What are the best Halloween costumes for dogs or cats? Before I share with you some ideas for the best Halloween costumes for pets, let’s consider a few factors: comfort, safety, style, and cost. Each of these considerations is an essential aspect of finding your ideal pet costume.
Comfort
Since I love my pets, I rank comfort first. When considering comfort, there are certain things to look for. Placing a costume on a pet may scare even the friendliest dog; think about this — they don’t really realize the picture for this whole Halloween dressing up thing. If your pet won’t move, or runs and hides, this may just be a sign that either he’s not ready or never will be. Several partial/short dress-up sessions might make them feel more comfortable, especially if the interactions are good, so your pet learns this is a fun thing to do. Reward your pet and play with them when they are wearing it to provide good feedback.
Most Halloween costumes for our four-legged friends circle the neck in some way and then either have an elastic or adjustable strap around the waist or two defined front leg holes. Note that there are some with just two leg holes that have fake arms in front. Be sure the neck area is not too tight, and your pet could still walk in the costume. The elastic band or two front leg hole type costumes tend to be more open than those with four defined leg holes. Thus, these allow more comfort and allows your pet to still relieve themselves (go to the bathroom).
The looser form costumes with adjustable elastic around the waist could be useful for animals with missing limbs or in a wheelchair. If your dog is wearing a cone for medical reasons, first consider the stress to ensure you’re not making them less able to heal but consider just working the cone into a part of the costume. For instance, create an alien by adding antennae, a martini by adding an olive on the side, or a flower with some flowing petals. Ensure your pet can still drink and eat with the decorations.
Safety
Keeping your pet safe is equally important! Ensure the costume fits well. A well-fitting costume can avoid a too-tight neck choking hazard. If the Halloween costume fits well, they will be able to see clearly and breathe normally. The costume should be loose-fitting but not loose enough to catch on anything they walk past, so be sure to check the sizes when purchasing.
Don’t just forgo the leash with your costume for style reasons if you’re headed outside. Lots of craziness is going on during Halloween, and if they get spooked, you don’t want them to run off and either get lost or injured. Also, do not leave your pet alone with a costume on. Many things could happen, they could get hooked up to something and cause breathing issues, they could try to eat part of the outfit, or they could try to ‘escape’ the costume and get unsafely caught on something.
If you’re considering painting your pet, some paints say they are pet safe. Keep in mind that many animals groom themselves by licking, so they may lick the paint! After doing research and having thought initially this would be safer than a costume, I’m now inclined more so to do a costume more than paint my dog due to too many unknown risks.
Cost
Next, let’s consider how much to spend. Reviewing many of the options below, it appears that a pretty decent costume might run about $20-45. They seem to run higher depending on the luxury/brand, but there are many affordable options.
Style
Next, let’s consider the style.
A few initial things to consider upfront to help guide your decision are the safety and comfort considerations from before, whether you’re participating in a themed Halloween Costume Contest with or for your pet, if you want the costume to be a part of a set or group concept that goes together, and what genre you’re aiming for.
Just for Fun
The options are open if you’re dressing up just for fun! Consider the Safety and Comfort and go from there on your selection for Fido.
Halloween Costume Contest
If you’re trying to win a Halloween Costume, be sure to check out the theme and options so that your dog is wearing an appropriate costume to go along with the categories!
Group Theme Costumes
For a group concept, people will decorate in a theme fashion.
Some examples are included to get your creative juices flowing:
Pet and Owner / Pet Parent
- Hot dog vendor and Hot dog
- Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf
Pet and Teen
- Princess Leia and Yoda
- Ariel and Sebastian the Crab
- Han Solo and Chewbacca
Pet and Young Child / Toddler / Infant
- The Grinch and Max
- A firefighter with a Dalmatian(s)
- Monkey and Banana
Pet with a Family / Couple
- Foods that go together
- Santa and Elves (can double for Christmas photo time!)
- Star Wars-themed characters
- Disney movie theme characters
Multiple Pets
- Dr. Seuss Thing 1 and Thing 2
- Batman and Robin
Multiple Pets
- Cat in the hat
After your decisions are made, you can narrow down your options. Consider the detail/quality vs. the price and availability.
Main Considerations
Now that we’ve thought about comfort, safety, cost, and a combination theme, other topics to consider when coming up with your perfect Halloween costumes for your pet include type, sizing, color, and sex.
Type of Costume
What kind of Halloween costume am I looking for?
Some examples below included to help with your brainstorming:
Funny / Silly
- Clown
- Alligator
- Cow
- Skunk
- Pig
- IT worker
- Lizard
Trendy
- Current President or other political figures
- Trending stars
Cute
- Teddy Bear
- Bunny
- Panda
Scary
- Head on platter
- Shark
- Skull and bones
- Bendy
- Vampire
Easy
- Hot dog
- Ghost
- Lion
- Bat
Popular
- Ladybug
- Spider
Timeless
- Superhero
- Dinosaur
Unique & Unusual
- Unicorn
- Bull/Rodeo Rider
- Hunter
- Sushi
- Nurse
Pop Culture
- Star Wars: Ewok, Yoda
- Ghostbuster
- Harry Potter: Harry Potter, Dobby
- Disney
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Groot
- Winnie the Pooh
- Dr. Seuss: Thing 1 and Thing 2, Cat in the Hat
- Marvel: Captain America, Iron Man
- DC Comics: Wonder Woman
- Toy Story: Woody, Buzz Lightyear
- Wizard of Oz: Iron Man, ToTo
- Grease
- Pokemon
- Stranger Things
- Game of Thrones
Pun related costumes (“Punny costumes”)
- Deviled Egg (and then attire entails devil and an egg, for instance)
- Even think about this for Combo/Group/Pairings — with the person being one part of the costume and your pet completing the pun with the other element!
Creative/Awesome
- Make the costume you choose awesome by (safely) customizing to not be as out-of-the-box
Costume Sizing
Typical sizing is based on the measurement of neck size circumference, back length (from neck to tail), and how large the chest is around (behind the front paws, standing on four legs). Measure for a more precise fit.
To give an idea of size, here’s a table of some standard sizes and measurements based on breed. This is just for a general guideline, but it would be best if you measure your pet!
| XX-Small | Chihuahua, Teacup breeds | 2-5 lb |
| X-Small | Maltese, Toy Poodle, Yorkie | 5-9 lb |
| Small | Mini-Dachshund, Toy Poodle, Pekingese | 10-18 lb |
| Medium | Jack Russell, Beagle, Maltese, Shih Tzu, Corgi | 18-29 lb |
| Large | Boston Terriers, Pugs, French Bulldogs | 29-40 lb |
| X-Large | Labrador, Dalmatian, Bulldogs | 40-60 lb |
| XX-Large | Rottweiler, Boxer, Shepard | 60-80 lb |
| XXX-Large | Great Dane, Great Pyrenees, St Bernard | 80-120 lb |
For larger (XL, XXL, XXXL) dogs, you may need to track down costumes that offer the largest size costumes.
Color Options
Some costumes just look more natural on pets of a particular color. Consider a Panda costume that might look best with a white pup, and an Ewok may be ‘best’ played by a brown with a black coated dog.
Gender Neutrality?
It’s fine for a girl to be dressed up as a cowboy and a boy pup to be a decorated star. Other options may seem more specific to a preconceived gender; you can decide what works best for your pet.
Other Holidays to Consider
One may want to consider other holidays as well when purchasing a pet costume. Consider if the outfit may be worn for holiday (Christmas or Hannukah) photos, a 4th of July (patriotic) celebration, Thanksgiving, during Cinco de Mayo, Mardi Gras, or even St Patrick’s Day! This way you could get the most bang for your buck.
Summary
I hope you find the information above helpful in determining the best Halloween costume for your pet!
All in all, it’s a lot of fun coming up with the best Halloween costume for your pet. Considering the options can be a blast — will we do a group or go solo? Do I want to get a scary, on-trend, or silly costume? Is the outfit easy to wear and comfortable?
If you value comfort over thematic presence, you may be inclined to do something more straightforward, but by thinking about the various elements, you can find the best fit for your pet!
If you have any comments or thoughts, feel free to use the form below. It would be great to hear from you!