Halloween is a fun night for you and your family, but if you care anything about your pet’s safety and well being, leave them home in a safe and controlled environment on Halloween night.
If you really stop to think about all the activities that go along with Halloween…..the decorations, spooky haunted houses, glowing candles, scary costumes, loud noises and tons of candy, none of these things are anything that benefit your pet’s health or safety in any way.
Much like the 4th of July, Halloween is another one of those holidays where you should enjoy all the fun festivities with your family and friends, but leave the family pets out of your party or trick or treating plans.
The best thing you can do for your pets on Halloween to keep them safe and calm, is to comfortably and safely, locate them in a separate and quiet room, with soft music or the television playing in the background and plenty of pet toys to keep them entertained. Creating a safe and controlled environment for your pets on Halloween night, will mask out the sounds of the constantly ringing doorbell, or any other loud or disturbing noises that might come up unexpectedly from Halloween celebrations.
Here’s a quick checklist of tips to keep in mind for your Pets on Halloween Night:
- Leave your pets home, in a safe and quiet environment, when you leave to go trick or treating or while you are busy answering the door for trick or treaters.
- If you absolutely feel you must dress your pet up in a costume, do it only for a very brief family photo opportunity and never leave pets unsupervised in any costume, since they could chew or ingest pieces of the costume off, if left unattended.
- Halloween Decorations can be hazardous to pets if chewed or ingested. Always put candles and lights and decorations out of reach of your pets, so they won’t accidentally injure themselves with them.
- Candy is a big part of Halloween, but chocolate and artificial sweetners like Xylitol, can pose serious health problems for pets. If you suspect your pet has ingested anything that might be harmful, consult your veterinarian immediately for advice.
- Halloween Costumes might be fun for people, but if you have a nervous pet who is easily upset by change, they could get spooked and run away or dart out unexpectedly into traffic if they are frightened when being confronted with too many scary costumes.
- As always, make sure your pet has proper identification tags on and Halloween provides a perfect opportunity to check their identification tag information to make sure that everything is current on them.
So with just a little planning and thought, you can easily insure that Halloween is a safe and fun night, not just for you and your family, but for your family pets too.
