Halloween Contest for Canine Friends

Every Halloween in downtown Davis, California, families go trick-or-treating from business to business as part of the Treats Trail. Businesses included on the trail provide families a packaged treat, and restaurants sometimes even provide food samples.

This year, Davis Ace Hardware decided to use this high-traffic time to host the fun and family-friendly Doggie Costume Contest, which was the idea of Nancy Haffly, assistant pet and garden buyer for the store. The event was shared on Facebook and Twitter, and an email was sent out informing customers to dress their dogs up and stop by the store on Halloween.

There were about 15 contestants in costumes ranging from a butterfly to a police officer. The winner of the contest, voted on by the store’s department managers, was a pair of spider dogs, with its owner dressed up as a witch. Besides the treats given out to each participant, the winners’ owner left with a large bag of dog food.

“This was the first year for the doggie contest,” says Donn Porter, store manager. “We will definitely bring it back next year, because customers got really excited. We are a really big dog community, with dogs always in the store, so this event just made sense.”