Thursday, October 18, 2012

Halloween Costume Guide: Costumes for Larger Dogs

While I never thought I'd be one to dress up my dog, once I realized how costumes make our dogs that much more approachable, and help people understand the true nature of pit bulls, we have taken any chance we can to 'suit up' our pups. While there are plenty of pre-made dog costumes, we've realized these usually aren't big enough or can't accommodate how 'busty' our pit bull-type dogs are (we got lucky with this one turtle costume).
One easy fix we found: we shop in the kids section! Here are some things we look for to make easy dog costumes:

Wings & Tutus
We like the 'partially-clothed' costumes which don't need to fit over our pooches' chests to fit, and we have found a whole slew of wing-themed costumes in the children's costume section. These are simple for the pooches to wear with the elastic just slipping under the arms. I have noticed that some of the kids' wings might use 'straps' which aren't as stretchy and need accommodations, so doublecheck there is plenty of space for your dog to walk. Miss M has sported many a pair of wings dressing as: an angel, a St. Patrick's Day fairy, and the lady bug.
We have also bought a tutu in the kids' costume section of target which can easily slip over their waist. We also loved seeing this dog-friendly tutu tutorial from Pitlandia  where they show you how to make a  dog tutu that leaves the stomach area bare so the pooches don't get itchy.

Headbands and Tiaras
The wings usually come with some type of headbands with antennas, and we have also seen cute devil, cat, and bunny ears on headbands. The headbands can usually go on the pooches neck, in front of the color, and we secure them with elastic (but not too tight!).  We found Miss M can also wear this garland, and a tiara, and we just secure a ribbon around the bottom so it doesn't slide off. Here she is in the tiara.

Hats
 We have discovered Mr B's head is the same exact size as a little boy's head. We buy him little boy hats and secure them with an elastic band that goes under the chin (not too tight!). He has worn a little boy's fedora, top hat, and here you can see the difference as he is wearing a regular-size cowboy hat.

This year we are very excited to go to this Halloween parade at Ruff Haus with a slew of other dogs walking together in costume. Though we're still thinking of what we should wear.
What type of Halloween things are you doing with your pooch?

Also:
-We always remember some dogs aren't comfortable in costumes. Here is how we prepare our pooches to wear costumes. 

10 comments:

Rebelwerewolf said...

Our dogs are medium-sized, so we were able to find costumes for them at Target. Mushroom is a Large, and Badger should be an XL (we got him a large, and it was a little small), so we were wondering what people with actual large dogs did!

We've already started practicing having them wear their Halloween costumes. The Coast to Coast Bully Walk falls on the weekend before Halloween, so Badger will be attending in costume. (Mushroom is leash reactive and will be happier at home with her Kong.)

Debra@Peaceabull said...

Last night my husband was googling pit bull costumes and as I was looking over his shoulder, I suddenly shouted, "That's Mr B!" There was a pic of him in his St Paddy's day hat.

I'm still trying to figure out what/if Ray will dress in for Halloween. I ended up measuring him last night because when I was shopping all the costumes seemed too little or too big.

How Sam Sees It said...

BOL - We've been shopping the little kids section for years! We've found we can usually use a costume with just a little modification and a few stitches on a sewing machine.

Sam

Two French Bulldogs said...

The parents get a good kick out of dressing us up this time of year. You guys always look so dapper in your hats and costumes
Benny and Lily

Pitlandia Pooch said...

Thanks for mentioning our tutu tutorial! My plan today is to actually make a tutu for Polly Pocket from Our Waldo Bungie and send it off to them =)

Just yesterday I was at a Joann Fabric store and all of their Halloween costumes were 50-60% off. They had TONS of wings and now I wish that I would have snagged some up!

Anonymous said...

I love the costumes you have for your dogs. I wish I could get mine to wear them and not rip them off!

Anonymous said...

We are going to the BARCStoberfest event on Saturday to benefit our local city shelter and Chocko's running in his first 5k! The weekend of halloween, we are doing our monthly PitBulls on Parade around the inner harbor- costumes of course!

houndstooth said...

Our Halloween costumes were worn tonight at the nursing home. :) We have similar problems that you do in finding a good fit. Greyhound bodies are shaped a lot differently than other dog bodies, and Shepherds have all that hair and they're often bigger than what most costumes come sized for. Anyway, I always make their costumes, partly because I like to exercise my creativity and because that way I can be sure that it fits, is comfortable for them and is safe. This year, I was afraid that Kuster would just be too nutty to wear much of a costume, so we got some of the white hair spray and painted skunk stripes on him since he's solid black. Bunny went as a peacock, we just made a tutu (ironically, from the Petlandia tutorial you linked to) and I embellished it with some felt feather eyes. It was cheap and easy to do, and I'm sure we'll use it again for something.

Anonymous said...

I just saw that Pitlandia has already mentioned it, so we just want to reiterate how excited we are for the tutu they made us! How has no one ever thought to make only a half-tutu for dogs before?! So smart, Pitlandia!

goosie mama said...

Jayhawks sweater :)

http://www.fansedge.com/Kansas-Jayhawks-Dog-Sweater-_-112942491_PD.html

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