With Halloween fast approaching, we all want to make sure the kids have fun, and the animals stay safe! With Halloween comes a lot of different hazards for our pets, here are some tips and tricks to keep them safe on this spooky night.
With trick-or-treating comes constant knocking, doorbell ringing, etc. To avoid this, you can always camp out on your step with the goodies, so the kids don’t have to come to the door. If this isn’t an option, you can tether your dog to you for the night with a waist leash, or a normal flat leash. By keeping your dog attached to you, you can control their reaction to the doorbell/knocking and also avoid them rushing to the door and potentially scaring the trick-or-treaters.
If your dog is particularly sensitive to knocking and new people coming to the door, you can always have someone else handle the trick-or-treaters and create a safe space for your dog. Get lots of blankets and snuggle up for a good movie or some music, with the volume turned up a little too loud. Have lots of treats readily available and every time your dog reacts to the doorbell or someone knocking, just give them lots of treats and keep them in the room with you. Dogs can be startled by the masks and costumes of trick-or-treaters and can react to them, or run from them. We want to make sure everyone stays safe, ghost and greyhound alike.
With Halloween, comes another huge threat to our dogs; chocolate. While it may be every trick-or-treater’s dream to get that full-size chocolate bar, it is our nightmare when the dog eats it. Make sure you are keeping your candy out of your dogs reach, and when going through the kid’s candy at the end of the night, you bag it up and put it away. As we all know chocolate can be very dangerous to dogs, and in some instances, life-threatening. If your dog ingests any chocolate or candy on Halloween night, is it very important to call your veterinarian clinic or if it is after hours, to call the Metro Animal Emergency Clinic at 902-468-0674.
Written by Miranda
