Prepare Your Pet for Halloween Stress

By Karin Krisher

Pets might love sugary treats, but it’s likely they don’t love Halloween. Pet Naturals strongly suggests you read on to learn how to prepare your pets for Halloween stress.

Chances are, if you’ve chosen to take your pup trick-or-treating with you, you already know how she or he will behave. (If you don’t, we suggest thinking it over. Measure your dogs’ excitability and comfortability carefully; the last thing you want is a barking pooch screaming at every (already scared) child you pass.)

Preparing Pets For The Holidays:

So, what can you do to get your dog or cat ready if you are simply expecting to wait for trick-or-treaters at home? Obviously, you’ll need to keep their wellness (and yours) on your radar constantly.

If your dog is social and known to be friendly to children, let him roam freely, but make sure you have some Calming Chews on hand in case the children are more scared of him than he is of them—and that in turn gets him excited. You can also put a gate up that segments your front entrance so that he or she can see the action but not be too involved.

If your cat is social and friendly, you can make the call to let it roam, as well. However, you never fully know how a pet will react to a given source of environmental stress, so again, keep Calming Chews on hand.

If the opposite is true, and your dog or cat is a little perturbed by the presence of hundreds of tiny monsters and vampires, consider a separate room for the evening, or talk to a friend who isn’t expecting any trick-or-treating guests to see if your pet can stay the night.

Finally, (and this tip is obvious, but we need to remind everyone, anyway) keep your candy far far far out of reach. There is no reason your dog or cat should get a hold of that chocolate-filled bowl. Even if you simply set it down for a second to answer the door, be sure it’s on a high surface—or just hang onto it tightly. Sick pets on Halloween? No thank you!

Do you have a good tip to prepare your pet for Halloween? Or any other holiday/stressful situation? Share it with us in a comment and you could win a free bag of Calming Chews to support your efforts!