Safety Tips for your Pets this Halloween
It’s Halloween season! Pumpkin carving, teensy chocolate bars, and scary costumes galore. If you’ve not chosen your scary costume yet, we have a suggestion for you: unexpected vet bill! Cue the screams. We have compiled a list of safety tips to keep unexpected vet bills from knocking at your front door this upcoming Halloweekend.
To some, Halloween means one thing only: CANDY! Whether you’re handing it out, collecting it door-to-door, or simply enjoying that 100-pack to yourself (hey, we don’t judge), there are health risks for your pets should they indulge in the same delicacies. It should come as no surprise that our number one safety tip is:
Keep all candy and chocolates well secured and away from your pets.
Rather than an open bowl on the counter for grazing, consider placing your goodies in a lidded container in a cabinet. Be mindful of your pet's ability to countersurf or open drawers/cabinets. When it comes to toxic substances, most harmful for our pets is chocolate and xylitol. Should your pets ingest either of these substances, we recommend immediately getting into contact with your veterinarian, or the Pet Poison Helpline.
If your family partakes in the tradition of handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, it is crucial to prevent your pets from door-dashing… and we don’t mean delivery service side hustles. An open door is tempting to even the best behaved pets. Manners slip when constant knocking, loud crowds, and crinkly packages of food are involved. But the danger lies not only with your pet fleeing your home, but also in what awaits them on the other side. Your pet door-dashing on any average day is very different from Halloween night. Loud Halloween decorations, children running and exclaiming, and crowds of people in costumes and masks can have your pets running in excitement or fear depending on their temperament – and neither make it easy to get them back home. This brings us to our second tip:
If you’re home for trick-or-treaters, keep your pets contained.
Containment can look like many things: in a room with the door shut, behind an x-pen or baby gate, in a crate, or greeting trick-or-treaters while on a leash (we especially recommend a hands-free leash for this!). You will be able to enjoy your night much better when you know your pet is safe and secured.
For our dog owners, a festive Halloween walk can be the highlight of the night, especially if your pooch has a costume to show off. Like we mentioned, however, the festivities can be overwhelming, and your neighbourhood will look a lot different than what your pet is used to. Whether out of fear or excitement, strong physical reactions can quickly show us where our walking gear is lacking. This leads us to our next three tips:
If you’re out walking your dogs, make sure their gear is fitted properly, and consider having multiple attachment points.
If you know your dog is nervous or sound sensitive, be sure to keep enough distance so that they feel safe, and advocate for their space.
Anticipate abnormal reactions to people in costumes. Monitor your dog's body language and feelings about interacting with them, and politely decline if it’s too distressing.
What do we mean by multiple attachment points? Having multiple areas where your pet is attached to you via their gear, so that should one fail, you have a back up. A costume layered on top of a harness is especially at risk of snagging the leash’s clasp, and unclipping them entirely! A popular way to accomplish multiple attachment points is by attaching one leash to their collar, and a separate one to their harness – should their collar pop off, you still have them by their harness. There are also double-headed clips that are extremely versatile for this purpose.
Be extra cautious of discarded candy or garbage on the streets and sidewalks.
Increased foot traffic and candy consumption will naturally lead to more garbage laying around. Discarded pieces of costumes, candy wrappers, silly string, smashed pumpkins, and much more will line the sidewalks. If your pooch is muzzle trained for eating random objects on walks, you might especially want to consider muzzling up for your Halloween walk!
Our last tip for all you Halloween lovers is as follows:
There is no shame in leaving your pets at home, or turning off your porch lights and having a quiet night in if the craziness of Halloween will cause undue stress for your animals.
Simply put, not every animal is equipped to enjoy the holiday as much as we do… and that's okay! Doing what is best and most safe for our pets does not always mean including them in the festivities. Many pets are more comfortable being left home while the family trick-or-treats, or enjoy spending time snuggled up watching scary movies.
Whatever your Halloween looks like this year, we hope you enjoy it and stay safe. Happy Halloween!
