The holiday season is an excellent time of the year. But while it opens up a ton of opportunities to dress up, go out, and eat some great food, it also presents some unique challenges for you to keep your pet safe.
Halloween is full of fun events and potential dangers for your dog. We came up with this guide to highlight some of the most important Halloween safety tips you should follow if you have a dog. That way, you can enjoy the season without overly worrying about your pup!
The 8 Halloween Safety Tips for Dogs
1. Keep Candy and Wrappers Away
| Ease of Completion: | Moderate |
| Cost: | Free |
| Importance: | High |
While candy might taste great, it’s full of ingredients your pup can’t have. Not only do they need to avoid all the different candy options out there, but with candy wrappers laying around you need to be careful about them too.
The wrappers present a choking hazard and are not good for your dog. Keeping candy and wrappers away from your dog inside your home can be easy but keeping them away from dropped candy and wrappers on your next walk can be a bit more challenging.
2. Never Leave a Dressed-Up Pet Alone
| Ease of Completion: | Easy |
| Cost: | Free |
| Importance: | High |
While your pet might look cute in their costume, they can get caught up on them. Not only that, but if your pet starts chewing on their costume it can quickly become a choking hazard.
There’s nothing wrong with dressing up your pet, but make sure you supervise them when they’re in their costume. Whenever you have to, step away or leave the house go ahead and take them out of the outfit so they can stay happy and safe.
3. Give Them a Quiet Place
| Ease of Completion: | Moderate |
| Cost: | Free |
| Importance: | Moderate |
If your dog doesn’t do well with lots of noise and movement, give them a place where they can get away from everything. This is especially true during trick-or-treating times, as all the new people can really rile up your dog.
Finally, since everyone tends to dress up on Halloween, it can stir up your dog even more since no one looks the same.
4. Be Careful with Decorations
| Ease of Completion: | Easy |
| Cost: | Free |
| Importance: | Moderate |
From Jack-o-lanterns to Halloween lights, there are a ton of potential decorations you can put up. But with a dog, you need to be a little bit more careful. Dogs love to chew on different things, so keep this in mind when you’re putting up your Halloween décor.
Don’t put things up that will entice your pup into chewing on it, and don’t put anything out that will seriously hurt your dog if they do decide to chew a bit.
5. Keep Glow Sticks Away
| Ease of Completion: | Easy |
| Cost: | Free |
| Importance: | High |
Glow sticks and bracelets are a great way to add a little more visibility to children who are trick-or-treating. But while they do a great job of making them visible, they look just like a toy to a dog.
The problem is that the fluorescent material inside these glow sticks or bracelets can be toxic if your dog ingests them. Do yourself and your dog a favor and keep them away from the glowsticks.
6. Keep the Door Shut
| Ease of Completion: | Easy |
| Cost: | Free |
| Importance: | High |
When it’s trick-or-treating time, it’s easy to just leave the door open while you hand out candy. But with dogs, this creates an easy opening for them to slip outside when no one is looking. Either shut the door between trick-or-treaters or step outside and shut the door behind you.
It might be a little more work, but it’ll keep your dog from slipping out and it’ll keep any trick-or-treaters from accidentally scaring your dog.
7. Use an ID Tag and Microchip
| Ease of Completion: | Easy |
| Cost: | Low |
| Importance: | High |
This is great advice for every day, and it’s great advice for Halloween too. If your dog does happen to slip away through an open door or because a costume freaked them out, an ID tag and a microchip help whoever finds them to get them back home.
Neither ID tags nor microchips cost much, and it makes a big difference if your dog does get out. Get an ID tag and put it on your dog sooner rather than later.
8. Get a Properly Fitting Costume
| Ease of Completion: | Moderate |
| Cost: | Moderate |
| Importance: | High |
Your dog looks super cute when you put them in a Halloween costume, but if their costume fits them a little tighter than it did last year or if you’re looking to get a costume they can grow into, think twice about putting them in it. A costume that fits them right is far less likely for them to get caught up in, and it looks better too!
Conclusion
Dogs and Halloween don’t always go hand-in-hand, but now that you know how to keep them safe during the holiday, you can enjoy the day without worrying about your dog. Just don’t take their safety for granted because all it takes is one mistake for something to happen.
If you follow the tips we’ve highlighted here, you shouldn’t have any problems keeping your dog safe on Halloween!
Featured Image Credit: otsphoto, Shutterstock
The 8 Halloween Safety Tips for Dogs
