Ready to celebrate Easter with your dog? In this post, we’re talking about some fun ways you can enjoy Easter with your dog. We’ll also cover some safety considerations and how to prepare your dog for visitors over the bank holiday weekend. Firstly, let’s start with the fun stuff!
Fun ways to celebrate easter with your dog
- Easter Treat Hunt- hide treats around the house and/or garden and let your dog sniff them out
- You can buy specific Easter Eggs and Treats for your dog. However, like with other holidays your dog has no concept of holidays so don’t feel you have to!
- If you want to treat your dog to an Easter themed toy, we like the look of this Easter Egg Burrow Toy from Zippy Paws. Duke has a few of these burrow toys and they’re great fun!
- Use your leftover Easter egg boxes as DIY puzzles. You can pop some of your dogs food in the boxes, fold them back up and let your dog have fun getting the treats out. Dogs who love to shred will also enjoy destroying the boxes! Always supervise your dog doing these activities and ensure they don’t swallow any cardboard.
Safety
- Make sure your dog doesn’t get hold of any Easter treats that could make them unwell. These include chocolate, hot cross buns, simnel cake and leftovers from your Easter roast dinner, especially small bones or salty, fatty foods.
- Ensure your dog doesn’t eat any spring blooms that could make them poorly. These include daffodils and bluebells.
- Avoid dressing your dog up in bunny ears or other Easter costumes. Most dogs are just going to find this confusing and stressful.
- Keep Easter decorations like plastic eggs well out of reach of your dog. These could be a choking hazard and cause obstructions if chewed up by your dog.
- If your dog is on regular medication, make sure you’re stocked up before the bank holiday weekend.
- Make sure you have the emergency vets number saved on your phone, just in case.
Holiday Visitors
If you are expecting visitors over the holidays, it’s worth thinking in advance about what you can to help your dog enjoy the experience too. Whether your dog finds guests very exciting (like Duke) or very stressful, making a plan beforehand can help give you the confidence that you know how to help your dog stay calm.
- If you know you’re expecting visitors, ensure your dog has had sufficient exercise beforehand. A quiet walk somewhere in nature where they can just sniff and relax is ideal (known as a decompression walk).
- Prepare some toys and activities in advance for your dog that get them engaged in calming behaviours such as sniffing, chewing or licking. Snuffle mats/balls, long lasting chews such as Pizzles and stuffed kongs or Lickimats are all great options that promote calm. Read our blog post for more tips on teaching your dog to be calm.
- Don’t force your dog to interact with guests, especially if they are new people. There’s nothing wrong with keeping your dog in another room or in their crate if they are happier there.
- If you’re planning an Easter Egg Hunt, make a note of where the eggs are hidden. Keep your dog safely in another room whilst the egg hunt is on then make sure they’ve all been collected before you let your dog back in that room or garden.
Have a wonderful Easter break if you’re celebrating! And we hope you all have a lovely bank holiday weekend.