Halloween is one of the more difficult nights of the year for pets, and the reasons are not obvious until you think about it from the animal's point of view: repeated doorbell rings, a stream of strangers, unfamiliar silhouettes, and a large bowl of poisonous food left at nose height.
Most of it is easily managed.
What is actually toxic
Chocolate. Theobromine is toxic to dogs and cats. Dark chocolate is considerably worse than milk. This is the most common Halloween emergency by a wide margin.
Xylitol (also labelled birch sugar or E967). Found in sugar-free sweets and gum, and highly toxic to dogs even in tiny amounts — it causes a rapid drop in blood sugar and can cause liver failure. Arguably more dangerous than chocolate because the quantities involved are so small.
Raisins, sultanas and grapes. Toxic to dogs, and the mechanism is still not fully understood, which means there is no known safe amount. Relevant here because they turn up in soul cakes and a good deal of Halloween baking.
Sweet wrappers. Not toxic, but a real obstruction risk — dogs frequently swallow foil and plastic along with whatever is inside.
Candles inside pumpkins. Cats knock things over. Use LED tealights, which are better for the pumpkin as well.
Keep the trick-or-treat bowl above nose height, and brief children that nothing from the bucket goes to the dog.
If you suspect your pet has eaten something toxic, ring your vet or an out-of-hours service immediately — do not wait for symptoms.
The doorbell problem
Forty rings in two hours is a long evening for a dog that reacts to one.
- Set up a safe room at the back of the house, away from the front door — familiar bedding, water, and a radio or television on to mask the noise
- Feed and walk before it starts. Walk in daylight, well before the costumes appear
- Disable the doorbell, or sit outside with the bowl and greet callers before they ring. This is the single most effective fix
- Keep cats indoors for the evening, and shut the cat flap. Black cats especially — the folklore around them still occasionally attracts idiots
- Check microchip details are current. Halloween and Bonfire Night are both peak nights for escapes through a door left open
Costumes on pets
Some animals genuinely do not mind. Many do, and the signs are easy to miss.
If you are dressing a pet up:
- Nothing over the head, face, ears or eyes
- Nothing restricting movement, or that they could chew off and swallow
- Never leave a costumed animal unattended
- Watch for stress: flattened ears, whale eye (whites showing), lip licking, yawning, freezing, a tucked tail
- If they freeze or try to remove it, take it off. A bandana or a collar accessory achieves the same photograph with none of the stress
Cats, as a rule, should not be dressed up.
Fireworks
Halloween runs straight into Bonfire Night on 5 November, and fireworks now start well before it. If your animal is firework-phobic, the whole period from late October to mid-November needs managing, not just one evening.
Speak to your vet in advance — pheromone diffusers, and in some cases medication, work far better when started early rather than on the night.
Take them out instead
If your dog is sociable and unbothered by all this, a daytime Halloween walk is a good option. Plenty of country parks and estates run pumpkin trails through half term, and many are dog-friendly.
Check before you go, and do not take a dog to an evening scare attraction — the noise, fog, strobes and crowds are unfair on any animal, and most venues do not permit them anyway.
The short version
Sweets up high, dog in a back room with the radio on, cat indoors, LED tealight in the pumpkin, doorbell off. Five minutes of preparation removes almost all of the risk.