3 Skills to Prepare Your Dog for Halloween

Halloween can be fun or spooky…and if your dog is easily spooked, or this is your first Halloween together and you’re not sure how it’ll go, here are some tips to help you prepare.

First, you’ll have to realize that unless your dog is a superrrrr fast learner, you’re mostly going to be managing behavior, not teaching for perfect behavior. But the skills your dog needs to survive Halloween are not unique, as they are also life skills, so be sure to keep working on these skills as the year goes on! It’ll make a difference when the next year comes around for sure.

So what are these skills?  

• Click for looking

• Leave it

• Go to your mat/bed

Here’s why these skills are an absolute must!

1) Click for looking

Using a clicker, you’re going to capture your dog’s calm behavior when he/she looks at someone or something that makes him/her nervous. This is going to come in handy for weird decorations or people running around in costumes.  

When your dog looks at the thing/person that’s making him/her anxious, click, then deliver a yummy treat. Make this a nice fluid movement, because you want to reward calm behavior and not let it rise up into anxiety.  You’re saying, “hey, I like how calm you’re being and that thing over there, it’s okay not to worry about it.” The treat pairs that strange thing with something positive, so over time it’s not so scary anymore.  

Keep your distance though, because the closer the spooky person/thing, the harder it is to stay calm. Set your pup up for success - if you can keep walking past the person/thing, great! Movement is your friend - just take a wide path. If your dog is frozen in place, keep doing the click for looking exercise until that person has gone by. It’s okay to ask the person to give you space if needed - you are your dog’s advocate! If it’s an object your dog is stopped in his/her tracks over, do a few clicks for looking and then turn around and go a different way.

This skill can be applied to everyday walks too! For anxious, over-excited, or reactive dogs, you can use this technique to teach calm behavior in not-so-calm situations. 

2) Leave it

Children are messy, and it’s likely that you’ll come across a candy bar or wrapper at some point in time along your walk. It’s best that your dog doesn’t eat this. Chocolate is toxic to dogs, as is xylitol, a sugar substitute. If your dog is prone to eating things he/she shouldn’t, it’s time to teach this skill. 

Start with a delicious treat in your closed fist. Let your dog sniff at it and try to get it out. When your dog pulls back and leaves it alone, click, and give a different treat. Don’t use any words yet, right now you want to capture that “leave it” behavior. Once your dog can automatically leave the treat in your closed fist alone, gradually repeat this with your hand partially open. Work up to the treat laying on an open palm. Then gradually repeat this with your hand closer and closer to the ground. Eventually, do this with the food on the floor.  Practice it indoors and outdoors. When the skill is solid, add in the cue “leave it” right before you click, to give the behavior a name.

Be sure to give your dog a reward treat every time, and not give the treat that’s in your hand or on the ground. You’re teaching your dog to leave this temptation alone, not to wait to have it.

This skill is important for lots of different everyday situations, beyond candy on the ground. Keeping out of deer poop, rolling in something gross, trying to eat a pill on the kitchen floor, thinking about stealing your breakfast, wanting to chase that squirrel, etc. How strong is your dog’s “leave it?”

3) Go to your mat/bed

“Ding dong!” “Knock knock”. “Dum dum dum.” Someone at your door sounds pretty different nowadays depending on what system you’ve got going on. Regardless if you have your door open with the screen door shut or everything closed and you’re relying on doorbells on Halloween, your dog knows when someone is approaching. How does your dog currently react?  Barking, running towards and bombarding the door? Not exactly welcoming to a child. Instead, teach your dog to go to his/her mat or bed that you place by the door.  

It’s a normal reaction for a dog to alert you to someone coming to your door - in fact you probably welcome this! But it’s also important for everyone to stay safe. You don’t want your dog to run out, and you also don’t want to scare the children away. Once your dog has alerted you to a person’s whereabouts, have your pup go lay on his/her mat or bed. There are 2 ways to go about this…

The quick option is to have a basket of treat dispensing toys next to the door. Pre-filled snufflemats, snuffle toys, slow feeders, lickimats, etc. Before you open the door, give your dog one of these treat toys on his/her mat or bed. So your dog gets a treat, and the trick-or-treaters get a treat.  Once you close the door, trade your dog a different treat for the treat dispensing toy back, and carry on with your night.

The long term option is to actually teach “go to your mat/bed.”  You can do this by capturing the behavior. Standing by your dog’s mat/bed, wait for your dog to step onto the mat/bed, click and give a treat. Toss a treat away to have your dog chase it and step off the mat/bed. Then wait for your dog to come back to the mat/bed and repeat. Once that’s solid, start waiting for a sit on the mat/bed. Reward that a bit, and then start to expect a down. After your dog is coming to the mat/bed and laying down on his/her own, give your dog a treat dispensing toy on the mat/bed, teaching your pup that this is the place to relax. And of course, when the behavior has become solid, add in the cue “go to your mat/bed” before you click to assign the behavior a verbal direction.

Soooo what will you work on first?

Although all these skills are important, work on what you need the most, first. Dogs need lots of repetition, positive reinforcement, praise, and practice. It’s much easier to learn one skill at a time, rather than to learn a bunch of different ones at once, which will take longer.  

Remember you can try to minimize seeing people in costumes by timing your walk at the least crowded times.  If you have a backyard, maybe you don’t walk at all on Halloween night.

If your dog is very mouthy on a walk, bring a toy for your dog to carry instead, walk during daylight so you can see the sidewalk clearly, and be hyper vigilant so you can take a detour from temptations on the ground if needed.

And if you want to avoid the craziness of the trick-or-treaters at your door, leave a bucket outside or hang a sign to opt out of Halloween altogether…no judgment here!  

There are certainly ways to manage getting through Halloween, but there’s never a replacement for good training, which will set you and your pup up for not only future Halloweens, but life in general.

One more thing though - tire out your pup! A busy dog is a good dog, and if your pup has had sufficient mental and physical exercise, he/she is much more likely to engage in positive behaviors on a day when you anticipate chaos. (Organized chaos is better, don’t you agree?)

On Halloween (10/31/23) come join the DRC Halloween Paw-ty from 4:30-5:30 at Lake Needwood in Rockville, MD!

It’s a low-key gathering, with trick-or-treating for your dog, doggie cookie decorating, and other Halloween games. There’s plenty of space for anxious dogs, trails all around for a good hike, and you’ll have a nice time connecting with other dog moms and dads.

Don’t forget to buckle up your pup in a certified seatbelt on your way there! And if you need a certified seatbelt, hang around and get your dog fitted after the event. You can even borrow one for the ride home!

Click here to RSVP by Sunday October 29, 2023.  

The first 5 people to RSVP get a clicker for happy training :-)

See you there, and Happy Halloween!