Dog Boarding for Halloween and Beyond!

Halloween is rapidly approaching, followed by Thanksgiving and Christmas and Hanukkah.  While it’s an exciting time for us people, the holiday season can be especially stressful for our dogs.  That’s where dog boarding services becomes your ally in keeping Fido happy & healthy!

Dangers associated with keeping your dog home on Halloween:

• Strangers at the door:  all those cute little trick-or-treaters at your door can be incredibly scary to your dog.  First, this is a perceived intruder or threat- especially since the kiddies come running to the door, possibly banging on the door and yelling.  Factor in the costumes and little kids at face height, and your normally wonderful dog may become stressed to the point of bad or defensive behavior.  Avoid this recipe for disaster by either locking your pup in another room away from the front door, or even better, take them to a stress free environment like our Dogtopia locations!  Our overnight boarding program lets you watch your dog through our webcams, and you can rest easy knowing that they’re in a clean, safe, monitored environment.
• Candles:  candles in jack-o-lanterns and in home decor can be knocked over by rambunctious or scared dogs.  Even worse, if your pup is wearing their own Halloween costume, be aware that it could be highly flammable- an especially dangerous combination when your dogs vision might be impaired by their costume!! Again, it’s better to keep dogs away from this potentially dangerous situation.
• Alcohol:  many adult Halloween parties offer alcoholic beverages to their guests.  If you’re serving alcohol at a Halloween party, it’s advisable to keep your dog away- dogs have been known to get into fruity mixed drinks and beer, and neither is safe for them.
• Candy:  chocolate is delicious, but toxic to your dog!  Many people underestimate just how alluring the scent of candy is to our furry friends, and just how far some dogs will go to get it.  Candy, in general, is not great for your dog, and some is highly toxic- when in doubt, call the pet poison helpline for guidance- just be advised that they do charge a $49 fee for assistance. They can be reached at 855-764-7661 24 hours a day/7 days a week

According to an article on Today.com:

Last year, the APCC received about 28 calls per day in the two weeks around both Halloween and Christmas—a 20 percent increase compared with the rest of the year. Pet insurance provider Petplan reports bigger jumps. Policyholders are 91.6 percent more likely to file a claim related to food poisoning during the week between Christmas and New Year’s than any other week, it said, and 235 percent more likely to report chocolate ingestion.

The average claim last year associated with such accidental poisoning was $465, plus a deductible of $50 to $200. If the pet ingested an inedible “foreign body,” such as tinsel or candy wrappers, that figure nearly triples to $1,284.

Jennifer Fox started kenneling her dogs on Halloween night after her Labrador retriever, Kodie, ate candy from her kids’ trick-or-treating stash two years ago. “You turn your back for a second, and he’s got his head in it, eating it wrapper and all,” she said. “I didn’t know how much he’d gotten into, but it turned out, it was all of it.”

Kodie vomited up most of the candy and wrappers on his own, on the way to the vet’s office. There, vets gave him fluids for dehydration. The incident cost nearly $620, all but $100 of which was covered by pet insurance, Fox said.

Some people might think that boarding their dog during Halloween is overkill and more precaution than necessary, but with figures and incidents like those above, the low cost of boarding your dog in a safe place starts to make a whole lot more sense. We recommend you call early to reserve your place at our dog boarding facilities in Birmingham, dog boarding kennel in Utica, dog boarding services in Bloomfield, or dog boarding in Commerce.