So, do you have dogs that bark when strangers come to the door? For security, that's a good thing but what about Halloween? What do you do then? You don't want to frighten the kiddies!
Last year, it was our first Halloween in our new home. We didn't know our neighbors but we were sure they knew our dogs!
We decided the easiest approach was to incorporate the beasts into part of the fun! Here's how you can bring barking dogs into the festivities without scaring the kids!
MAKE A SIGN
Have a sign pointing to where your dogs will be hanging out. --> TO THE WEREWOLVES!!! Make sure your dogs are unable to get outside. Keep the lights out inside the room or porch, but, have lights on outside, so the kids have lots of visibility.
INVITE THE CHILDREN
When children approach your house, ask them if they would like to see the werewolves first or after the candy. All the children at my house screamed "Werewolves first!"
POINT THE WAY
I did not lead the children to the dogs, I simply pointed with my very cool skeleton glove to the end of the deck, where the screened porch was located. The children all ran down to see the werewolves! A few children came back and told me that those were really "Snow Dogs!"
MAKE IT FUN
Of course, the dogs barked and howled, but after expecting to see werewolves, this only made the children laugh and giggle! One of our dogs was only 3 weeks old and my husband was inside to show the children the baby werewolf! Of course, the children had a million questions and we did our best to answer them all. The parents seemed to enjoy this also. One mother told me that her son was usually terrified of dogs and thanked me for a positive experience.
KEEP IT SILLY
Most of the children wanted to pat the dogs, which was a terrifying prospect for us! We solemnly told them that the dogs were only allowed to eat one Trick or Treater every year -this made the children laugh and giggle more! Halloween ended with low stress for us and lots of fun for all. If only the water delivery guy was as brave as the children!
Tips & Warnings:
-- Decorate the werewolves den with lots of scary spiders and bats
-- If you don't have a screened porch use the front window, you know your dog will jump and go crazy -just like a werewolf.
-- Don't force any kids who refuse to see the werewolves, agree with him or her and offer an extra piece of candy!
-- It's best to have someone with the dogs, just in case! We had a
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