I’m getting a little older, so perhaps my memories of you have become somewhat fuzzy, but I don’t ever remember my parents dressing up for Halloween, or having a crazy party on the same night I was out trolling the streets for free candy. Nowadays though, Halloween has become a family affair with everyone involved in the dress-up hijinks, and as dogs are usually considered an extension of the family unit, should we really be surprised that they too are included?
The inclusion of the dog into the Halloween picture started slowly, with scrunchies and themed bandanas the original order of the day, but before long hat’s, shoe’s and sweaters were thrown into the mix, until finally the poor old pup was sporting a deer stalker hat and pipe and subjected to being called Sherlock Bones for the duration of the evening.
The one common theme that seems to be displayed in pictures of dogs in costume is the look of shame and abject misery hiding behind their eyes, but the fact that they allow the spooky fashion show to happen without biting a finger off of their owner must mean that they enjoy it on some level. Let’s assume that they do, and instead of feeling sorry for them, let’s talk about some of the costumes, good and bad, that dogs have sported down the years.
I must confess that I do have a personal favorite style of costume for dogs, and those are the ones that, when viewed from the front, make it look as though your four-legged friend is a mini-me version of a well-known superhero or cartoon character. I’ve seen Batman, Spiderman and even Shrek represented in this style, and it makes me giggle every time. There is just something about a little action hero with the protruding snout of a dog that tickles me, and it must have the same effect on other dog owners if the increasing number of costumes that adopt this look have anything to go by.
Another style of costume that loads up on the cute factor are the ones that portray tiny dogs as other, far more ferocious animals. You can’t help but say, “aawwwwwww”, when you see a Yorkshire terrier dressed up as an alligator or a fire-breathing dragon. That cuteness disappears entirely and turns to pity the moment you see the worst dog costume, in my mind at least, that has ever been created by makers of the pet Halloween costume. That would be the big, fluffy lion mane that is generally strapped onto chihuahua’s and other hairless varieties of dogs. It looks less like a costume, and more as though the dog has chewed its way through Grandma’s winter hat, or is simply a bald Scotsman who has been turned into a dog by an evil witch’s spell.
Where the obsession with dog costumes gets creepy is when owners match costumes with their pup; imagine a dog dressed as a dashing prince, attached to a leash and pulled along the street by a fairytale princess. I don’t see that as cute, rather, I simply imagine that the princess’s fair godmother has a bit of a wonky wand. At least they haven’t come up with a costume yet that squeezes dog and owner into a simple costume, or perhaps they have and I’m just shopping in the wrong place. A little bit more acceptable are matching costumes for dogs, although dressing up a apir of your pups as the bride and groom may be stretching the joke a little too far.
Judging by the number of new costumes added in the dog category of the more popular Halloween websites, I have to assume that this is a trend that is going to continue growing, with the costumes becoming more elaborate with each passing year. It makes you wonder at what point the dogs will start to go out themselves on Halloween, knock on the neighborhood doors and yell, “Trick or Doggie Treat.”
John Watson splits his time between work that pays the bills, and writing which is his true love. As a Scotsman living in the deep south, he is forced to write in order to be understood. John currently resides in the Atlanta area with wife, Penny, a regional chef. You can read more of his work by visiting his blog at TheInkedWriter.com
