Well, here we are…Halloween. The time when little ghosts and goblins come knocking at the door asking for treats. As dogs, we wish that would work for us too, we should have our own Halloween. Thing is we can actually do a trick for our treat!
I do want to give you a few tips on how your Halloween celebrations can make life a whole lot easier on us dogs. So, here goes…Ahem
1) Keep us safe! During the time when the little kiddies are coming to the door, ringing the bell, making a bunch of noise and being kids, keep us locked away from the activities. You never know when we’ll get spooked and start barking, scare one of the little munchkins or worse, make a run for it because we are scared. Put us in another room with a nice (veterinarian approved) bone to chew on and we’ll be happy as a kid on Halloween (hahaha).
2) Don’t leave us out in the yard! I cannot tell you how many dogs get lost every year because we are outside in the yard and get spooked by fireworks. We panic and try to run, we’ll scale a fence or dig under it just to get away. Again, leave us in the house! Please!
3) Don’t take us trick or treating with the kids. We don’t want to go. Too much noise, everybody looks weird, smells weird and acts weird. We don’t like it. Leave us at home. Please!
4) Don’t feed us Halloween candy. Besides the obvious of it not being good for us, our metabolism is much different than a humans. It takes us longer to digest stuff and candy will give us a big, bad belly ache. Also, chocolate is very toxic to pets & will make us very ill (nobody wants that).
5) Now, the most important part…don’t forget about us! When you pick up your Halloween treats for the kids, grab some dog treats too. When the kiddies get their candy, ask them if they have a dog. If they do, throw in a dog treat for their buddy at home. We love that!
I also have to tell you, if you have a dog that is scared of fireworks don’t pet them & try to reassure them. All the petting and soothing tones seem like praise to us and will actually give us the message that our fearful reaction is the correct way to react to the noise we hear. As hard as it may be, just ignore it, or laugh and tell us we are silly. Play ball with us and just be happy. However, if we want to go hide someplace quiet, let us do that instead.
I hope you all have a safe & Happy Halloween. Yip, yip! ~ Muppet