I normally spend the year dreading Halloween on behalf of dogs. From a dog’s standpoint, it can be scary: people who don’t look human, large crowds made up of mostly children walking around in the dark, lots of doorbells ringing, the yelling of “trick or treat.” Really…from a dog’s point of view it can be traumatic. However, this year, I’m focusing on why Halloween is a great holiday for dogs and their owners.

Halloween is really the one holiday out of the year that provides you with the perfectly controlled training scenario. How often have you heard someone tell you to set your dog up for success, practice around controlled distractions, and repeat exercises enough times that your dog can learn? If you’ve been to any training class, you likely heard all of these things. Halloween allows you the opportunity to do all of this for an entire evening!