Halloween Dog Safety: Candy, Costumes, and Glow Sticks

The candy bowl, ranked

• Chocolate: the headliner. Fun-size bars add up, and dark or baking chocolate in a small dog is an emergency. Wrappers count too: foil and cellophane can obstruct.
• Sugar-free anything, gum, mints, some candies, means xylitol, dangerous in any amount.
• Raisin boxes: the 'healthy' handout is one of the most dangerous items in the bag.
• Candy corn and pure-sugar candy: not toxic, but a bellyful means GI upset.
• Lollipop sticks and wrappers: obstruction hazards that surface days later.

Beyond the candy

• Glow sticks and glow jewelry: dogs bite them; the liquid tastes terrible and causes dramatic drooling but is usually low-toxicity. Rinse the mouth, offer water.
• Candles inside jack-o'-lanterns: burns and knocked-over fires; use LED tea lights.
• Costumes: anything with elastic, buttons or dangling parts your dog (or the costume's wearer) can chew off and swallow.
• The open front door: more dogs bolt on Halloween than almost any other night; a back room with white noise beats a front-row seat.

If the haul gets raided

Count what's missing by wrapper forensics, note the chocolate types, and call your vet or poison control with your dog's weight and the tally. The checker on each candy's page can help you translate 'a pile of fun-size wrappers' into a risk level while you dial.