Navigating Halloween with Your Dog

Treats, leashes, shaping the game.Mark your right, it's never the same.Big dogs, small dogs, every kind.If you love canines, tuning, rewind, laugh and learn.Level up your game.Suburban canine remember the name.Vampire Vlos, how are you?

Shouldn't any of you let off with like, Happy Halloween or something?If it's a Halloween episode, don't you have to like, jump into it?Where's the excitement for Halloween?Should I have my mask like all the way down to so that that way it makes more sense?I mean it, you know.Well, I will say this, it makes sense.

Covey's not excited about because he doesn't have a costume.Because I was lied to, you know?Hey, can you even hear me?Does this help?My so much.That's incredibly so much.My mic was like 4 feet away.Do we need to redo that intro?Yeah.Or are we just good?

I think we're probably good.OK, so here's the thing though.You lied to me about what we were doing.You can't just tell someone you have no costumes and you're not sure that you're going to be able to find one and then show up with costumes.I was not consulted in any of this.

That's true.If Loss was the liar.You weren't.You weren't.I didn't lie.I said that I wasn't sure if I had anything that would constitute a costume.You told me not to go to the store and get one.But I ran the Dollar General real quick in between when we talked and now, and I got a dollar pair of vampire teeth and that, yeah, I'm a vampire dog trainer.

That shit's full of.That's pretty good.For sure you're sucking on lead.There's not even any reason for lead to be in that white teeth, but it's in there.They just.I can't talk with them in so I have to keep taking them out.Otherwise it's all slurred.So it wasn't really a good choice for a podcast episode.

You're slurred because of the lead poisoning.That's a symptom.What was, what were the fumes that people used to be worried about?Was it like, I don't know, arsenic or something like that on the masks that would drive people crazy or something?I don't know anything about that old.

Thing in the 90s that I remember.Feeling like fumes would be a worry, but what do I know?I said what I am, Nelson, you have to tell everybody what you are.I am Jack Skellington and that I pulled the hood down a little further and it's Jack's head.

There you go.Nellie's got a full on costume like his.Probably cost like 20 bucks.Mine was a dollar.I think it was about 20 bucks.So that's a good call.Good on you quick.Question.We've only got 45 minutes today, so we've got a cruise.But Jack Skellington, who is this character?

What's he from?Jack Skellington is the main I guess at the end you can call him a protagonist of Nightmare Before Christmas.Is that the same as K pop demon hunters?That's a good question.

Hey that's going to be in theaters net Netflix special for Halloween.This isn't a plug but I just heard it so.I I don't know what that is.K pop demon hunters dude it's all the rage.I've even I've even watched it.K pop is like the Korean music, right?

Yeah.Now they hunt music.Yeah.I mean, that's pretty good.You know what I mean?That's a.That's a good transition right there.Yeah, Kara was opposed to the kids watching it.And I was like, why don't you watch it first?But also remember they're hunting demons.

Like, isn't that a good thing?Like to kill demons?But well, it does get sort of twisted because one of them is sort of a demon, right?So.You've seen this.Yeah, I've watched it.I've seen the whole thing.OK, which is delete an episode.

On it isn't that isn't that crazy.The one without kids is the one who has seen the popular kid movie.You're also the one with a ton of stuffed animals on your couch, so you've got it all going on.See that?I don't see any stuffed animals back there.

No, Joy's niece.I just don't see it.Joy's niece was here and we watched it with her so.All right, well, let's dive in.Halloween, Halloween, Getting your dog ready for Halloween, How to get through Halloween.We're going to talk about it.All right.Can I just start with I feel like of the holidays, Halloween is like a forgotten holiday with dog training.

And it really shouldn't be like we do a big plug around the 4th of July because it's the the holiday where most dogs run away, right?And it's, you know, the loud noise of the fireworks and all of that stuff.I feel like Halloween, while it probably doesn't have as many dogs run away, it's probably a more problematic holiday.

And I would just think, sure, the number of bites during Halloween has to just be through the roof.Do we have data on that?Does somebody?I don't data on that, but anecdotally I would agree that that has to have a ton of bites, probably owners getting bit by their own dogs, trying to stop their dogs from biting other people, you know, escapes tons of that kind of stuff.

So.Well I guess here's what I would open with as a dog trainer.My advice pretty much always just fix issues right?Like a dress it head on and fix it.Don't hide from them.But something like Halloween if you haven't done the prep work I would absolutely hide from it.

So if you have a dog who you think is gonna perf, just do poorly with trick or treaters coming by the house, I would 100% put them up in a bedroom with music on with good bones for them to chew, shut the door and there you go.

And that's and that's the evening.It's like a couple hours, right?And then you get him out again afterwards.So I think forcing your dog through this and forcing yourself through it if you're not ready is not a smart decision.And I would just avoid it completely.And I preface that by saying I'd love to see you fix it, but I wouldn't start this if if it's if you have a problematic dog for Halloween and you're starting tonight, it's probably a little bit late.

So that was I was going to ask a point.Can you define not ready?Because if somebody's in training and they've actively been working on things, should they avoid it or should they use it as a training opportunity?So define not ready.I would partly comes down to the dogs personality and partly comes down to training skill level.

So if you have an average dog who's not like doesn't have fear or aggression issues, they're just the average dog and they're in training and you have some measure like of leash control and you can heal them, you can do something with them to calm them down, then yeah, I think if you want to go for it, you're probably ready.

If your dog has fear issues or aggression issues, then you're training it.Skills need to be way higher to attempt this.But I also think just starting on Halloween is probably not a good idea if your dog has fear or aggression issues.There's ways you could start this in the days or weeks leading up to it where you can control the scenario where you can have the person on the costume stay for as long as needed.

You can have it be you family member, whatever.As opposed to kids ring the bell.You try to do something to the dog, dog freaks out, person leaves.And that's pretty fulfilling for the dog where they're like, OK, I did it, I got rid of.Them I did it, it was awesome.Crushed it, did the thing, got rid.

Of it funny enough, I, I, I typically say two things right one I I certainly agree.This is definitely not the the day to start anything, but you know, no holiday is, but this is definitely a holiday that will make or break your training if you don't just put your training on pause, right?

And so a lot of the times if you're ready to kind of handle it and you have someone else running the actual door and you're just there working with the dog, you can make a ton of progress.I've had a lot of clients do so because you, you this is the most someone's ever going to come to your door.

You're going to get a ton of practice.The problem, though, is that if you're not kind of ready to handle that situation, this is the most someone's going to ring your doorbell.And it could very easily teach your dog kind of worse habit.It's like what Covey was talking about, where the dog actually feels good about its role in barking and jumping and looking scary and shooing things away.

Usually what I tell clients is, you know, if if you feel like you could get a handle on your dog and calm them down before a trick or treater would leave, you're you're definitely ready, definitely go for it.

Sometimes what can happen though, is that it's just not enough time.Covey, you were kind of alluding to this where someone in a costume could actually stay there for however long it takes.You know, like every time that the doorbell rings, the dog just gets more animated and more animated and, and really starts to get pretty crazy pretty quickly.

So usually that's kind of my cut off of don't train.Don't train if you can't calm your dog down in a reasonable amount of time.So I think Nelson just hit on some of the points that I thought were like the better place to start of, well, why are we saying Halloween is such a difficult holiday for dogs, right?

So you mentioned how you have tons of people coming to the to your door, which generally doesn't happen.The thing that you haven't really touched on is they're wearing crazy outfits and a lot of dogs don't take kindly to things that are different, right?

So you have a lot of dogs that have fear issues that just when somebody's wearing a baseball hat is an issue for them.On Halloween, people are wearing a whole lot more than baseball mat.You know, you got full on masks, you got blood, you got ghost costumes, all sorts of stuff.

And the dogs are costumes, right?The dogs, like, if you put themselves in their mindset, they're like, what in the hell is happening here, right?Like nobody's explained to them what Halloween is.So to me, that's where it made sense to start is to talk about just what a a difficult holiday it must be for them and why.

And I think those are some of the big reasons.Yeah, for sure.And one thing you know, as a starting point to find out how your dog may or may not handle the situation is walking past all the decorations.You know, everybody's typically has October, you know, their house is decorated.

You can walk past some of the scarecrows, some of the decorations, see how your dog handles that stuff all on its own.It's also a really good place to kind of get started just to see how long will it take me to actually calm my dogs down.But if they have a, a severe reaction to blow up anything or, or even like the scarecrows or anything like that, I mean, now you know, there's a, there's a ton of work to be done there, especially at the door because, Oh my.

Gosh, I forgot all the zombies.Are coming at the door.I forgot all about decorations.I live in the country now.Right, Like you're not walking on a sidewalk through a neighborhood where I live and there's not decorations out by the street.But when I lived in a neighborhood like that was a huge part of dog training was Halloween decorations where you walk by and there's like a zombie that like yells at you as you're walking by or there's a fog machine that goes off as you walk through.

Like you're right, decorations is a huge one.Side note, I saw a video of a possum on someone's ring camera, like smelling on the front porch and this thing moves and the possum flips and plays dead.

I must have watched that a dozen times trying to like First off to see if it was real because when that thing plays dead, holy smokes does it play dead.It like flips over claws extended like is wild.And I just kept watching and watching, so that's amazing.

It was hilarious, and I don't know if you should laugh at something like that, but I did.Nelson, you saw that one, too.I saw I, I think I saw the same video, but it was, it was an impossible and he just like those those goats that freeze, right?Like he, he went frozen and then fell backwards off the table.

It was wild.It was crazy.So a couple pieces of advice here. 1 is any of your initial training should be done during the day until you've established the dogs doing well?That needs to be your baseline.Time is so much harder to start during the day.

Going to neighborhoods is great, but also you can go to Home Depot.They always have huge setups of stuff going on.It's a great place to work.Keep in mind you're not forcing your dog up to it.You're and so much of this depends on your dog.If if you know it's going to be an absolute fiasco, then you need to be at a long distance and maybe you're just asking your dog like coexist, even though you know that thing is over there as opposed to like hold a sit, stay 5 feet away.

Some dogs that's weeks and weeks and weeks of work to achieve that.If you have a lot of fear and if you don't have that time, I just wouldn't even bother.But maybe just the dog hears it from an aisle away and can see it way in the distance and you're just like asking him to coexist with you.

But daytime for sure.That has to be your baseline.One piece of advice, or I guess something I want everyone to think about is dogs.I care a lot about silhouettes.And I know you guys have both seen this.You know, you can have like a, if it's a realistic silhouette of a dog.

And I used to have them on a vehicle I drove and you'd see dogs you'd drive by and they'd freak out barking because of the dog silhouettes on.There, the boxer on the side, Yeah.Yeah, where they're like, the first time it happened, I'm like, is this seriously happening?And then it would happen more and more and they would target those silhouettes because it looks enough like an animal and, you know, they need to be able to see at dusk and you see a silhouette of an animal.

Like that's pretty important for survival for dogs.But that also comes into play with costumes.You mess with a person's silhouette and you're messing with their, the dog's perception of them, and you have no idea how they're going to react until you figure out how your dog's going to react.

So masks obviously are scary, but anything that messes with their silhouette, Nelson, you said the dinosaur costume, you put something like that on, even if they can see the human face, you mess with the silhouette.Some dogs are going to go into predator mode right away.

So you have to be really aware of any changes of silhouette.And to me, that's why sweatshirts cause so many issues.Hats, you know, people always say it's because they, you know, make the dog not be able to see their eyes.I don't really buy that.I think it's a silhouette thing.Anything you're doing that's changing the shape of the human is potentially problematic.

So beards are another popular one.People say, does that change my silhouette?Like, can you see?Can you see?My beard silhouette, but it's scary.It is scary.I think Nelson's facial hair is scarier than my beard, and that's not a beard.

I think they're scared because it doesn't grow improperly and they're like, Oh my goodness, that's not a real thing.That's a fake beard right there.You know what I and I guess I'll look for what you guys think, but I don't see the scared of hats thing nearly as much.

But I, I also think it's just because men are wearing hats way more.You know, just like a baseball hat is extremely common.Agreed.So you think hat wearing is on an uptick right now?I think it's been a long trend of an uptick for sure.

You know who always wears hats?Does he also have two thumbs?Is not a person, no chicks from California.So we live in outside of Nashville and there's so many people moving here from California.All the women between like, let's say 20 and 50 baseball caps.

It's not crazy.Really, I'm just picturing with the ponytail out the back.Yeah, OK.Yeah, but it's not like a sloppy, it's like hair is done with a baseball cap, makeup is done with a baseball cap.And so we, my wife and I feel like we can pick someone out instantly, like, oh, she's from California.

And anytime we've asked, it's been correct.Like their recent transplants from California.That's profiling.That's profiling for sure, but that's.Profiling.So wrong.I mean, I don't think so personally, but you know, whenever there's debates.One is also not racial profiling.

This is state profiling.Gender, I guess.Who knows?Gender maybe?Sure.So hats on an upswing, agreed with that.Less dog issues with hats.So let's get into what do you do and we shouldn't spend too much time, I don't think, walking through what heel means or any of that.

Anyone who's listening, if you don't know, go back to previous episodes.We've got a ton you can scroll through talking about heel, but obviously heel was a big component.One of you guys want to take this.What would your advice be?You've got a client, they've already done this stuff with the decorations they've got.

Maybe they've gone to Home Depot, they've walked up and down the street.What do you do for costumes with some of your advice?Can I take it to something before that though?Yeah, no, there's no sense in paying attention.I'll take it to something before that you want.To talk about.I'll take it to something before that and then let let Nelson answer your question.

So I was just going to say, you know, when I trained bored and trains heavily, I think a big part of what I would do is just so much weird stuff in the 1st place while training that something like costumes isn't really going to be that big of a deal.And I know that sounds weird, but I would do so many weird and crazy distractions.

I mean, I think Nelson had been there a few times for this, but I would roll on a keg up and down my driveway while dogs were in a down stay.I mean, just random weird stuff.And the more weird stuff you do like that, the less likely dogs are going to be to get upset by things like decorations and stuff like that, right?

So it's sort of goes to your question, but to me it's a much bigger picture of before you ever get.Hi everyone.This is Jason Ferguson and I'm the President of the International Association of Canine Professionals.Our organization is focused on three pillars, education, certification and legislation.

What that means is we help educate our members to ensure that they're the best dog trainers they can be.We also offer certification so the clients know that the trainers are true professional.Our legislative efforts are focused on ensuring that trainers have the freedom to choose the tools and techniques that work best for the dogs and clients that they work with.

Join the ICP today for yourself and to protect the industry.Our friends on the Balanced Dog Training podcast support the ICP and we hope you will as well.So I, I think that that's terrible advice for the day before Halloween, but I think it's super solid advice in general.

And, and you know, obviously I, I trained under both of you guys, right?So there was a lot of that stuff in the beginning that we used to do all the time.You know, the, the motto or mantra used to be like, if your dog is scared of something, then we should focus on that and make that less scary.

Covey.I remember one of the Australian shepherds that you were training was scared of, was it like a tarp or something that was in your yard?And so then you'd spent, you know, like half an hour, hour or whatever it was kind of walking around with the tarp until the dog could walk next to it and didn't care about it anymore and then sniffed in, you know, all that stuff lost.

I remember we were at at a store and the dog was scared of one of the workers had.But the carts in the cart corral.And so then we like we worked on that a ton.And, and I do agree with you when you constantly go after the things that any dog is scared of, I mean, it, it takes a lot, a lot more than just a goofy costume to kind of get them going after that.

So I, I do think that that is really good advice.But the other thing too is, you know, you can break it down to kind of multiple things.So in this question that Covey posed, we'd already gone to Home Depot, we'd already taught the dog heel, we've already got him good with the decorations.

But that's only half the problem, right?The other half of the problem is the arousal of the door in the 1st place.So I would definitely spend a decent amount of time in plainclothes even going up and just working on the door, getting the dog to understand what's the protocol, what is it that we're looking for?

And calming them down to the fact that someone's coming over.And I've done this a million times where after we've done that a couple of times, then I'll put a mask on or a helmet on or something goofy and start to run it.

Not necessarily when the dog is fresh, but after we've run it a couple of times and we're having success.Well then we change one thing, which is again the silhouette or my face, whatever it is, and slowly start introducing it to the fact that it's it's not always me at the door.Yeah, I think there's a lot of good stuff there.

You didn't say this specifically, but you touched on it earlier and I meant to flag it. 2 handlers is almost essential if you're trying to do Halloween with.I mean, if your dog's legit and you feel good about it, that's fine.One handler's fine.But for most people you need 2 handlers because if you've got the dog up by the door and there's a reaction, how are you going to heal and calm them down South?

And give candy at the.Same.And give candy.Yeah, I would give one ground rule here.I wouldn't let either.I have two dogs.I wouldn't let either of them be petted by someone wearing a mask.I just, I just wouldn't.

And like, could they handle it?Probably.But I'm just not going to put them in that situation because that's so out of the norm of real life and to me it's just not worth it.Why do I care if someone in a mask can pet my dog in?

It's just not not relevant.And there's just so much risk, right?Like, Kate, they can't see the face.And are they first looking at the hand, everything's cool.Then they look up, they see the mask.What is the dog going to do?I just, I wouldn't put them in that scenario.And for people listening, like, could I?

Yeah, for sure.Like I, I think the odds of inviting are slim to none, but I also don't want to put them in that scenario where even if they jump back out of fear, well, now your dogs just had a confusing weird fear response with the smell of a human.Is that something you want to put in their brain?

Probably not.So I just wouldn't bother.And you know, I would have some ground rules there.I would no mask.And then like if it's the big dinosaur thing with the kids face visible, I know my dogs would just would have no issue with that whatsoever because I've seen that exact scenario before.

But it's key to look for some of this stuff and set it up.And that can be hard.So if we tell you go out and try to do some introductions with kids or people wearing costumes.Nelson, you, you spoke to some like ways you could do it yourself, right?

Putting a mask on, putting a, you know, baseball cap or I mean, a, what'd you say?Helmet, helmet, putting helmet on, that stuff's great.And you you need to do something with other people as well, like your kids, neighbor kids, whatever to practice around if you want to achieve this once again, during the day when you have time and treats can absolutely be involved.

Of course, heal as a calming technique.And then you need something to make the dog happy and excited and treats can certainly be that if you feel like they need some some confidence.So another thing Nelson mentioned that I think's really important is just day before and day of, I would start ringing the doorbell way before kids are coming, right?

So I usually start the day before when I was doing this and I would just like ring the doorbell like 50 times that day before.So now the dogs don't think it's nearly as big of a deal.And then the day of, within two hours of when trick or treating was supposed to start, I would start doing the same thing, just start ringing the doorbell randomly.

And that way the dogs aren't, you know, super excited the first time the doorbell rings and there's actual kids there.Another thing that you just sort of touched on that I think is really important and leading up to Halloween is the whole idea of if you have kids and they're going to be wearing costumes, have them put the costumes on ahead of time where you're ready to train the dogs.

So that if there's a negative reaction and one of them is afraid of your kids costume, you have the time to work on it when you're not trying to get the kids out the door to go trick or treating or that type of thing.So I think those are, there's some great points that you've sort of mentioned, but just wanted to put them out there very clearly for everybody.

Yeah, so I, I think that that's good, especially because one of the things that I, I tell people is, you know, it's, it's not always going to make sense to you what your dog is reacting to.You know, you might think that, hey, it's the face, but really it's the noise that it makes, right?

Or like with that dinosaur costume when they turn around.I mean, that's a weird noise of the, of the plastic rubbing the plastic, you know, so a lot of people kind of overlook or, or are overconfident in a situation simply because, you know, they just, they don't know what they don't know, right?

They don't know what it is that their dog is actually paying attention to.So sometimes using just a a little more caution than you typically would kind of makes sense because we we don't have the time to fix it now.And using, I like that phrase, using more caution than you normally would and, and what you opened with as well, where you don't know what your dog's going to be reactive to and your prep work is going to help.

But there's no guarantee you, you address the right thing because of exactly what you just said there, Nelson.And I can tell you like, so I mentioned masks earlier, We have a decent, well, I've got 3 kids with a decent number of masks in the household.We have like little gorilla suits like all these things and the kids put them on fairly frequently.

They'll have.Friends over, find a costume for this.Yeah, because I was lied to.It's very hard to over to overcome lies and deceit.We got masks and gorilla suits and all.Sorts of stuff I.Couldn't come up with anything.So and what I would say is my kids and their friends put those on and they run around.

Our dogs are completely like oblivious to that.It's like normal life, but they know who it is.So they know it's the kids or the kids friends.They're not coming in, right?And they try to sneak around and like knock on the door and like, you know, like, see what the dogs will do, like how much they're going to guard.

They always know who it is in those scenarios.You know, is that making them better if you're trying to work on Halloween?Absolutely.But is it saying that there's going to be no issue?Not a chance because they know it's like that's a member of their family with a mask on, they can see their body like you know the way they're walking, they know the smell as opposed to your walking down a street after dark and there's a crazy silhouette coming out them.

That is not anything the same as you're in the house with your family.So be aware of that.That's, that's funny.Actually, that's something not, I don't bring it up because of Halloween, but I bring it up whenever we're working on dogs being reactive at the door.

And I'm always telling people like, Hey, just practice this amongst yourselves, but understand that you're going to plateau right?As soon as you open the door, the dog is going to know that it's you and the reactions are not going to be the same.So you can, you could be crushing it.

The dog is doing great with the doorbell as the initial reaction, you know, and then they see you, they, they instantly melt because now they're excited that you're there.And then you have a pizza guy, for example, and the doorbell goes well, but then the second they see the pizza guy, it turns into kind of full blown reactions.

And a lot of that really does come down to, yes, working on the doorbell was really, really helpful.It's going to, you know, help you in those real situations, but you still have to realize that the dogs have a decent idea of what's going on the 2nd that you open that door.Agreed, Nelson, if I'm your client and I say hey can I've been doing this stuff you said, can I take my dog trick or treating, what's your answer?

If your dog is nervous at all, I would say no.And, and again, there's a lot of things that you don't know that you don't know, you know.So I've, I see a lot of dogs and typically they're goldens, they're softer dogs.

You know, I do see dogs going trick or treating.If I wanted to, my golden would be perfect.She would go with us and have no problem.My bulldog on the other hand, she's much more, I don't want to say untrusting, she likes people, but if she hears a noise that she doesn't know what it is, she'll run over there barking.

And that's kind of why we have her.So like again, as soon as it gets dark or if there's another reactive dog or a lot of the decorations these days and, and people's houses move and that that changes everything.It's not just a static statue there that you have to walk past now, it's actually following you and watching you and stuff.

So I would say don't do it.I was actually going to bring up, you know, use caution when you're letting the dogs out to go to the bathroom even, you know, this might be a time where I'd take my dog out to the backyard on a leash.If they can see trick or treaters all along the fence or something like that, I'm probably going to take the dog out on a leash so that they can go to the bathroom and then come back in and not be going to the bathroom.

A group of trick or treaters come and they run, hit the door or hit the fence and you know, like everybody scares everybody.So not only would I maybe not go trick or treating, but I had also be using caution in the backyard as well.That that's good advice.People wouldn't think of the yard.

So a couple of things to throw out there.Everyone sees this differently.Like for me, my dogs have an amazing life.They do so many things.They're busy, they're well taken care of.They do so much on Halloween.I don't have any interest in bringing them with like to me, I wanted to spend time being in the moment with the kids.

I don't want to have to watch like is someone sneaking up behind me in some crazy outfit.It's just like to me, what's the point?I just don't, I don't see the, the fun or excitement of bringing my dogs on, you know, trick or treating if you're dead set on it.And this is advice for all the all the trainers listening as well.

You have to, especially if you don't have kids, you have to recognize that different neighborhoods for trick or treating are completely different.And I'm sure you've seen that.Nelson, where you I've been to some with our kids where like where we used to live in Texas, we'd go with like 20 neighborhood kids and I think I brought my dog a couple times at that time because there's like 20 kids.

There were no surprises.Like we went out.We all like had fun like you know, adults had drinks, kids had snacks, whatever before we went and then we went together and it was like a neighborhood of like 50 houses.I went trick or treating with friends last year.Got a neighborhood in Nashville.

Holy cow was it.It was crazy.People had like all these golf carts, like 6 seater golf carts with like music playing.There were like the little people had like hayride set up behind their pickup truck and it was like Taste of Chicago.

There's nuts.They were like you were elbow to elbow.Putting a dog through that is insane in my opinion.I cannot, if I showed up with a dog, I don't care how well trained they are, how friendly they are, I would not put a dog through that.I think that's an it's kind of like doing that with a 2 year old holding their hand while there's all the scary stuff above their head.

That's just stupid in my opinion.So know the neighborhood and recognize that they're completely and utterly different.And some are madhouses.Good.Advice no in the neighborhood for sure I mean we even map out like what neighborhoods we might want to go to like, you know one year we'll go to this these neighborhoods another year we'll go to those neighborhoods, that kind of stuff.

But even more so, and and I recognize fully that I'm extra paranoid and not the norm when it comes to this kind of stuff.But due to the nature of the job too, I'm also not fully trusting of the fact that people make good decisions, especially about things that they don't know that they don't know.

And so also another big.Reason why I don't like to.Take my dogs is because I'm constantly watching other people's dogs interact with my kids too, and also making sure that my kids aren't doing anything stupid to dogs that they don't know.Because I believe we see that it's not.

There's constantly dogs barking and charging at the door or they're out and about to jump over the the railing of their patios and stuff like that.I mean, we see a lot of mismanaged dogs on Halloween at at the people's houses that I don't want to have to drop my dog to go chase off another dog getting too close to my kid.

I'd rather just be there ready to chase off a dog if I have to.Those sound like solid points.Those sound like good points.Given me the feeling that neither one of you are the type that would dress up your dog.I mean, dog costume should be a huge part of Halloween, right?

It's funny, when I went to Dollar General, the section for Halloween stuff was maybe a total of 10 things.Like there was barely anything there, right?One of the.Things that was there.Though dog Halloween costumes, dog costumes.

So they had a single rack of probably, I don't know, three different sizes and probably 6 costumes.And that's one of the 10 things that was there.So it's the absolute best one.Is the little cowboy that that sits on your dog's back.

I think that that is hilarious.But one of the costumes?Was just like a shirt, a dog sized shirt.That said, I ate my other costume that was pretty good.Classic my dogs just end up getting.Dressed up by the kids in variations of human costumes, like little ballerina skirts or tutus, whatever you call them, Things like that.

That's pretty funny.All right, last thing that I personally wanted to bring up is again another one that it it's definitely dog related, but it can go either way.Either you're at your house giving candy or you took your kids to someone else's house.

Trick or treating.I had this client who had a little daughter, a little daughter I want to say was like around, I don't know, 3 ish, 4:00-ish, some, you know, 5:00-ish, maybe somewhere around there.I'm kind of bad with ages.Super sweet, super sweet little girl.But she was infatuated with dogs.

And we're like, we were talking and on Halloween, the little girl, you know, went trick or treating, rang the doorbell, got the candy, saw the dog and ran into these people's houses to go hug that dog.And the reason I.

Always like it.Comes to mind yeah, I've been paranoid about that beforehand, but it really kind of drives me crazy too is because, you know, you have to be so careful with your dog doing something crazy or or dumb with other dogs.

And I said, you know, on Halloween, I'm watching my kids all the time, but also, I doubt that that person was going to expect to have to field a 5 year old away from their dog.But that's a, a horrible situation to put a a dog into, especially if they're just not ready to handle that kind of thing.

Right.A stranger in the costume not only ring my doorbell, but then ran at me to come hug me around the neck.And I mean, there's just, there's trouble at every step of that.So I do always like to throw that out there to people of, you know, pay attention to the people and and their dogs or your dogs, You know, like there's just there are a lot of goofy things that happen on Halloween that makes it very, very tough owning.

I think what you also touch on there.Is something that I feel like Covey is really passionate about though, is that parents need to teach their kids the proper ways to interact with dogs, Right.And you shouldn't be running into a house to hug a random dog for sure.

I mean, again, we used to teach kids all the time.We were going to the schools of about not even doing that to your friend's dog, let alone a stranger's dog, right?So there's a there's a lot of danger right there.That's all you got is?

I thought you'd jump all over that topic.Yeah, that was like, I'm not sure how much.It's worth expanding on because I think you'd covered it well.I mean, I I agree.You've what do you want me to?I don't know.I thought, I thought.I was teeing you up.I thought you were just going to like go to town there.

I mean, we could talk on that for.A long time, but I think you guys covered it well.Don't let your kid in a costume go up to a strange dog, and also don't let your kid.Go into a stranger's house just full stop right there, Boo.Regardless of if it's a dog.

Or not, right?Yep.Well.One thing we haven't talked about is specifically what to do and I don't think we can should spend a ton of time on this, but I would encourage people that we've got so many episodes talking about dog training.But you say, OK, I went by, you know, the the decorations and I had neighbor kids and I introduced the dog to them and that went pretty well.

I want to try having my dog in the house, you know, out of the cake, out of the crate while trick or treaters come.What I would say is one person's answering the door, the other person I would, you know, I already have the dog on leash.I would not let them run to the door barking, even if it's a friendly bark and then have to calm them down because when your dog has excitement, all of their reactions are amplified good or bad.

So I don't want them excited because it's could amplify the bad.So I'm going to have them on leash.I would have them a good distance from the door.I would, you know, open the door.Depending on the dog, I might just stand 10 feet away and let the dog look and not do anything and just watch and see what the dog does.

If if the dog has been pretty good and if the dog is just watching and wagging their tail and they seem curious, I might not do a thing.If the dog is staring and seems like I see their mouth shut their tail change.Any of the things we talked about this in our body language episode, any of that stuff, I'm probably gonna tell him.

He'll walk them until they chill out.But don't feel like you have to be doing something.Just the dog hanging out on leash 10 or 15 feet away and not being bad is enough.And then after a couple people coming, choose your, you know, your group carefully, but you might have someone that is some that don't have crazy masks on and a lot of decorations aren't.

And the costumes aren't scary.It's a little girl in a Princess dress, right?It's not very hard for a dog to handle.And maybe you'd then go to the door with some treats and say, hey, would you mind throwing a couple treats to the dog?You have the dog on leash, she throws a few treats over.That's great.And then maybe you tried the same later on with some harder costumes.

I would stick to my rule of if you can't see the person's face I would not let them bet the dog.I just think it's a a stupid risk and just not worth taking.But that'd be my short synopsis for what to do.And if you say when do I know that he's ready to do it off leash?I don't see a point in having your dog off leash while you're opening the door with costumes.

I just think I, I don't, I just don't see why you would want to do that.You know, if your dog is that amazing and you can control them, then OK, you know, go for it.But for the average person, I don't think that's a goal that's worth chasing for sure.

Also place.Command works out very well.You know, this is a, an easy one.I, I, I'm glad that you doubled back and, and said that you'd be 10 feet away from the door so that the dog can see because one of the things I was going to add is, you know, be somewhere where the dog can see what's going on.

You know, like out of sight, out of mind is certainly a, a real thing.So if you're in the backroom, you know, like it's, that's not a, that might be false positives or something like that.And all of a sudden you, you think your dog is better than it actually is.Or some dogs are, are worse because they can't see what's going on, right?

So, you know, be somewhere where they can see the door and then you can just calm them down from there 1.Thing we haven't talked about is candy.This sounds obvious but to a lot of people it isn't.We we have rules in our household.

No food upstairs where the kids bedrooms are.There's just no sense in them taking food up there.But you have kids with Halloween getting all this candy candy's going to get all over the house.If you're new, this is your, as a parent, your first Halloween with a dog, I would think carefully about that because maybe there's never food in the basement or in the whatever room, and now all of a sudden there's a huge bag of candy that's left all over the place.

So I'd be very careful there and just think through your dog and your kids and make sure you know where the candy is so you don't find out the hard way when your dog eats 50 pieces of chocolate and is having diarrhea all over the house.And having to poop out the wrappers and everything.

So yeah, that's definitely a big thing to think about, for sure.Did your guys's parents ever?Check your candy for like syringes and needles and stuff.No, we would.Hear about it as kids but they'd never never checked.

I vaguely remember when something.Like that happened in our town and then like I think the, the year of it or the year after.Like I remember looking through candy and making sure it was OK, but you still had people giving out like homemade candy apples and stuff back then too, right?

So like it's, I mean, you're checking that your wrappers are closed on a candy bar, but you also got a popcorn ball from some 70 year old lady who, you know, probably, I don't know, left poisoned and all sorts of stuff.In there poisoned apple for sure.

Well, I remember even as a kid, just thinking to check this stuff well enough, you'd have to open, like, everything for, like, to actually check.Like if someone's injecting poison with a, like, they're not throwing like a giant chunk of glass, right?

Like right on top of me, like, oh, I see glass sticking out of the wrapper.Like if they're actually going to do something, it'd be pretty hard to find.Was there like a?Like a?Certain year that that became a thing, or I mean, I've, I just grew up hearing about it every Halloween, so I remember.

It just like Vloss said, it was like a few years of being a thing.I would guess it was like the late 80s and it was just this time period where like, and I remember my parents would check the candy and just like, and I was probably like 8, I don't know, and like checking the candy.And I remember just thinking, like, what are we even checking for here?

Like this seems like a tough, tough order to figure out if any of it's poisoned.You guys are so old.That's crazy.We are old, we are old.We were one time hearing about a park that had razors attached to the monkey bars and sure enough they were there.

What are you guys?What are?You guys giving away?I feel like Covey's probably like a whole candy bar type of guy.We don't have trick or treaters so.Neither do we or I can't.Right.I can't comment either.So Nelson, what are you giving away?No one's going to be at the.House the lights going to be off because we go to a further neighborhood that typically gives good candy and has a It's not quite like Taste of Chicago like Covey was describing, but it's certainly much more neighborhood focused, which I like.

So hey, Speaking of.Giveaway, big news.I think Velos, you knew I was talking to him about it, but Dogtra wants to start sponsoring the podcast and they're going to be giving away once a month in E collar.

So we will be running giveaways to everyone listening.We will be doing a monthly giveaway and you can enter and win an E collar every month.Super legit we should have.Started with something about people having to wear costumes while listening to the episode and that would there you go giveaway.

Although how would we know a picture?I like.That picture in the comments, You know what I.Have I got to figure out how to like drop 16 different entries into that because I need a new E collar.My doctor the ark is pretty pretty decrepit at this point.

I use a lot and I drop it a lot.So the the remotes kind of seen better days and whatnot.Well, enter I.Think we're starting with 200 Iqs.He can't win.I can't.Win.He can't.Well, let me.

Know when it's going to be the the Arc X Can Taylor probably be there?Oh yeah, there you go.Family members can't win.Like Jamie won, I don't know what.To tell you and Nelson.He'll be like I'll divorce her for a short period of time for the caller if that's what it takes.

She's an ex-wife, she won and we'll just get remarried no big deal.Like this is just.You know, we can finally go on a honeymoon.Like now.It's legit.It'll be fun.Well, enjoy your honeymoon and your new collar and the new collar.

It's a.It's a package deal.Though I'm like, you know what?If you don't even win me the collar, all of this is legit.That's good.Well, I.Hope, I hope it goes well.All right.Well, thanks for listening.Everybody.

Yeah.Halloween, hopefully.Your dogs do well. you're right, it's never the same.

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