Halloween and your dog: a calm evening when the street comes knocking

Long before pumpkins and doorbells, the end of October marked the turn of the year. The harvest was in, the light was going, and the animals were drawn close to the fire. Your dog still feels that turn. The evenings darken, the air changes, and then, one night, the whole street comes knocking.

Why does Halloween unsettle so many dogs?

To a dog, a knock means someone is arriving at the den. On Halloween it happens again and again, after dark, and the faces at the door are hidden behind masks. Dogs read us through our faces, the eyes above all. Take the face away, and a familiar shape becomes a stranger.

Why does the clock change matter?

This year, Halloween falls on a Saturday, six days after the clocks go back. Your dog's body runs on light, not on the clock on the wall. Dinner at six now arrives at what their body knows as seven. Start the week feeding at five by the new clock, then move a little later each day, ten or fifteen minutes at a time. By Saturday, the body has caught up.

Does my mood affect my dog?

More than most of us realise. In 2019, researchers at Linköping University in Sweden took hair samples from dogs and the women they lived with, twice, months apart. The hair holds the stress hormone cortisol over time, and the dog's levels followed their person's. Where the pet parent's levels were high, the dog's were too, and the researchers concluded that dogs mirror their people. So the evening begins with you. Before dusk, sit with your dog. Rest a hand on the chest, and slow your own breath until theirs slows with it.

What can I do before the first knock?

Three old instincts, honoured.

The nose. Take the last walk while there is still light, which on Saturday is before five. Let your dog lead with the nose. When Charlotte Duranton and Alexandra Horowitz gave dogs two weeks of scent work, the dogs became measurably more optimistic. Sniffing is how a dog makes sense of the world, and it settles the body from the inside. At home, scatter part of dinner across a rug or the garden and let it be found. Foraging is the oldest work a dog knows.

The den. Choose the room furthest from the front door. Draw the curtains before dusk, so the street becomes shadow rather than movement. Lay down something you have worn. Your scent says home.

The door. If someone else in the house can take the door, let them. Or leave a bowl of sweets on the step, with a note asking callers to take one and let the house rest.

Can dogs eat pumpkin?

Yes. Plain, cooked pumpkin is one of autumn's simplest gifts to the bowl: deep orange with beta-carotene, and rich in fibre. When you carve the lantern, set some fresh flesh aside before the candle goes in. Steam or roast it with nothing added: no salt, sugar, butter or spice. Mash it and let it cool.

Add a spoonful to your dog's usual food: a teaspoon for a small dog, a tablespoon for a large one. Take a little of the usual food away to make room. A spoonful is a nutritional top-up, not a meal. Tinned pumpkin pie filling is not the same thing, because it is sweetened and spiced. Never feed the carved lantern once it has stood out.

Which Halloween sweets are dangerous for dogs?

Chocolate, especially dark chocolate. Anything sugar-free, which may contain xylitol (also called birch sugar), dangerous to dogs even in small amounts. Raisins and sultanas. Keep the sweet bowl and the wrappers well out of reach, and tell the children why. If your dog eats any of these, call your vet straight away, even if your dog seems fine.

Should my dog wear a costume?

Most dogs are happiest in the coat nature gave them. If the evening walk is cold: wool, not fleece. It breathes, and it warms without trapping heat.

By Sunday morning the street is still again, the pumpkins have softened on the steps, and the year has turned. Later this week, as Bonfire Night draws near: fireworks, and how a dog's nervous system finds its way back to rest.

Lilo Ask-Henriksen, Holistic Animal Wellbeing, London. She trained as a veterinary nurse in Denmark, and was authorised and practised in Norway.

Research

Sundman, A.-S. et al. (2019) Long-term stress levels are synchronized in dogs and their owners. Scientific Reports 9, 7391.
Duranton, C. and Horowitz, A. (2019) Let me sniff! Nosework induces positive judgment bias in pet dogs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science.