Halloween: Such a Fright!

As humans, we like Halloween to be a little scary, right?  Well, Halloween can be downright frightening for our pets!  Halloween is a very long day for our animals.  Before the sun even sets, the littlest of the ghouls and goblins are knocking at our doors, gleefully yelling trick or treat!  Let’s look at the many hazards that this holiday presents our dogs and cats.

Let’s start with the decorations.  We put out decorations that growl and groan and screech. They flash and shake and drop from above. They randomly flap and crawl and zombie walk for maximum “fright” effect.  Then to top off our decor, we carve aromatic gourds into Jack-O-Lanterns and light them with hazardous candles.  How is a cat supposed to resist that enticing flicker?  So, it is extra important to make certain they are out of reach of curious paws or better yet, use a battery powered ‘candle’ for extra safety.

The main component of Halloween is the costumes and I suspect there is nothing more frightening for our pets.  We cover our faces with hideous masks or makeup which distort our features and then put on baggy, flapping costumes.  How terrifying to our animals when their beloved owners look and possibly even sound and smell differently than normal?  Please consider allowing your pet to watch your transformation and give them enough time to adjust to your changing appearance.  This can alleviate some of the fear that they may be experiencing.  Or maybe even consider getting into costume elsewhere to completely alleviate the problem.

And last, but definitely not least, we have the tradition of welcoming perfect strangers to knock on doors and yell, “Trick or Treat” at the top of their lungs when we answer.  Our dogs are conditioned to protect us and guard their domain, yet we welcome these intruders and reward them.  This has to be confusing and scary to our pets.  And each time we open the door, we also run the risk of our pets escaping out into the night full of ghouls and goblins and other little monsters.  Imagine if you will what it would be like to be lost out on such a night.  Lots of strangers running from house to house, flapping and yelling would be extremely frightening.  Trying to hide in bushes filled with electronic demons jumping out to scare the gleeful trick-or-treaters, would be unnerving for a pet to say the least.

Prepare for emergencies by making certain that your pets are wearing updated identification tags with multiple contact numbers.  And make certain that you have recent photos of you and your pets to serve as proof of ownership in case they become lost.  But the best option for all of our pets is to set up a calm secure location in the house where you can turn on some soothing music or the television and they can rest quietly and securely away from all of the commotion at the front door.

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