The first step to an awesome doggy Easter basket is obviously the basket. You can use any of the thousands of generic baskets available at any store this time of year. It will certainly look pretty and festive for the season. But there are other options if you don’t want to spend money or don’t care what the basket looks like, because in all honesty your dog really doesn’t care what it looks like. What your dog cares about is how it smells. If you use an empty treat box or container for the base of your Easter basket, your dog will definitely notice it. Or if you get dog food/toys/treats shipped to your house like I do, you can use the shipping box as the Easter basket. You can even decorate the outside of the box to make it more festive looking. Regardless of what it looks like on the outside, the scent of the previous contents remains, helping your dog realize that this Easter basket is for him or her.
For step two, crumple up pieces of tissue paper or newspaper or something similar and place it in your basket or box the way you would use Easter grass. Do not use the shredded plastic Easter grass that baskets for people come with as your dog may accidentally (or purposely) eat some of the pieces. When you fill the basket with treats or toy, bury the items among the crumpled paper. Your dog will enjoy digging around in the newspaper/tissue paper, looking for whatever surprises lay hidden in the basket.
The final step for a
DIY doggy Easter basket is the presents for your dog. You must tailor this step to your particular pet, as many dogs have different treats and toys they enjoy. One suggestion is not to include any treats that are perishable or messy, as it may take your dog a while to find everything and you don’t want to end up with a box full of sticky, messy crumpled paper. If you plan on putting loose treats in your basket, you should probably only include the amount your dog is allowed to eat in one sitting. Once your dog finds the first treat in the basket, he or she will probably gobble up the rest pretty quickly. In Sadie’s basket I usually include a few loose treats for her to find and enjoy right away, and also a new package or two of some other treats that she can eat over the next few weeks.
In the above photos you can see the basket I made for Sadie this year. Although I gave it to her a week early so I would have time to take photos for this blog post, I still made sure Sadie had the full Easter Bunny treatment. I hid the box/basket behind the couch and then let Sadie sniff an empty treat bag. I then told her to go find the treats. It took a little while, but eventually she found her Easter basket and started excitedly barking and pawing at it until I tipped it over and let Sadie dig around inside. This
DIY doggy Easter basket was a very successful way to share the fun festivities of Easter with my four legged family.
