My pup is almost 8 months old and was dreading Halloween evening since I had moved into a neighborhood that does trick-r-treating. But surprisingly went really well!
I left his harness on that has a handle at the top so I could easily grab a hold of him if he tried to dash out to meet people (did it twice in the beginning of the evening) but we managed to turn it into a two hour training session to not rush the door, to stay in the designated spot, to not bark excessively, etc.
He was slowly catching on towards the end of the evening and tired him out so much he didn't wake me up at 3:30 for his pee break lol. Felt good we were able to turn it into a positive training moment. Now I just wish I could have people knock on my door every day for a while to keep training
@vivalafleur We put out a table with a bowl of candy so he wouldn't lose his mind every time someone knocked. When I let him out he decided that bowl was definitely there to murder me, like full hackles raised mean growl, interspersed with looking over his shoulder at me to disapprove of my laughter.
@vivalafleur We don't live on a street with sidewalks, so I completely forgot it was Halloween and took my dogs for a walk right as trick-or-treating was starting. Rounded a corner and saw a 6' tall inflatable squid costume. My *very* vocal puppy did not bark, I was so proud. We sat and watched kids running around from a quiet spot for 5 minutes and had a little impromptu training session about how sometimes, one night a year, the streets might be filled with monsters, and that's fine!!
MUCH better than last year, when his first fear period coincided with everyone in our neighborhood putting up tons of Halloween decorations.
@vivalafleur She sat at the window, watching the trick or treaters approach our house. She would then bark and run to the front door for pets. Once pets were acquired, she returned to her post at the window to repeat the entire process over and over. She never even got scared of the costumes!! She slept so soundly last night.
@vivalafleur I put the baby gate up, and he was allowed to look at the trick or treaters but not go up. I was worried someone would have a fear of dogs and dont want to scare a kid or their parents.
We went for a walk after it calmed down, and he did perfect, and the walk back was in heel the whole time focusing on me.
@vivalafleur I was really proud of my 9 month old girl! She sat on her “place” while I gave out candy for a bit. She did enjoy some pets from kids and adults in costumes, but I took her back in so it wasn’t too overstimulating for too long. Proud mama!
@vivalafleur I took out 5 kids (not all mine) and an 18 month old Golden Retriever trick-r-treating.
The dog did pretty good. He only barked once at another dog who's owner wouldn't let them meet. He even had a 2-3 year old kid come up to him in a dino costume and he just stood there peacefully, giving him a lick on the cheek.
At home he has this normal routine of when someone comes to the door he goes to the front window in the adjacent room so he just did that and it was perfectly fine to hand out candy. (I have no idea why he doesn't go to the door)
@beutifultogod They are crazy, one time I opened the door to a VERY surprised Amazon driver, and my dog ran right past him to stand at the fence and bark at his truck......
@vivalafleur It was tipping down here so we didn’t get many. My husband took him out when he took our daughter trick or treating and he did the hind leg hopping all the way round because he kept seeing people and they were making eye contact (must mean they want to pet him ). Thankfully it wasn’t far.
@vivalafleur We took mine (7 months) with us because she matched my daughter's costume and because there's no one to stay home with her. She had an absolute blast but people in the blow up dinosaur costumes are terrifying one house did have treats for her! (Little individual bags of milk bones they were giving out to any puppies they saw lol). So she got to do her own trick or treating. Even though we ended well past her bedtime she did fantastic and laid down when there were groups of people walking by to encourage them to pet her (didn't always work but sometimes it did). At the end of the night we stopped at my parent's house and helped them hand out candy, and she did very good then too sitting and waiting while kids came up and got candy.
). Thankfully it wasn’t far.