Can you believe that it's almost Halloween?! We bet that you're all looking forward to some dressing up and trick or treating this year. We here in the Education and Community Team love this time of year (so much so that we've decided to celebrate with a Howl-o-ween event! More on that later!), but we know that our dogs might not feel the same. Can you imagine how strange it must be for them, all these new visitors to the door, not to mention all the scary costumes!
So, we asked new boys Odie & Ollie to put together some doggy friendly tips to help us make sure our dogs aren't scaredy cats at Halloween!
Staying in & going out
At this Halloweens thing there’s lots of new peoples walking around, well, they smell like peoples, but sometimes they don’t look like peoples!!! I don’t like to go out when they’re around as it’s a little bit scarey. There’s lots of loud noises (something called fireworks? Sound like explosions to me!) and strange smells too, so Dawn’s going to bring me out for a walk early she says- then I can have lots of time in the nights to chew on my toys! Yay! I have to stay on my lead on our walks just in case I gets a fright and run off, I don’t want Dawn getting lost! I’m also going to make sure that she comes out to the garden with me on my nightly patrol and bathroom break! I feel safer if she’s there with all the strange goings on! Dawn’s also checked my ‘chip to make sure our address is on it especially cos we moved house recently!
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| This is how I plan to spend Halloween! |
My big brother Jake has told me all about Halloween. He says that the small people knock on the door a lot, and that Fiona and Ian have to give them some chocolate and sweets to get them to go away again! I don’t mind people knocking on the door, but I think if there’s as many as Jake says there’ll be, then I would feel better if I stay in the kitchen. That’s where my nice cosy bed is, and it’s far away from the front door. I have lots of toys stashed in here too so I can play with those, and Jake says the grown ups will leave the radio on for us so that we can listen to that and not pay attention to the visitors! Result!
Sweet Stuff
Speaking of chocolates, did you know that this yummy sweet stuffs is actually really bad for us dogs? We could get very ill if we eat any, even though we might forget that and try to eats it all!!! Dawn has some chocolates and sweets in the cupboard ready for the small peoples to call, but I can’t get to them to eat them (they smells sooooooo good though!). I have my own yummy dogs treats anyway, so it’s not so bad.
And and and!!!!! Don’t give us sweets either!!! Jake says they can make us ill too. I might enjoy eating one but I know I wouldn’t enjoy being sick afterward, so keep them away from us doggies, even if we look like we really want one! Don’t forget that us dogs have super smelling powers and even if you hide them under your bed, we can still sniff them out! So put them up high or somewhere we definitely can’t get to them!
Dressing Up?
Us dogs aren’t people you know? So don’t make us wear a dog costume if we don’t want to! Especially if it covers our eyes, nose or ears- if we can’t use these parts of us we get very scared! If you're dressing up, please remember that even though you might smell the same as always- you look different! Do you know how weird that is to us?!
Also, make sure your decorations aren’t tempting us doggies! We do love to pick up exciting things on the floor and give them a good chew to see if they’re tasty, so make sure any decorations are out of our reach! And don’t leave us alone in a room full of decorations- you may come back to a mess, or worse, we could hurt ourselves. So there you have it, our top doggy tips for Halloween! The humans have also put together some tips below, but we think you'll agree ours are the best!
As mentioned earlier- this year the Education and Community Team are holding their very first Howl-o-ween event in Dogs Trust's Rehoming Centre in Fingas! Details below! Booking is essential, and places are filling up fast so CLICK HERE to book your place now!
