*I was sent product from Petsmart in return for this post. All opinions are my own.

Wow, it’s officially October so Halloween will be here before we know it. For the most part, this Halloween will be like all the rest for me but it’s different in one way – I have dogs this year! While I’m sure it’s funny to dress up any dog, it seems even more fun to have two (especially of the same breed and thus, similar appearance and size) to match up – kind of like having his and her options for dogs.

Petsmart has a variety of halloween costumes, my true favorite being the ones that trn dogs into horses or other rideable animals like this Jockey costume – it’s SO hilarious to me.

Seems how I have two dogs, I wanted to have their costumes correlate somehow. Petsmart has lots of correlating costumes such as their Martha Stewart Monster costumes, Disney options (Such as mickey and minnie or pooh and tigger) but I ultimately went with two costumes from the Sesame Street line, Elmo and Oscar.

The downside of having pugs is they have odd proportions compared to other dog breeds. My pug has a 13″ back (Collar to above the tail) which puts them at a medium on the size chart. He has a 16 inch neck, making him larger than an XL (which is a 13.5 inch neck) and a 23″ chest, putting them at a large. So yes, pugs definitely have an odd shape! I wasn’t sure which size to go with so we wound up trying a medium and a large. The great thing about these costumes is they have two velcro straps (one that goes under the chin and one that goes across the belly) so they are really adjustable. The mediums could fit on my dogs but only a little bit of the velcro was touching because they were almost too big for them and we couldn’t get the hood portion onto their heads.

The large’s on the other hand, were a bit too long (but their pug cinnamon-roll or snail-shaped tails hold them in place) and we were able to pull the straps really tight and only stick a small piece of the velcro pieces together so that the material was smaller, but they were still quite big. The hoods were quite large (pugs have proportionally small heads) so they wouldn’t stay on. I think part of this also has to do with how short pugs’ necks are.

The Elmo dog costume is incredibly soft like a baby blanket. The Oscar costume has the same material used for Oscar’s face. Both costumes have a slit in the upper back area so that the D hook of your dogs collar can come through to be worn with a leash. They also have slits in the hood so that your dogs ears can be pulled through instead of smushed down. They can be machine washed in cold water.

So, our pugs just aren’t shaped very well for these costumes but they are able to be worn for short periods, long enough to get a some oohs and ahhs and snap a few pictures which is mostly the goal anyway, right?

We were also sent two Petsmart halloween themed toys. Prior to this, we had tried three or four plush dog toys with no luck. Frank & Beans would look at me like I had a third head when I tried to get them to play with the other plush toys. So I didn’t have high hopes for these toys but I am so thrilled that I was proven wrong.

The pumpkin toy is the Grreat Choice Fleece Flattie is about the size of my hand and has a crinkly sound that is made whenever you move the pumpkin around as well as a small squeaker. Frank seems interested in the crinkly sound and even bit the pumpkin a time or two but for the most part won’t play with the pumpkin.

I can’t find the exact Snoopy Halloween toy that we weren’t sent on the Petsmart website but the have several listed that are similar plush ring shaped toys. It’s rather small, about the size of my hand and is really soft. We took this toy outside and I squeaked it a couple of times (which really got their interest which surprised me because the were scared of the squeakers from toys in the past) and then I threw it and they both dove for it. They had never shown anwhere near that level of excitement in a toy that I had seen. We spent probably half an hour or more playing fetch and tug a war with this toy the first day. After we came inside they would even pick it up on their own and bring it over near the other dog and play tug a war between themselves. This was the first time that I had ever seen them initiate plate between themselves. We played with this toy so much that the stuffing was coming out by day two but even without the stuffing we have continued to play with it. I think part of the appeal was the ring shape so that we can play tug a war, and the rest was the small size of the toy. A lot of plush dog toys are as big or bigger than my dogs’ heads which perhaps is intimidating for them. Regardless, I’m so excited that we have found a toy that my dogs enjoy and we will be shopping at Petsmart for toys in the future now that we know they like toys and Petsmart has such a large selection to choose from.

Do you celebrate Halloween with your dogs? What are they going to be this year?

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Emily

Hi there! I am Emily Evert, the owner of Emily Reviews. I am 28 and live in a small town in Michigan with my boyfriend Ryan and our two pugs. I have a large family and I adore my nieces and nephews. I love reading memoirs, and learning about child development and psychology. I love watching The Game of Thrones, Teen Mom, Sister Wives and Veep. I like listening to Jason Isbell, John Prine, and other alt-country or Americana music. I created Emily Reviews as a creative outlet to share my life and the products that I love with others.

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