5 Dog and Owner Halloween Costumes We’ve Actually Worn

I’ve always loved Halloween, especially the costumes. Long before Boomer and I started coming up with our dog and owner Halloween costumes, I was putting together costumes for my boys, mixing purchased pieces with things we already had to bring an idea to life.

Maggie was part of Halloween too. When the boys were little, she dressed up and walked the neighborhood with them every year. She wore butterfly wings, a princess dress, a cowboy hat, and other costumes that were always fairly simple. Maggie wasn’t especially interested in dressing up, and since she was walking from house to house with the boys, whatever she wore needed to be comfortable and easy to move in.

As the boys got older, trick-or-treating eventually gave way to staying home and handing out candy. But my love of Halloween costumes didn’t go anywhere. The tradition just started to look a little different.

By then, Boomer had joined the family.

His first Halloween was pretty low-key, just an orange Halloween shirt on a very small puppy.

Once we became the house handing out candy, I started planning costumes for us instead. Our first theme had me as a lion tamer, Boomer as my lion, and Maggie as a unicorn.

That was all it took.

We’ve dressed up every Halloween since, and choosing our costume has become one of my favorite parts of the season. The neighborhood kids have come to expect it too, which makes opening the door on Halloween even more fun.

I still put our costumes together much the same way I used to put together costumes for my boys. That means mixing pet clothes and dog costumes with Etsy finds, regular costume accessories, pieces from past Halloweens, and things I already own. There’s no need to find a perfectly matched set. Instead, I start with the characters and figure out how to bring them to life.

Here are five costumes we’ve actually worn, and what each one taught me about building a look that works for the dog you have. 

Our Dog and Owner Halloween Costumes Through the Years

1. Lion Tamer, Lion, and Unicorn

The costume that started it all.

I bought a lion tamer costume and wore it with boots and nylons I already owned. Boomer’s costume was even simpler. I found a dog-sized lion mane, and with that wrapped around his big yellow head, he really didn’t need anything else.

Maggie completed our little circus as a unicorn.

I saved Boomer’s mane with our Halloween things after that night, which turned out to be a good decision. Three years later, it became part of another costume entirely.

The mane was thick, though, and eventually got too warm for Boomer, so I took it off before the night was over. That’s pretty typical for us. Boomer is a good sport about my Halloween ideas, but he doesn’t usually wear every piece of his costume all night.

2. Little Red Riding Hood and Grandma Wolf

For this one, I bought a Little Red Riding Hood dress and cape and wore them with red heels and fishnet stockings I already had.

Once I decided on Little Red Riding Hood, Boomer’s role was obvious.

But not just the wolf.

Grandma Wolf.

I found a bonnet on Etsy made for dogs, complete with wolf ears sewn into it. I added a pair of grandma glasses and an old scarf I already owned.

That was it.

The bonnet did most of the work, while the glasses and scarf made the character unmistakable. And a big yellow Lab peering out from behind grandma glasses was even better than I’d pictured it.

Grandma Wolf is still one of my favorites.

3. Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, and Piglet

This time, the three of us went as characters from Winnie the Pooh. I bought a Tigger hoodie for myself, Boomer was Pooh, and Maggie was Piglet.

Boomer had one obvious advantage here. He was already Pooh yellow.

All he needed was a red pet sweatshirt and Pooh ears. For Maggie, I reused the pink princess dress she had worn for an earlier Halloween and added pink Piglet ears.

I also turned one of the planters on our porch into Pooh’s honey pot with a hand-lettered sign “Hunny sign”.

This costume is a good example of how differently the pieces can come together. My Tigger costume was something I bought. Boomer needed little more than a red sweatshirt and ears. Maggie wore an old costume in a completely different way. Put them together, and the three characters were immediately recognizable.

4. Beauty and the Beast

For our Beauty and the Beast costume, my side was easy. I bought a Belle costume.

Boomer’s took a little more figuring out.

I pulled out the lion mane from our first Halloween and paired it with a Beast tux made for dogs and a set of horns. The same mane that had turned Boomer into a lion three years earlier suddenly worked for Beast.

I love that I’ve been able to reuse pieces from past costumes instead of starting completely over every year. You never know when a lion mane might come in handy.

5. Shrek and Donkey

My Shrek costume was more of a mix-and-match project. I bought the pants, vest, and Shrek ears, then added green hair extensions and used green eyeshadow instead of painting my entire face green.

Boomer was Donkey.

For him, I started with a gray pet sweatshirt. I added a Donkey ear headband and pinned a tail to the sweatshirt.

Gray sweatshirt. Ears. Tail. Done.

And because Donkey was always talking about waffles, I bought Boomer a waffle dog toy to use in our photos.

It was a tiny detail, but it finished the whole thing.

This one is probably the best example of why I don’t think a matching costume has to mean putting your dog in an elaborate outfit. My costume did more of the work, while Boomer only needed a few recognizable details, and one very important waffle, to make the pairing work.

How I Put Together Our Dog and Owner Halloween Costumes

After five years, I have a pretty simple approach: start with Boomer, choose the characters, then figure out the pieces.

A lot of my ideas actually come from Boomer himself. I think about his size, coloring, personality, and all the little things he does that remind me of a character. He’s tall and lanky, my big cuddly Pooh bear, and goofy enough to make a pretty convincing Donkey. At his size, Beast wasn’t much of a stretch either.

Once I have the characters, I figure out the few details that will make the costume recognizable. For Pooh, it was a red sweatshirt and ears. For Donkey, a gray sweatshirt, ears, and a tail. Grandma Wolf needed her bonnet and glasses.

Then I see what we already have before buying the rest. That’s how Boomer’s lion mane became Beast three years later, Maggie’s princess dress became Piglet, my old scarf ended up on Grandma Wolf, and an ordinary porch planter became a honey pot.

My costumes come together much the same way. Sometimes I buy the whole thing. Sometimes I find individual pieces. Sometimes what I need is already in my closet.

The goal isn’t to recreate every detail. It’s to find the pieces that make the characters recognizable and work for the dogs I’m actually dressing.

If you want to see more of how I build a costume from those simple pieces, I put together my approach to easy dog Halloween costumes, including ideas for puppies, small and large dogs, and dogs that aren’t big fans of dressing up.

Keep Your Dog Comfortable in Their Halloween Costume

The fun of a matching costume disappears pretty quickly if your dog is miserable wearing it.

Maggie and Boomer are a good example of why there isn’t one approach that works for every dog. Maggie tolerated less and was walking the neighborhood with my boys, so her costumes stayed simple. Boomer is more tolerant and spends Halloween at home with me, but he has limits too.

I watch how he’s behaving throughout the evening rather than assuming that because he tolerated something for a photo, he’s happy wearing it for hours.

I also watch for him getting too warm, especially with heavier pieces. His lion mane looked great, but it got hot. Off it came.

Costumes need supervision too. Loose or dangling pieces and small accessories can become something a dog tries to chew or swallow.

The full costume doesn’t have to survive the whole night. If Boomer is hot, stressed, bothered by a piece, trying to chew it, or simply seems done with it, I take it off.

I’d rather hand out candy with a partially dressed Donkey than keep him uncomfortable for the sake of the costume.

A Halloween Tradition That Changed With Us

For years, Halloween meant putting together costumes for my boys, then watching them head out to trick-or-treat with Maggie beside them.

Eventually, the boys outgrew trick-or-treating. I didn’t outgrow Halloween.

Instead, I started coming up with costumes for Boomer, Maggie joined in when the idea suited her, and our house became the one where we dressed up to hand out the candy.

Five costumes later, it’s hard to imagine Halloween without wondering what Boomer and I should be next. I love coming up with the idea, figuring out how to make it work, and seeing the neighborhood kids’ reactions when we open the door.

And somehow, I already have more ideas than Halloweens to wear them.

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