The Best Places to Sit, Stay + Play with Your Pooch

Tips for a Safe (not scary) Halloween

While Halloween can be a fun night for humans, it can often be a stressful time for our pets. Ringing doorbells, spooky masks, and strange decorations can mean sensory overload for our four-legged friends. Here are a few tips from Best Friends Animal Society to keep our furry friends safe and stress-free this Halloween.

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Designate a Safe Space. Pets should be kept inside during Halloween, if trick-or-treating is happening in your community. Use caution when answering the door so your cat or dog doesn’t dart outside. If the extra door knocking or doorbell ringing stresses out your pets, put them in a quiet room away from the noise.

Keep it Current. Make sure your pets have current ID tags and that microchip info is up to date, just in case they do escape. (See Sure Petcare’s Animo GPS Collar in our Featured Products below.)

Hide the Loot. Candy is for kids, not dogs and cats. Chocolate can be very toxic to our furry friends. Candy containing xylitol (artificial sweetener) can also be dangerous. Keep any stashes of candy out of pets’ reach. Signs of chocolate toxicity can include vomiting, diarrhea, elevated heart rate and seizures. Also, chocolate is more dangerous for a smaller dog because they don’t have to ingest as much as a larger dog to cause toxicity. Pet owners should also keep treats containing the sugar substitute xylitol away from their pets. Xylitol causes a very low blood sugar that can result in weakness, collapse and seizures.

Keep Decorations Out of Reach. Candles may bring an extra glow to that jack-o-lantern, but make sure they are not in reach of your dogs and cats. Flames can easily find wagging tails and curious noses, or if knocked over, potentially start a fire. Plus, wires and cords that light up your holiday decorations can be deadly if chewed on, so keep them well out of reach of curious kitties and doggos.

Opt For Pet-Friendly Costumes. If you do decide to dress up your pet, make sure the costume is not annoying and is safe for your pet. Costumes should not constrict movement, breathing, or vision. Small dangling pieces can be choking hazards. Ill-fitting costumes can get twisted and caught on external objects and hurt your pet. Costumes that make noises or have noisy components such as bells can be scary, so try to avoid them. And, just like people, not all pets are excited to wear a costume. You know your pet best, so checking to ensure they’re having fun too is a good thing!

Leave Trick Or Treating to the Kiddos, Not the Doggos. Most dogs would prefer not to go trick or treating, or participate in Halloween parades or scavenger hunts. The chaos and costumes and excited kids can be frightening to even the friendliest of dogs and cause them to act differently than normal.

Tricks or Treats. You can make the holiday fun and special for your pets by buying or making them treats or toys that are healthy and safe and just for them! Watch this fun video to see if tricks or treats are more popular with these four-legged ghouls and goblins — then check out the yummy treats below!

Calling all four-legged ghouls and goblins… enter our Howl-O-Ween Photo Contest!

We all want our canine (and feline) companions to live long, happy, healthy lives, so with October being the month of National Pet Wellness, we thought it would be a good time to share some of our favorite health and wellness products in addition to the above safety tips! Woof (and meow)!

Featured Products

Top Shelf Dog is restaurant quality dog food, straight from your pantry. Made with only four simple ingredients, Top Shelf Dog food’s Chicken Dinner is fresh, all-natural dog food that doesn’t require refrigeration and uses no artificial preservatives. Top Shelf is designed to extend the way your dog eats throughout the day; as an enticing dog food topper, a nutritious training treat, or a complete meal. Made especially for senior pups, picky eaters, and dogs who deserve the very best.

CityDog readers can use code “CityDogs” at checkout for a one-time 10% discount on orders of Top Shelf Dog.

Top Shelf Dog has donated over $6,000 of Top Shelf dog food to the Gulf Coast Humane Society (GCHS) in Ft. Myers; more than 1,350 meals to feed displaced animals from Hurricane Ian. If you would like to donate to GCHS, click here.

Barkworthies All-Natural, All-Star Dental Chews are a unique star-shaped collagen chew that helps clean hard-to-reach areas of the mouth. Lasting under five minutes, these chews are made using tasty beef collagen that promotes healthy coats, joint mobility and smooth digestion in one yummy chew. 

Benefits include:

  • Limited, All-Natural Ingredients
  • 100% Digestible and Loaded with Collagen
  • Promotes Dental Health Through Chewing
  • High in Protein
  • Contains No Artificial Preservatives
  • USA Baked, Inspected and Packed

Vital Essentials Freeze-Dried RAW BAR Pig Snouts give your dog an added boost of vitamins, protein, and stimulation, while helping keep teeth strong and healthy. Our furry friends can’t get enough of this between-meal satisfying snack.

Additional VE RAW BAR Snacks include: Duck Heads, Pig Ears, Bully Sticks, Salmon Skins and more.

Sure Petcare Animo GPS CollarSure Petcare Animo® GPS is an activity and behavior monitor for dogs with GPS tracking capabilities. The product can alert pet owners within 20 seconds if their dog leaves its designated “Safe Zone” and offers real-time tracking with location updates from every five seconds when in “Lost Dog Mode.” In addition to its location tracking capabilities, Animo GPS utilizes smart technology to track a dog’s unique activity levels and behavior within a user-friendly mobile app. The device captures data on sleep quality, barking, scratching, and shaking. It uses an adaptive algorithm to interpret this information and can send an alert through the app if there are any significant changes in these behaviors. This data is important because tracking behaviors and trends over time may indicate potential health concerns and could provide topics for pet owners to discuss with a veterinary professional.

Prestagon PetsPrestagon’s Snap & Stack Pet Steps help your furry friend reach new heights around the home with ease and style. Featuring three height configurations, Pet Steps are fully customizable to the needs and abilities of pets of all ages. Setup and stowing are a breeze with no tools required as magnets seamlessly align & attach each step. The steps boast a modern, synthetic wood grain finish and can also double as storage bins for favorite toys.

CityDog participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commission on editorially chosen products. We also receive compensation from our brand partners. Rest-assured, we never recommend or promote anything we wouldn’t use or enjoy ourselves.

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about the author

Brandie Ahlgren is founder and editor of CityDog Magazine. She, and her team of dog-loving editors, dig up the best places for you to sit, stay and play with your four-legged friends. Brandie, 12-year-old boxer Thya and Mexican foster failure Pancho, reside in West Seattle and can often be found hanging out at Westcrest Dog Park.

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