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Best Halloween Costumes For Pets: Want To Dress Your Dog Up For Halloween? Check Out Most Popular Costumes

By Heather Tooley
Published on: 06:08 PST, Oct 21, 2015

Some of the best Halloween costumes for pets this year reflect everything from bumble bees to superheroes and Disney characters. It’s fun to include your dog — and other animals — for Halloween and make the spooky holiday a little more fun with them.

If your pet is all for being dressed up for that special Halloween party or to go trick-or-treating, why not play with it and see what you can make your four-legged friend look like?

According to the National Retail Federation, people will spend over $6.9 billion for their Halloween costumes in 2015, which comes to $74.34 for the average person. Consumers will spend $350 million on “fashionable and fun costumes for their furry friends.”

It’s estimated that around 20 million pet owners will dress up their pets for Halloween.

Patch took a dog into a Norwalk, Connecticut PetSmart to learn what the best-selling Halloween costumes are for this year. Sadie, a 2-year-old Black Lab mix, was the model in this experiment to find out which costumes were the most popular among buyers.

It turns out that bumble bees, pumpkins, and superheroes ranked the highest. Store manager Walter Randall said that among the top-selling costumes is “Pop Riders.” With this costume, a pet owner can put the costume on a dog and make it look like a princess, a cat, or even a horse rider. He says it makes it “look like the little man is on top of your dog riding it like a horse.”

PetSmart also has some of the best pet Halloween costumes, with selections of popular movie characters from Disney that include Princess Elsa and Olaf from Frozen and superheroes like Batman, Spiderman, and Wonder Woman.

There’s always those off-the-wall Halloween costumes for pets that have a less dignified look. Hot dog and hamburger costumes make the top most embarrassing list, Randall reveals. You may want to check your local PetSmart, but they were going on sale for 75 percent off while supplies last.

According to the National Retail Federation’s 2015 Halloween Consumer Top Costumes Survey, the following were listed as the top Halloween costumes for pets in 2015: Pumpkin, hot dog, Batman character, devil, bumble bee, dog, cat, Star Wars character, bowties/bandanas/fancy collars, shark, princess, and minion.

NRF wrote, “About one in 10 Halloween celebrants (12.9%) plan to dress their furry friends in costumes this year, and of the 80 percent of those surveyed who have already selected the costume, most (10.6%) will choose a little round pumpkin for Kitty and Rover. Additionally, several pet owners will opt to put their four-legged friend in a Star Wars (8th on the list) or Minion costume (11th).”

If there’s one cool thing about getting your pets into a Halloween costume, then it’s the many contests for the best get-ups. If you look online, you’ll see all kinds of contests for the best Halloween costumes for pets. Local TV stations and pet stores like to encourage a bit of fun this time of year. On a larger scale, there are pet costume contests with Martha Stewart and Good Housekeeping. Petco has a contest called “Make a Scene” for photos posted on Instagram.

Facebook will deliver some results with “pet Halloween costume” contests, too. A lot of these are also done through veterinarian offices and other retailers.

Blog Paws has a great article on how to help your pet win a Halloween costume contest. It has a lot of DIY tips and how to transform fabrics into the perfect dress-up outfit for our animal. With just a few tricks and some creativity, your dog can have the best Halloween costume and be the cutest one for all to see.

Will you be dressing your pet up in a costume this year for Halloween?

[Photo Credit: Petco/Facebook]

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