My own Thanksgiving will probably be spent at home with the dogs while everyone else has a ruckus elsewhere. As with most holidays the presence of lots of people in a house can be extremely stressful to domestic pets. Cats and dogs may need to be cordoned away from the hubbub to prevent them from getting underfoot in their own excitement or stressing out. The dogs that I spend time with aren’t particularly the high-strung type but they still get mixed up in the passage of legs, new smells, loud noises, and considerable amount of cooking food.
If they were taken to a party they would probably have to be shut away in a dimly lit, quiet room away from all the activity in order to help keep their puppy blood pressure down. Of course, this cannot be that fun for them—literally being taken away from the rest of the household activity. So I often end up taking breaks as the life of the party in order to spend time with them, make sure they’re aware we haven’t forgotten them by bringing toys and other distractions.
Cats can also have similar issues with high activity times, although our feline friends are less likely to come check out the excitement as they tend to already have their hiding places mapped out. As with dogs, they also run the risk of getting underfoot, in some cases to greater and lesser degrees because most cats are smaller on average than most dog breeds (trying not to discount out teacup and purse dogs here.)
If you are going to let your pet roam your house during a party, you will want to make sure that they have an escape route if they need it. That way if they become too stressed out and need to get away they won’t feel like they’re trapped in a hypersocial situation. As always, it comes down to knowing the personality of your pet and how they react to numerous people in order to choose how to approach this situation.
Also with Thanksgiving is going to be the table.
Most of us are going to be laying out feasts, and at parties a fair amount of the food goes unattended in the kitchen for a while. Both dogs and cats are very good at getting at things that we’d rather they didn’t—especially food. A table full of good smelling meats and food will be enticing to even the most calm family pet and someone may need to keep a watchful eye on it.
Everyone have a lovely Thanksgiving! We will be thinking of all you pet families here at PETS 911.