Watch golden retrievers model nostalgic DIY Halloween costumes
Chandler and Ernie, or Thing #1 and Thing #2, model custom Halloween costumes of popular characters.
- About 23% of consumers surveyed plan to dress up their pet — roughly the same percentage who plan to visit a haunted house, according to a National Retail Federation survey.
- Dogs dressed like Dracula, bubble baths, banana splits and more.
Nigel Drake loves new toys and treats, but he’s not about to don a $25 Beetlejuice dog costume, complete with a black-and-white striped jacket and outlandish white wig, for Halloween.
My corgi once wore a bright yellow Charlie Brown shirt with the black zigzag at the bottom two years ago on Oct. 31. He gave us a hard time then. And his saucer eyes said it all. “Sure, you’re a nice lady who hands out lots of treats. And I’ll do this for you. One. Time. Only.”
Nigel is a corgi of conviction. He doesn’t wear sweaters, winter coats or costumes. This season, he has given us hope that he will wear a $6 glow-in-the-dark, jack-o-lantern bandanna.
People will spend more than you think on pet costumes
I won’t risk buying an elaborate outfit for my dog. But others will spend nearly $1 billion overall — or some $860 million to be more precise — on pet costumes this Halloween, according to the National Retail Federation.
About 23% of consumers surveyed plan to dress up their pet — roughly the same percentage (24%) who plan to visit a haunted house.
Treating your pet like a toddler can set you back $25 or so. An LED light-up spider costume is running about $30 online at Amazon for the extra-large pets; less for smaller sizes.
Roxie is fearless in a tricorne
Danna Smith, of Canton, dressed 3-year-old Roxie in a black-and-red costume with a pirate’s hat that, honestly, had a hard time staying put when she took the poodle out to get a professionally taken picture. The outfit was a hand-me-down from her beloved dog, Sophie, who is no longer with us. Smith doesn’t remember what she originally paid.
“Too bad you didn’t come last year when Roxie was a cowgirl,” Smith told me as we talked in the parking lot of the Premier Pet Supply in Westland where Halloween photos were being taken on Saturday, Oct. 18, by Ruff Life Photography.
Smith and her daughter Jennifer Manzella, also of Canton, enjoyed a mom-daughter day outing that included donating $10 each for photos of their dogs in costumes.
Rudy rocks it as Frankenstein
Tiny tot Rudy rocked a green-and-black Frankenstein hat and jacket, which cost around $20. The older York terrier once survived a time of terror when he was abandoned and thrown out of a car along Michigan Avenue, according to Manzella who got the dog as a rescue.
“My dogs are my children,” Manzella said. “I don’t have any children, so my mom doesn’t have grandchildren.”
The dogs are their precious little ones.
They both love Rudy and Roxie enough to stand in line a little bit to get their Halloween photos taken at a makeshift studio in the back of the pet store that day.
What are the hot pet costumes this Halloween?
Pumpkins. Hotdogs. Bumblebees. Ghosts. Superheroes. Bats. Dressing up like a dog. Witches. Spiders. Batman. And, yes, dressing up like a cat. Those are all the top costumes for pets this year, according to the National Retail Federation.
A small dog melted hearts in a banana split costume at an early photo shoot at the Premier Pet Supply store in Riverview on Oct. 18. Star, a 3-year-old Great Dane, wore a Detroit Lions David Montgomery jersey. Another dog, Roscoe, dressed up as Dracula.
All sorts of ideas for Halloween pet attire are out there, including an online photo of a dog dressed as a mop sitting in one of those yellow janitor buckets with wheels.
One woman dressed as a witch crafted a way for her dog to dress, covered in straw, as a witch’s broom during the iconic Halloween dog parade in New York City on Oct. 19
You can find a dog costume for around $20 or less with bath bubbles on the top and a yellow rubber duck floating in the middle. Your dog dressed as a bathtub? OK.
At Target, I discovered a red Target shopping cart costume for pets with the bull’s-eye on the side for $17 — or $12 for a Target delivery worker costume where the pet is carrying a box.
Bob Kaluzny, of Westland, didn’t imagine that his rescue labradoodle, Toby, who weighs about 100 pounds, would want to wrangle into a costume. But the lovable doodle looked smart Saturday in a purple-and-orange bandanna. He started out as a frisky puppy in Ohio who needed a new home because he was creating too much stress for the older family dog. He found a new home in Michigan.
Pets are not just dressing up to hand out treats at the house. They’re also carving out time to attend special Halloween-themed events — maybe even two or three activities during the season.
Bentley, who will turn 4 in December, got his picture taken in his furry bright green monster costume in Westland on Oct. 18. And Sharon Parkila, of Garden City, plans to take Bentley to a Howl-O-Ween Dog Costume Party Oct. 31, at the Radcliff Center in Garden City, where they will have doughnuts and cider for the humans and treats for the dogs.
A few years ago, the little furball didn’t do well in a foster home setting and ended up at Almost Home Animal Rescue where Parkila found him in December 2022.
“He’s a barker. He’s a very vocal person,” said Parkila, who wore a Halloween T-shirt and black, witch hat fascinator for the picture taking event Oct. 18.
Where are the Halloween pet parties?
Pet-centric events are everywhere this Halloween.
The 12th annual Howl-O-Ween Costume Party at Grand Circus Dog Park in Detroit is scheduled from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25. The event is free. More information about contests, giveaways and more can be found here: https://downtowndetroit.org/event/howl-o-ween-presented-by-strategic-staffing-solutions/
Grand Circus Dog Park events are presented by Strategic Staffing Solutions and supported in part by Michigan Humane and Premier Pet Supply, who will be on-site with giveaways, treats and prizes for contest winners.
And then, there’s the Zombie Pet Parade in Detroit.
The Halloween-themed parade will take place along a portion of the Detroit RiverWalk around Milliken State Park on Oct. 25, running from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
“Pets are encouraged to be dressed up in costume,” according to the Outdoor Adventure Center, managed by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
Apparently, dogs can dress on their own?
You can’t have a holiday without pictures
Throughout October, pets can get a professional Halloween-themed portrait for a $10 donation at various Premier Pet Supply stores. Times and hours vary. No appointments.
All the money collected for the photos is donated to local rescues, including Teachers Pet, Dog Aide, NBS Rescue, Buster Foundation, Chuckwagon Food Pantry, Feral Kitty Trappers, Bark Nation and more.
The Premier Pet Supply store in Novi at 47810 Grand River Avenue will offer photos from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Oct. 25. The store at 19784 Haggerty Road in Livonia will offer photos from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Oct. 25. And the Livonia store at 15399 Merriman Road will offer photos from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 25.
On Oct. 26, the Premier Pet Supply in downtown Detroit at 1511 Washington Blvd. will offer photos from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Beverly Hills store at 31215 Southfield Road will offer photos from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 26.
Mike Palmer is the owner of Premier Pet Supply with 14 stores around metro Detroit; the newest store opened in Milford on Oct. 20.
Early this year, Palmer said the locally owned retailer saw a rush of customers ready to dress their pets in Detroit Lions attire, given the surging popularity of the NFL team.
And, he predicted, Detroit Lions costumes will be popular for Halloween, too.
Lion’s manes are $14.99 to $16.99 each, dependent on the size; and jerseys are $24.99 to $39.99 each, again depending on the size.
Over the last five to 10 years, he said, the Halloween holiday has become more popular with pets,” he said.
“It’s become a very quick close second to Christmas. Christmas will always be the No. 1 holiday for pets.”
Something as simple as a locally made Halloween-themed bandanna costs anywhere from $5 to $8, depending on the size. Some more elaborate costumes, like a tarantula or firefighter, can go as high as $30 to $40.
Palmer said the photo events hosted by Premier Pet Supply proved to be a good fundraiser. Last year, he said, more than $22,000 was raised for local groups from Halloween photos, Santa photos and other theme-events during the year.
People love pictures of their pets and pictures with their pets. Troy-based Ruff Life Photography lists opportunities online for holiday photo sessions for your pet in a magical tree farm setting in Michigan for $250 for a 20-minute session.
Or one could book classic holiday family portraits with Santa at the historic estate of the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House in Grosse Pointe Shores for $275 for a 30-minute appointment. Many of those sessions were already sold out in mid-October.
“I’m the busiest I’ve ever been,” said Christine O’Brien, who has been photographing rescue and shelter animals since around 2008.
“What started as a way to help homeless pets find homes grew into something much bigger — a way to connect with people who share that same love and compassion for animals,” said O’Brien, who officially launched the business in 2014.
O’Brien — who photographed 143 pets at five different stores on Oct. 18 and Oct. 19 — isn’t paid for her work during the fundraising events at Premier Pet Supply.
Sometimes, she gets new clients. But mostly, she said, she loves raising money for local nonprofits and connecting with people who often tell their stories about how their pets survived tough times before they were rescued.
And yes, people can show up with all sorts of pets some days, including guinea pigs, rabbits, chickens, lizards, snakes, a praying mantis, brine shrimp, rats, and ferrets.
A praying mantis? Its name was Princess Sophia and she was raised by an entomologist.
“People have brought in some pretty wild stuff,” O’Brien told me.
Our pets bring us a special love and joy — OK, maybe not every minute of the day. But we build a bond over time that many who never owned a dog or a cat or a praying mantis could ever comprehend.
Sure, people continue to be price conscious when it comes to holiday spending.
A scary number — some 79% — of Halloween shoppers say they expect higher prices specifically because of tariffs, according to the National Retail Federation.
Halloween spending overall is expected to hit $13.1 billion this year, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual consumer survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics.
That’s up from $11.6 billion last year, and even higher than the record $12.2 billion in Halloween sales overall that was set in 2023. Prices on many goods, including candy, are higher.
The survey asked 8,045 consumers about their Halloween shopping plans. It was conducted Sept. 2 through Sept. 9 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.1 percentage points.
Palmer said higher tariffs, particularly the escalating trade tensions with China, have not driven prices on many pet items significantly this year.
“So far, so good,” Palmer said in mid-October, who admits he’s bracing for higher prices ahead.
“A lot of our manufacturers, suppliers and distributors had stockpiled and really built up their inventories earlier on in the year when the tariff talks started,” Palmer said.
“And they’re still going through those inventories. What remains to be seen is how that will change once they’re going to have to start reordering.”
Unfortunately, he said retailers and others will likely need to pass along some of the higher costs to consumers at some point. Labor costs, he said, are 40% higher than five years ago.
“We’re going to do as much as we can to keep our costs as low as possible.”
On some items, like toys, Palmer said, the retailer has seen a 2% to 5% increase in prices already. Pet food has not really been affected yet, he said, but some prices could go up because some U.S. manufacturers outsource some ingredients and packaging overseas.
How are some pet owners saving money?
Make no mistake, pet owners, like everyone else, want to cut back on everyday expenses, as their household budgets are squeezed elsewhere.
“There’s been a lot of trade down,” Palmer said.
Dog owners who had been buying “super premium” food at $80 a bag are now looking for a $50 or $60 bag of dog food. And he said options exist to save money.
Others might not be getting a new leash or collar, or extra toys, as frequently, he noted.
“Our business is not down at all, but it has been flat,” said Palmer, who says that’s a ‘win’ right now. Palmer is on a board of Indie Pet, an organization for independent and neighborhood brick and mortar pet retailers.
One strategy to compete with online pet supply companies: Premier Pet Supply offers free local same-day, delivery within 20 miles of any location with orders of $49 or more.
Halloween festivities, though, aren’t being canceled for our pets. Many pet owners are not abandoning the chance to have a little bit of fun.
Palmer’s pets — a mixed breed rescue named Frankie and a 6-pound, ball-of-fire Yorkie named Gino — will celebrate Halloween in their own ways.
“Gino, the little one, loves costumes. He loves wearing clothes,” Palmer said. He’s likely to be a firefighter this year.
“Frankie does not like wearing anything, so Frankie will have a little Halloween bandanna,” Palmer said.
Contact personal finance columnist Susan Tompor: [email protected]. Follow her on X @tompor.
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