keeping your pets safe and reducing their stress at Hallowe’en.
Have you ever come home wearing a new hat or sunglasses and had your dog react strangely to you until he realized who you were? Dogs are very sensitive and perceptive to changes in their environment and, just like humans, dogs react to changes in different ways. Some easy-going dogs might actually enjoy hallowe’en and the excitement of people coming and going, but please know that they are in the very small minority.
Many dogs will be quite afraid of the costumes and will be quite riled up by repeated knocks at the door or the ringing of the doorbell. If your dog is in that majority, or if you're at all unsure, I recommend setting up a quiet room for him where he can relax.
Here is the plan we follow:
- During the day when it’s still light outside, we take the dogs for a nice long walk. We enjoy the Fall colours and allow the dogs to sniff and explore, to get as much exercise and enrichment as possible before dusk.
- We delay the dogs’ dinners until the Trick-or-Treaters start to come out and then we provide our dogs their dinners in stuffed Kongs. For more about stuffing Kongs please visit our Thunder Phobia blog post and for other ideas for keeping your dog(s) entertained, please visit our Boredom Busters blog post.
- Our dogs are kennel trained, so they go into their kennels (as far as possible from the front door) once the costumed children start arriving. If your dog is not content in a kennel you can use an X-Pen or a quiet room with the door closed. We put on some calming music or talk radio to help drown out the sounds.
- One of us is on “door duty”. We keep the front door within our view, so we can see the kids coming before they ring the doorbell, and show up with their candy before they’ve had a chance to knock.
If you have kids who will be dressing up, or if you like to dress up yourself, I highly recommend allowing your dog to get used to the costumes well in advance. Put on different pieces of the costume (start with the bottom and work your way up so your dog can still see it’s you) and give your dog treats or play with him for a little while, then take it off again. Later add another piece of the costume and do the same, and so on, until your dog has seen you in the full costume. If you’re wearing a mask or something that covers your face let your dog watch you put it on so he sees the change in front of him, then give him his very favourite treat then remove the mask quickly.
For cats, consider a safe room as well. If you are opening your door repeatedly it is possible your cat could sneak out, then get spooked with all the costumes, and it could be difficult to get her back home. This could be very traumatic for your kitty and for your family!
Hallowe’en only comes once a year, so if you don’t need your pets to get used to the costumes, the bright lights, the sounds, the scary music, the kids screaming, and so on, consider giving them a safe space and letting him skip this strange human custom altogether.
For more tips and information on Halloween with pets, please visit Family Paws’ blog post on the topic at https://www.familypaws.com/halloween-and-hounds/
Happy Hallowe’en!
