Halloween Safety for Dogs and Cats

Trick-or-treating and wearing costumes is fun for children, but this holiday is not so much fun for dogs and cats. Although your pet may be very social, when a person in costume comes to the door, your pet may become scared or over-excited. Even pets that love children can react unexpectedly when there are so many children ringing your doorbell, yelling “Trick or treat!” and looking unfamiliar in strange costumes. Some animals will run away, some may bolt out the door, and others may become aggressive or start barking furiously. The clicker training you’ve worked on with your pet will help him stay calm. Use the clicker to make your pet sit, stay, come, quiet, or even to lead him to his safe place.

In the excitement to find their favorite treats in their bag, kids will drop candy or leave it lying around. And kids love to share their treats with their pets. But chocolate can be toxic for dogs and cats. Use clicker training to teach your dog or cat to “leave it” so you can stop him from eating candy if he starts to pick it up.

Keep your pets inside. It’s unfortunate but true that for some people, doing tricks to dogs and cats is “fun” on Halloween. This is one reason it’s so important to clicker train your pet to “stay” so that they don’t run out the door while you’re handing out candy. Even better, put your pet in their safe place, away from the door and the excitement.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) provides a list of Halloween safety tips. They remind pet owners to be careful of electric cords for lighted decorations – dogs love to chew – and lighted pumpkin candles that can easily singe your curious pet or be knocked over and start a fire. The ASPCA also suggests putting costumes on your pets may be very cute or funny, but can overly stress your pet. And, as always, “make sure your dog or cat has proper identification. If for any reason your pet escapes and becomes lost, a collar and tags and/or a microchip can be a lifesaver, increasing the chances that he or she will be returned to you.”

Clicker training your dog and cat is not just about basic behaviors and clever tricks. Clicker training builds trust and respect between you and your pet, and in special times, such as Halloween, you show them your love by protecting them from potential stress and safety issues. Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Clicker Training Your Cats

Cats have developed a reputation of being self-sufficient and independent. You might assume that makes them difficult to train. But the reality is that using a positive reinforcement training method - clicker training – works very well with cats.

Patience is absolutely essential when clicker training your cat. If you’ve clicker trained a dog, you were probably very happy with how quickly your dog learned the behavior or trick. Most dogs are eager to please their owner and will work hard to learn new skills.

But with cats, it may take a little longer to get and keep their attention. Be sure to take all the time necessary to practice “loading” the clicker, i.e. making your cat familiar with the click-treat pattern. Keep cat clicker training sessions very short, no more than five minutes, and be sure to practice every day.

You can teach your cat to do basic obedience skills, use the litter box, and do a variety of tricks, such as shake and high five as demonstrated by CatChannel.com.



Cats have been successfully taught to run obstacle courses and agility courses. In the International Cat Agility Tournaments (ICAT) competition, “cats negotiate an agility course designed to display their speed, coordination, beauty of movement, physical condition, intelligence, training, and the quality and depth of their relationship with their owner who trains with them and guides them through the course.”

Of course, everyone knows that cats have mastered training their owners. TV star Morris the Cat’s owner tried to entertain Morris with a wind-up mouse on the floor, only to have Morris chide, “Great – play with it outside.” But all cat lovers secretly love being trained to cater to their cats. With clicker training, cats might just enjoy performing for their owners.