10/29/2024
Here are a couple of good tips for Halloween.
Are you ready for Halloween? Is your DOG ready for Halloween? It can be a spooky time for fearful and reactive dogs. Take a little time now, to prepare your dog, and it won't be so scary when Halloween rolls around.
And if you have a fearful or reactive dog, you might want to enroll in our Reactive Dog Toolkit, currently on sale for 75% off: dunbar.info/oct2024reactivity
If your dogs is easily overwhelmed Halloween is probably too much for them to participate in and the best thing to do is to manage your dog’s experience so it’s not an upsetting night. If you do a little preparation, this can be quite easy to do:
START PRACTICING CRATE TRAINING NOW
Start by getting your dog to enjoy spending time in their crate. You can make your dog’s crate into a safe space where they feel totally comfortable and at ease, and where they like to settle down and relax. If you don’t have a crate, you can have them settle on their bed instead, but it really is useful to have a dog that enjoys settling down in a crate, so you might want to consider getting a crate and starting this process.
Set aside your dog’s daily allotment of food and use it to teach your dog to go into their crate, and lie down there. Lure your dog into the crate, lure them into a Down, and then periodically praise them and reward them with food for lying down in their crate. Pretty soon they’ll love lying down in their crate as they get lovingly praised and hand-fed by you!
At first, you don’t even need to close the door. Leave the crate door open so they can leave any time, but only feed them and praise them when they’re in their crate. If they’re not interested in food right now, try again later.
Once they’re happily going into their crate and lying down for good stretches of time, you can start closing the door. Do so for just a second or two at first, and reward them with food and praise when you do. Gradually build up the amount of time that you confine your dog in their crate. If you get your dog tired out before hand, and they use the potty before going in, your dog should be happy to spend a few hours confined in their crate.
Anytime you are going to confine your dog in their crate for more than a minute or two, we suggest you…
PUT FOOD-FILLED HOLLOW CHEW TOYS IN THEIR CRATE
Fill a hollow chew toy, like a Kong or a Snoop with their regular food, plus one or two extra tasty treats and leave it in their crate. Now, if they’re not quite ready for a nap, they have a fun project to work on. They can play with their chew toy and as they do, food will fall out, which will reward them for playing with their toy and for being in their crate.
Once your dog is an expert at extracting food from their hollow chew toys, you can increase the difficulty in a couple of ways. First, you can put wet or moistened food in their chew toy, which will make it so the food doesn’t fall out so easily. If you feed them a dry food, you can soak the food in warm water for a few minutes before stuffing the toy. Second, you can stuff the chew toy with wet or moistened food and then freeze it. Now it will take much longer to get all the food out.
For most of the food you can use your dog’s regular food but it can be fun to add in a few extra tasty, extra smelly treats, to make it even more attractive and interesting. A frozen “Kongsicle” with a few tasty treats hidden inside can keep a dog occupied for hours.
DEFUSE THE DOORBELL
Now that your dog is happy to settle down in their crate for a couple of hours with a food-filled chew toy, it’s time to desensitize them to the sound of the doorbell, or whatever exciting sounds you might expect on Halloween.
Settle your dog down in their crate and then enlist the help of someone to ring your doorbell or stomp up and down your front steps, or play spooky sound effects repeatedly, while you sit next to your dog and reassure them. Ask your dog to Down and Shush.
Try using a food lure to lure them to Down and Shush. Luring a dog to Shush with a food lure is super simple: Just put the food in front of their nose. If they want to sniff, they have to stop barking, at which point, praise and reward with the food. As you get the hang of this, increase the amount of time you ask your dog to be quiet before your give them food. Count out the seconds: “Good dog 1, Good dog 2, Good dog 3, Take it!”
Luring a dog to Down in their crate is similar to luring them to lie down outside, you simply hold the piece of food near the bottom of the crate and wait until they lie down, then praise and reward them.
The first time the doorbell rings, it may be very hard to get your dog to Down or Shush, but stick with it and you’ll get it eventually. Once you’ve got your dog Down and Quiet, have your accomplice ring the doorbell AGAIN. Again, get your dog Down and Quiet. REPEAT until it’s easy for you to quickly get your dog to lie down and be quiet. It might take 10 reps, it might take 20, it might take more. The more you practice, the easier it will get. With each repetition, the doorbell becomes less exciting.
WHAT TO DO ON HALLOWEEN NIGHT ITSELF
When it comes to Halloween itself, you should start by getting your dog real tired out. Make sure they get lots of opportunities during the day to play and sniff, and a big long training session so their brain is totally exhausted and ready to sleep.
Set your dog’s crate up in the quietest room in your home and consider putting a blanket over your dog’s crate to further muffle the noise. You might even want to put on some white noise. You can find white noise on YouTube, you can download an app, or you can plug in a fan. The less your dog hears the sounds of Halloween, the less likely they are to react.
Prepare a couple of food-filled chew toys with a few extra tasty treats to make them extra attractive, including one that will take them a while to empty completely and then put your dog in their crate with their chew toys and tell them to Settle Down.
If you can stay in the room with them and help them remain calm throughout the night, that’s great, but depending on how effectively you’ve prepared, you might be able to entertain Trick or Treaters or other guests.
And if you want to learn more about resolving your dog's fear or reactivity problems, enroll in our Reactive Dog Toolkit, currently on sale for 75% off: dunbar.info/oct2024reactivity
