happy halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! Please remember that there are LOTS of things about Halloween that are scary for our dogs. Be fair, be realistic and be understanding about anything your dog seems unsure about. Be it walking past Halloween decorations and/or people in costumes or dealing with the amount of extra activity and noise a the front door as trick or treaters come by. One thing I'm going to touch on in more detail right now is dressing your dog up.  This is something that applies to far more scenarios than just Halloween, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to do a video outlining how to take things slow and let your dog set the pace if you choose to put a costume on them. Also I want to note that if your dog is really resistant, ask yourself how necessary it is to dress them up tonight? Is it worth breaking your dog's trust by forcing it on them?  In my video, Taya is already quite comfortable putting on clothing so this wasn't too difficult for her.  Sometimes it can take weeks to properly desensitize a dog to wearing clothes, so if you pet really dislikes it, I recommend opting for a cute collar or bowtie instead for tonight.  See my video below on making sure your pet's costume is comfortable for them and also letting them set the pace with putting it on: 

I will post another video with more detail on desensitizing your dog to having its paws handled soon.  Taya can be a bit hard to read because she will also lick her lips when she is anticipating food, but as a general rule if you aren't sure - give your dog some time!  It may take longer, but it is worth it in the long run.  You can see how quickly Taya comes back to try again because she trusts me :)