Trick or Treat? Keep Your Pets Safe This Halloween!
Halloween is here, but are your pets ready for all the spooky surprises? On this festive episode of Animal Party, Deb Wolfe shares essential Halloween safety tips to keep dogs and cats happy, healthy, and out of trouble! From choosing comfortable costumes and preventing runaway pets to avoiding toxic candy, dangerous decorations, and frightening fireworks, Deb explains how to make Halloween less scary for your furry family members. Plus, can dogs really tell when someone in the family is sick? And do they know the difference between thunder and fireworks? Deb answers these fascinating listener questions and reveals why your dog might actually get excited when the kids stay home sick! You'll also discover a super-simple, one-ingredient homemade pumpkin treat recipe for dogs and cats, along with some surprising facts about bear reproduction. It's a spooktacular mix of pet safety, animal behavior, tasty treats, and plenty of Deb's signature humor!
Listen to Episode #285 Now:
Transcript:
Hello, you're listening to Animal Party on Pet Life Radio, and this is a spooky show. Yes, it is because it's Halloween, and I want to make sure you're all safe. So first and foremost, don't dress your dog up if he hates it, okay? If he really, really hates it, just give him a or if he hates that, don't do any of it.
Let him decide. Now, if your dog likes getting dressed up, or if you think he likes it a little, go slow. Make sure you go easy.
Don't do the full-on Darth Vader costume. Don't cover his eyes, his ears. Don't make it so he can't move.
Same for the cats, by the way. If they like, dress up for a treat or a photo or a cuddle and praise, and then you remove it. Do that.
They don't want to wear it all night. Now, some dogs are real hams, some golden retrievers especially, some doodles, some terriers even. They just love the attention.
Some pugs, they love the attention, and so they'll wear a costume for a long time. If you got one of those, then by all means, dress it up. But otherwise, if you don't, then do little short photo shoots, and eventually your dog or your cat will get used to it and like it more and more.
I remember years ago, I adopted out an adult dog called Bunny. She was a golden doodle to a family that already had one from me called Humphrey, and they were really into the dress up. The first few pictures of Thanksgiving by the pumpkins, Halloween with the costumes, Christmas, birthdays where they were sitting at a table with actual cake on the table, and they were sitting in chairs.
Bunny looked guilty in all these pictures like, uh-oh, do these people know how crazy this is? I'm not allowed at the table. I'm not allowed. But by the fifth or sixth holiday, she was right in on it.
You could see her grinning from ear to ear just like her new brother Humphrey. So, some dogs will like it for the attention, for the rewards, but do be mindful that the costume is not itchy, scratching, noisy in their face, or impeding their ability to go to the bathroom, or move, right? And there are some really easy costumes. Like if you take a man's shirt, and you cut away the shirt so you're just left with the collar, and you cut a tie, then you have a werewolf costume for a dog, right? There's some really easy ones.
If your animal is not totally chill, and calm, and not likely to escape, cats should just be in another room because the door is going to open and close, open and close all night long with weird things, and lights, and noises, and flashing, and costumes. So, cats should just be in another room. Dogs, if they're door greeters, should have a leash attached to them so even when you get distracted, they can't pull away.
Okay, so that's the first thing. And any candy you give out should not be toxic to your own pets because it could be half opened, or left on the driveway, or in the steps, or fall to the side. So, no xylitol.
That's with an x. That's that weird sweetener. Don't do that. And no chocolate.
If you've got dogs, they might want it. You know, no nuts, no raisins. Like, be smart about it.
Okay. And given that the people are coming and going with all these treats that could be toxic to your pets, do a really good cleanup before you walk around the next day, or that night. Have animals on leash and indoors.
Black cats should be kept indoors the whole time, all the way through Halloween. So, what do I mean by indoors? I mean a quiet room, a safe room, where the weird noises from the outside are blocked out, where they can't see the flashing lights. You know, draw the blinds.
Put on some calm music, or a television, or a talk radio. Put on my podcast. That's perfect.
Just let them hear a voice and distracting, calm, normal stuff. Have the room set up ahead of time, so they like it. With their favorite blankets.
If it's a dog, a toy, a chew toy. If it's a cat, same thing. Toys and things they like in there.
I wouldn't do catnip. You don't want them wild. You want them calm.
So, okay. So, I'm going to give other safety tips throughout this show, because there's way more to tell you about Halloween. But that was a start.
Let's touch on the pumpkins. Don't bleach your pumpkin. Your pumpkin won't biodegrade properly in a composter.
It'll be any good to your garden. It could get raided by animals on the side of the road. Don't do it.
Pumpkins are great food for animals. So, if you're making a jack-o'-lantern, don't waste the pumpkin meat. Cook it up for your dogs.
Now, the stem isn't good for them. The skin isn't good for them. And the seeds, some people say if you grind them up, they're very good for them.
But most people do not give seeds to dogs and cats. But the pumpkin itself, you probably won't believe this, but I have a one-ingredient recipe for you later in the show. And I give you a hint, it's got pumpkin in it.
So, it's something your cats and your dogs will love. It's dead easy. All right.
So, we're going to go over all that later in the show. And what else do I want to talk about today? Well, that sure is a lot. We had a question.
The question was, why does my golden retriever act like a thermometer? And then, okay, so she spells it out. I mean, he goes crazy happy dancing in the hallway when one of my children is sick. They can never fake it because he always knows.
I just go by him. How does he know? And why is he so happy when my children are ill? Wow. That's an interesting question.
We had another question, too, about fireworks and thunder. Does my dog know the difference? So, we're going to come back from break and talk about both those questions, throw in some Halloween safety tips, and I'll give you that pumpkin recipe all later in the show. Stay tuned on Animal Party at Life Radio.
Hello. You're back on Animal Party on Pet Life Radio. Why does her golden retriever act like a thermometer and get so happy when the kids are sick? Okay, so there's a couple of questions in there.
How does the dog know the kids are sick? Well, probably the kids are different in the night. They may sound louder. They may snore.
They may wake up more. They may be warmer. The dog may be doing actual checks on them in the night that you're not aware of, like touch checks possibly.
All right, so don't let that alarm you. Dogs are so vigilant when they care about humans. So, the dog is totally aware that maybe the kid's going up to the bathroom more or less.
Something has changed in the sleep pattern of the child that the dog recognizes from previous encounters with it as meaning the child is not well. And so, it could even be the smell of the skin. So, okay, the dog knows the kid's sick.
Now, why does the dog get happy? I'm sure you can guess. Sick day, that's like a snow day. That's like a cuddle on the couch all day day with the children.
Are you kidding me? And maybe a parent stays home too. And then there's chicken soup and homemade bread and who knows what else goes with all this. TV and couch and the dog is not alone all day, that's for sure.
People don't go off to school and work as normal when there's a kid with a fever. So, I think that answers your question. And thank you for sending me your question.
If you've got a question, this person asked not to be named, so I won't name them. We can stay anonymous or you can tell me a cute name for yourself or your dog or your cat or where you live and I'll read your question on the air and solve it. Okay, we have another question.
I hope I can find it. Well, it doesn't matter. I remember it.
It's from someone in Orlando and they wanted to know if their dog can tell the difference between thunder and fireworks. It is a very good time of year to talk about this because dogs hate fireworks. I would say dogs hate fireworks more than thunder.
Why? Because fireworks are closer. Thunder comes in the distance. Fireworks are right here on ground level and fireworks come with a noxious scent, terrible smell, especially if they're close.
So, I think actually, yeah, fireworks are worse. Do they know the difference? Oh, yes, they do. Because the thing they're reacting to in the storm and you'll notice this with dogs who are afraid of storms is they start to pick up on earlier signals that a storm is coming.
So, the change in the barometric pressure and static electricity in the air and different things like that, weather shifts, they figure out and they're onto well before we ever are, but for sure. And so, in fact, some of them, it's kind of cool, cats and dogs, some of them, their fur, depending on the type of fur they have, will actually give them, you know, when you get walking across a carpet in socks, you'll get like a static charge and then you touch someone else and it shocks them. Well, an animal with a certain kind of fur in a certain kind of weather when the storm is building will actually get continuous shocks from its fur, from static electricity.
So, some of these dogs and cats, but mostly dogs, some of them run to the bathroom and that's because the plumbing is the most grounded place in the house. The least static is there. So, it's quite interesting.
But yeah, they know the difference between thunder and fireworks and you should keep them well away from fireworks. And I wish people didn't do fireworks at every holiday. I wish, because it's so traumatic for the dogs.
We get a lot of dogs checking into Camp Good Dog just to get them out of the city and away from firecrackers and fireworks. And that's smart. If you've got a place where your dog can be that's calm and quiet and away from all that jazz and Halloween, all that mayhem, it's a good idea.
If you don't, put some good idea on your animals. Make sure you've got leashes and collars that fit, harnesses that fit. There's no runaways, there's no escapers.
If you're going trick-or-treating with a dog, make sure you've got one person in charge of the dog and the other person in charge of the children. Unless your adolescents or teenagers. And don't make the kids in charge of the dog.
Also, this is really important. Something that makes your children and your dog show up. So, every kid gets a flashlight and the dog gets some kind of reflector collar.
Even if it's something you buy at a dollar store for Halloween and just Velcro onto his collar right now, just for the night. Or a proper glow-in-the-dark collar or a proper LED light collar. Something that the dog is seen at all times.
Do not use a flexi-leash on Halloween. We don't need lots of room between us and our kids and space for cars to come between. So, be really, really careful with traffic, especially.
The big thing with dogs and cats getting hurt on Halloween is missing. That's number one. And then car accidents, number two.
And toxic poisoning from trick-or-treat stuff. But it's not just the food. It's the decorations.
So, all that straggly, flowy, tinsely stuff that we do at Christmas. The same kind of stuff at Halloween. Different colors get stuck in animals' intestines.
So, be really careful that your cat is not playing with this stuff. These are not cat toys. They're not dog toys.
Okay, should I do my recipe? No, I'm gonna make you. Wait till after the next break for the big recipe. Okay, so another thing you can do to make it easier on your animals is mute the doorbell or cover it completely.
If you're answering the door for trick-or-treaters, you don't need that ding-dong signal. Dog's supposed to protect the house. You don't need that all night long.
So, put the treats away from, like, ahead of the doorbell so they're not ringing it or meet them yourself. Very, very, very few dogs want to go trick-or-treating. Like, it's such a small percentage.
And no dogs want to go to a firework demo. None. They don't.
So, just think about that. If you're bringing them, why are you bringing them? They would be happier not dealing with all this. It's total stress for them.
So, think about their comfort. There's gonna be open flames and cords. And yeah, just keep them at home.
That's what I say. Okay, let's go to break. And when we come back, I will give you that pumpkin recipe.
Stay tuned on Animal Party on Pet Life Radio. Hello. You're listening to Animal Party on Pet Life Radio with me, Deb Wolf.
And the pumpkin recipes. So, the thing is, I love pumpkin for dogs. Not just at Halloween.
You've heard me give out recipes with pumpkin before. A few shows ago, I did chicken. You slice the chicken into strips and you wrap the chicken strip around the pumpkin.
And well, you'll have to look up the old show to get that recipe. But it's basically a treat, chew treat for cats and dogs, depending on the size you do. And pumpkin, if you buy a can that has no additives, no sugar, no spice, just pure pumpkin puree, and you use that, a couple tablespoons or a teaspoon, depending on the size of your animal, in their food, it helps when they have problems with their tummies.
Either way, it helps regulate, let's just say. So, if they're too loose or too hard, if they're constipated or have diarrhea, oftentimes the vet will say, give them a teaspoon of pumpkin. So, pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin.
It's a great food and they love it. So, what do you do? Okay. So, you cut the fresh pumpkin into thin, uniform slices.
So, if it's a dog, like a big dog, you could do long strips, a quarter inch thick. But if it's cats or small dogs, you would cut them into like teeny, tiny little matchsticks. Okay.
You can picture that. Does anybody even use matchsticks anymore? Well, if you don't know what a matchstick is, look it up. Okay.
So, toothpick size, like skinny little slivers, like a sliver of coconut, I suppose. A matchstick, that's the best description. Okay.
And then you line a baking sheet with parchment paper and you just arrange these pieces in a single layer. And you put it on your oven's lowest setting, hoping you have 200, which is 95 degrees Celsius, but 200 Fahrenheit, hoping. You can also use an air fryer on 200.
So, if you're using a regular oven, it'll take two to three hours. And basically you want them crispy, crunchy. If you're using an air fryer, it'll probably take an hour and a half, maybe two.
So, it'll turn into like a jerky-like treat for the dogs if you do those big pieces and a crunchy, tiny treat for the cats if you do small pieces. So, depending on what you need in terms of dental and chew habits and size of your pet's jaw, you pick the size you want, which is nice. And it's one way to use up all that pumpkin without, I mean, especially the day after Halloween.
The day after Halloween, the pumpkins are cheap. They're like two bucks for a huge pumpkin. And that's a lot of treats.
That's a lot of food. So, then you just put them in a Ziploc bag and keep them in the fridge, I would say. That's where I'd keep them.
You can probably keep them in your cupboard for a short time, but if you keep them in the fridge, they'll last longer or even in the freezer. So, that's our recipe for today. I was going to tell you something about bears that I find really interesting because it's similar to dogs.
And it's a new fact about bears that I had no idea. So, I'll talk more about bears on a future show. This isn't a bear show today.
But I found out that bears, just like dogs, don't ovulate one egg at a time like humans normally. I mean, there's the exception of twins or triplets, but normally humans have one egg. That's it.
And one day. Well, with bears, they can ovulate over a course of days or weeks, just like dogs can. And so, that means papa on day one may not be the same papa as papa on day five or papa on day 10.
And that has happened with dogs. I've seen litters where they, you know, shelters that I've worked at and volunteered at, I've seen litters where there's like two little dogs and three big ones, you know, and you look at them and you go, well, that's a beagle papa and that is an Irish setter papa. And it's the same mama.
Anyway, so that can happen with bears too. And I just found that so fascinating. Okay.
I know we're not going to talk about bears today, but one more really cool bear fact that I did not know before today is that when the female ovulates and she meets her man or men and she gets all pregnant, she is not quite pregnant yet. She has fertilized eggs that just sit there. They embed and wait.
And there's something that triggers hormones and other biological factors. I'll tell you all about it in another show. But basically, if she doesn't get enough food, doesn't get super big and fat like she's before hibernation, the eggs don't mature.
They just don't. So she's never in a situation where she can't feed her babies. Now, if she does get big and fat, then the eggs mature.
And while she's hibernating, the babies are born and she nurses them while hibernating without eating. She lives off what she ate the year before and they all succeed. So it's an amazing, amazing fail safe, really, to make sure that these mothers aren't burdened with babies they can't feed.
It's so amazing to me. And it only takes 60 days, 60 days for them to turn into a cub. 60 days is what it takes for a dog.
So I'm amazed at that because they're, well, I guess, I guess it makes sense. I guess it makes sense. Now on a future show, I'm going to talk to you about those dire wolves.
Remember, I told you they were a couple of years ago on the radio, I was on this show, I was talking about dire wolves and how they were cloning them. What's not really cloned, what they did was they took their edited DNA, and they attached it to some gray wolves, so that they would be able to carry the bigger body and, and white coat, and that they would resemble ice age dire wolves. Yeah.
So I'll tell you how that worked out. There's three of them now, two boys and a girl. We'll talk about that on a future show.
So for today, I want you to be really safe with your pets. Gave you a lot of Halloween tips. I hope I gave you enough.
Antifreeze is always an issue. If you live in a cold place and people are using it, do not let your dog lick it puddles on the road. Make sure you provide water so your dog isn't thirsty and needing that.
And I really, really, really would suggest you leave your dog at home and leash him. So no matter what happens, your dog is not escaping or quiet, private, calm rooms. If you have someone in your family that is kind of a curmudgeon and doesn't like the holidays, put them in charge of the dogs.
Give them lots of snacks and put them in charge of the cats and set up a little cave for them and they'll be so happy. And so will your pets. Your pets really don't need Halloween.
Yeah. But if you are going to dress them up, I gave you the tips to do it safely. So quick, quick is always better.
And for those dogs who are trick or treating, watch where you're walking as well. There can be broken glass on Halloween. Generally, generally, generally, generally about 98% of you should be leaving your dogs at home.
And some of you who have really outgoing, gregarious, happy-go-lucky dogs who hardly notice loud sounds and love children. Okay. Some of you can have your dogs greet at the door with a tied rope leash securing them.
So there's no escapes. Even if they see someone they know well and love on the other side of the street, or even if somebody throws a firecracker right at your doorway, right as the dog is going to greet someone, your dog doesn't get loose. Okay, everybody.
Yes, I'm worried about you. So please be safe. From me, Dub Wolf and Animal Party and Pet Life Radio.
Be good to your animals. Ciao, meow.