De-spooking: Preparing Pets for Halloween
A Companion Animal Care Article from All-Creatures.org
The Fur-Bearers want to help keep your pets home and
safe during Halloween.
Halloween is exciting in Canada: costumes, candy, and fireworks (on the
west coast) can be expected on a fun, spooky night. But if you share your
home with a four-legged companion, spooky can be too much for their
well-being.
The Fur-Bearers want to help keep your pets home and safe during Halloween
and have assembled a few tips you can consider to reduce anxiety, keep pets
from getting out, and make sure that if they do, they get home fast:
- Create a safe, secure place in your home – and get them
comfortable before the big night. Whether it’s a bathroom,
bedroom, or laundry room, try adding a few favourite items (beds, toys,
scratching posts, food bowls, etc.), some soft music and spend some time
in the space with your pet. That way they can be safely ensconced on the
big night without it seeming like a big deal (and creating more
anxiety). This will help particularly if you expect to be opening doors
frequently for trick-or-treaters.
- Invest in baby gates. While they may not be too
helpful in keeping cats in place, baby gates can be set up to create
barriers for dogs. This itself can create anxiety – barrier aggression
is quite common. However, with a few favourite treats and a friend or
neighbour who’s willing to volunteer to knock on your door, positive
reinforcement training can help reduce that anxiety!
- Put up signs on your door. Particularly for
families whose cats run through legs like running backs, putting a sign
up on your door that there’s a pet who may try to escape can help
visitors know to not let them out – and to either wait for you to come
out and close the door behind you, or have the visitors come all the way
in and close the door immediately.
- Talk to a veterinarian about anxiety. If your pet
experiences severe anxiety, please consider a visit to your veterinarian
to discuss solutions such as positive reinforcement exercises or
short-term pharmacological interventions.
- Update licenses and microchip data. Most
municipalities have pet licensing that can help get pets home faster if
they do get out and/or lost. For a nominal fee that also supports
important municipal services, it’s a wise investment. While these
licenses tend to be updated annually, it’s worth checking out to make
sure your current phone number and address are on file, as well as any
medical needs your pet may have. The same can be done with a microchip
(talk to your veterinarian if you’re not sure about this).
Costumes are cute, but reflective collars with tags are cuter. While we
love seeing a pug wearing Yoda ears or a cat with a bowtie as much as
the next animal lovers, safety always comes first. If you’re worried
about clanging of metal tags (which, for pets who have much stronger
hearing than us must be irritating), just wrap the tags with a small
elastic.
Enjoy Halloween, and please keep your family’s safety in mind. Because
Halloween should be a bit spooky, but not scary.
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