Dress up your dog for Halloween? Some can’t resist canine costumes
Jodie Ward-House is the kind of Longhorn fan who inflates a Bevo on game days and proudly displays it on her yard. Her only interest that matches her passion for the Longhorns is her 6-month-old English bulldog, Arden, a dedicated pupil at the Triple Crown Dog Academy that Ward-House is training to be the best therapy dog in the world.Her personal response to Halloween is “sitting in the house in the tub with the lights off – are you kidding me?” But for Arden? After realizing the plethora of Longhorn jewelry, hats and accessories available for pets, she just couldn’t resist this year.
“We were trying to find places other than the academy for her to go for training, and we would take her to other places and there would be all this stuff to buy,” Ward-House said. So, Arden got a pair of $20 orange crystals. She had a 60-pearl and crystal collar made. Then, she bought a Longhorn visor and a burnt orange jersey.
In the days leading up to and including Halloween, Arden will not be the only dog wearing the costume of an owner’s choosing. The National Retail Federation estimates that more Americans are likely to spend more than they have in the nine years the federation has been tracking Halloween spending — about $6.8 billion total. The federation estimates that Americans will spend $1 billion on children’s costumes, about $1.2 billion on adult costumes and about $310 million on pet costumes.
Dressing pets gives owners such delight because though most adults would never dress up as, say, a bumblebee, they transfer their festive inclinations to their pets.”People who themselves might not put on a goofy costume are willing to put the same costume on the dog as a way of getting that same kind of attention,” said Art Markman, a psychology and marketing professor at the University of Texas. Parents, especially, will have to bargain with their children older than 3 or 4 over a cute costume – but dogs aim to please,Water Pumps News, so they’ll comply with no argument. “You get to bask in the reflected glory of the dog and you don’t have to fight with the dog with whether or not it’s willing to put the costume on. You also have the dog acting as a proxy.”
Though that’s true for owners like Ward-House, some pet owners don’t mind donning costumes along with their animals. University of Texas student Vanda Taupradist, 22, often dresses up in a panda suit – for her birthday, at Austin City Limits and sometimes just because – and her 5-month-old Pomeranian, Miss Panda, has a miniature version, aside from her black body, white stomach and white paws.