DO YOU HAVE A NEW PUPPY OR REACTIVE DOG?

ARE YOU READY FOR HALLOWEEN???

Halloween can be a very triggering event for dogs if you get a lot of trick or treaters where you live! Do you have a plan for how to help your dogs? Here are a few pointers to help get you through the evening depending on what your goals are and who your dog is.

REACTIVE DOG MANAGEMENT:

• Use baby gates or an exercise pen to keep your dogs away from the front door so they don’t have to see the little monsters

• Have a designated door answerer and a dog helper, the dog helper can feed treats and help the dog while the other person interacts with the kids

• You can tuck your reactive dog in another room/crate with a chewy well away from the door, with some white noise/music on during the busy time

• consider putting out a sign that says “please do not knock on the door” and place by a bowl of candy in front of your house for self service so no one needs to approach the front door

• don’t participate, turn off your lights, close the blinds and go watch a scary movie

USE AS A TRAINING OPPORTUNITY:

• Have a “place” ready, have a bucket of candy for handing out, a leash, and a container of dog treats handy so each time someone comes to the door you get the opportunity to work on “place” with someone at the door! This works best if you have two people so you can work on place while they answer the door and hand out candy.

You know your dog best and what their level of anxiety about strangers at the door are. If they are the over excited social types, then Halloween can be training gold for getting a lot of opportunity to work on place behavior with people at the door!!! If your dog is reactive and has stranger danger Halloween can be very triggering and you want to see how you can help them cope best, and usually management keeping them away from the constant door traffic is best especially early on in their training.

This is a time young puppies not yet sure about strangers can get worried, so protect them from that by keeping them safely tucked inside. This is a time excited happy puppies can dash out of open doors while you are distracted, so if keeping them a part of the activity be sure to have them leashed. Be aware children can do very unexpected things when hopped up on candy, like activiely trying to scare your puppy, so keep those pups safe and supervise!

If you are dressing your dog up, be aware of their stress levels, did you get them used to the costume gradually? Did you use cooperative care? Keep in mind being in a costume can be stressful and add to your trigger stacking ladder, so a dog might be more apt to be stressed by other things if they are stressed wearing a costume, so stay aware of what they are telling you with their body language especially if having them around others.