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How to Have a Dog-Friendly Holiday This Year

Celebrating the holidays with four-legged fur-babies is the best! This holiday season, make your dog an integral part of your holiday magic from decking the halls to the holiday card to ringing in the New Year! These are fun, festive, and dog-approved safe ways to have a fantastically dog-friendly holiday this year!

Get a Doggie Advent Calendar

For those who don’t know, advent refers to a time of celebration and anticipation, which as we know the holidays inspire much of those lovely feelings. While there are a lot of options, this customizable dog bone shaped one from Etsy is incredibly stylish and allows you to stock it with your own treats. Another charming option is a Christmas Tree shaped calendar for dogs; it’s perfect for tucking your dog’s favorite treats into.

Get Extra Treats for Your Sweet Dog

If you’re like the rest of us, then you treat yourself a little extra with all of the pastries and cookies and sweets that tempt us everywhere we go throughout the holiday season. Why not let your dog have a little extra as well? It’s hard to resist adorably-shaped seasonal treats that you can share with your dog who…let’s be honest…has been a very good dog this year indeed. Treats are a perfect way to enjoy the holidays with your dog! It feels great to share a little extra reward with your dog…it really does look like they’re smiling. ‘Tis the season!

Feature Your Dog on Your Holiday Card

While your dog is wearing a grin from that extra holiday treat, snap a photo and make your dog the star of your holiday card. Holiday cards are so fun to give and to receive. Whether you’re doing a digital card or mailing cards out traditionally, a card with your precious puppy doing something fun, funny, beautiful, charming, adorable, etc. will warm the hearts of everyone you know this holiday season (and it will give you something to smile and sigh at whenever you need a little extra holiday cheer).

Take Memorable Holiday Lit Strolls with Your Dog

It’s impossible to think of strolling through streets of holiday lights without also hearing the words to “Silver Bells” chiming through our memories. The holidays are such a special time because they are steeped in nostalgia. A quiet stroll past rows of brightly lit homes or shops or through a park dazzling with fairy lights will be a memory that you can quietly cherish for years and is one that you can repeat throughout the holiday season.

Buy Dog Presents for Under the Tree

Whether it’s just you and your fur baby or you and a host of kids and a partner or just a handful of the afore-mentioned family, having a present for your dog under the tree is an ultra-fun way to enjoy the holidays with your dog. Kids (okay, us, too) have so much fun hyping up the dog to open their present, helping them open their present, and then showing them how to maximize enjoyment of their present.

Plush dog beds, an upgraded food and water dish, a harness and sturdier leash, clothes for winter walks, rubber dog chews (Kong is a great brand!), new snacks and treats, or favored snacks and treats all make great gifts for your dog that will please your pup to no end during the hullaballoo of present opening.

Do make sure, though, during the present opening that trash and strings from ribbons are quickly picked up because these can easily become distracting for your dog.

Cook (or Buy) a Special Holiday Feast for Your Pup

Speaking of distracting, nothing is more distracting to a dog than what you’re cooking up in the kitchen. Your dog loves to be with you and part of that action, which is totally fine; though, do keep in mind there are a lot of human foods dogs shouldn’t eat and the ones they can eat are usually seasoned and are thus not safe. For example, turkey and sweet potatoes and carrots with no seasoning and thoroughly cooked are very healthy for dogs, but when they’ve been flavored with garlic, onion, herbs, oil, butter, and other seasonings, they become downright dangerous for dogs.

Also, it’s worth noting that bones from meats are very dangerous to dogs, so it’s best to not give your pet table scraps or sneak-peeks while cooking.

It is okay, though, to give your dog a personally-cooked meal that you made just for them. Deboned, skinless unseasoned turkey breast cooked all the way through with some fresh cooked sweet potatoes and corn are a healthy and loving way to treat your dog during the holidays.

Of course, you can equally treat your dog with a feast of their favorite dog food before the cooking and the meal get underway to ensure your dog won’t have an appetite for human food.

Create a Safe & Happy Space to Say Happy New Year!

Lastly, as the holidays go out with a bang, make sure your dog is safe and comfortable however you celebrate. You might enjoy a cozy wrap to the year on your couch cuddling with your dog and watching a favored movie, or you might plan to go out for a New Year’s kiss with someone other than your dog (dogs and their kisses are forever, just saying, if you’re on the fence about going out).

However you plan to say “howdy-do” to 2022, make sure your dog is comfortable and safe. If you live in an area where there will be fireworks, keep your dog inside. Most dogs get serious anxiety when it comes to pyrotechnics and loud noises. Also, consider giving your dog an anti-anxiety medication or herbal supplement. Your veterinarian can make a recommendation.

All of these are tried and true ways to ensure that you and your dog have a happy wrap to 2021 and that your holidays with your dog will indeed be merry and bright.

Happy holidays to you and your dog!

At Old Mother Hubbard, we believe that every dog deserves to be “treated” wonderfully. During the holidays, we especially believe in treating dogs well and in making them a central part of all of the fun! That’s why we make seasonal treats along with our regular line of delicious, healthy fun-to-eat treats. It’s the holidays! Treat your dog.