Celebrating Easter with your dog!

Whenever we’re pet sitting over a holiday, we love to include whatever pets we’re caring for in our celebrations – especially dogs! From Halloween to Christmas, dogs have a way of brightening up any occasion, and whether it’s wearing bunny ears or snaffling Easter treats, we’ve come up with a range of ways for you to include your dog in your Easter celebrations this year, no matter their age or breed.

Make an Easter egg hunt

This is one of the most fun things we’ve EVER done with a dog! While looking after sweet Norfolk Terrier Cody in 2022, we bought some hollow plastic eggs and filled them with a few of his biscuits. We then spent some time hiding the eggs all over the garden (really we just placed them in flower beds and behind trees – we had to give little Cody a chance to find them in the sprawling grounds!). He absolutely LOVED toddling around the garden and finding all five eggs filled with yummy food, and it was adorable to watch him enjoying sniffing them out. If you have multiple dogs at home, it might be worth buying more than one pack of hollow eggs to make sure the hunt isn’t over too quickly!

Bake Easter treats

Did someone say treats?! If your doggo is food-obsessed, but isn’t allowed any of your Easter roast dinner, a fun way to get them involved is to bake some special Easter food just for them! We LOVE this creative list of Easter dog treats by the Kennel Club, in all shapes and flavours. You can just as easily use a dog-friendly cookie recipe with flavours that you know your dog loves, and use Easter-shaped cutters for a simple treat. Your dog will love to lick the bowl as you make them as much as they’ll love to enjoy the Easter treats once they’re baked.

Easter-themed enrichment toys

Our hollow fill-able eggs came in handy again this year while pet sitting long dogs Rocco, Raffles and Violet. Our week-long stay with them coincided with days of torrential downpours and high winds, both of which they hated (it’s a Greyhound / Whippet thing!). This meant we spent more time at home indoors than out on long walks, so in order for us to involve them in some Easter festivities, and keep them entertained at home, we once again filled our hollow eggs with a few biscuits and tucked them inside their beds for the three dogs to dig out. Each of them quickly got to work figuring out how to open the eggs and release the treats inside! Enrichment games like these are SO good for giving dogs a mental workout, and giving the game this seasonal twist made for very sweet viewing as we watched them figure it out. You may have to keep an eye on smaller dogs though – while Greyhound Raffles and Whippet Violet cracked theirs open by themselves, little-mouthed Italian Greyhound Rocco needed some assistance in getting his open! Check out our Instagram reel of them opening the eggs.

Play dress-up

We love when we find dog dressing-up outfits at pet sits, and it’s even better when the dogs love it too! There are so many different options available for playing dress-up with your dog at this time of year, from glasses and headbands with bunny ears to outfits with a chick face on the hood. If your dog isn’t too keen on wearing clothes (or knocks a headband off in two seconds) then you could give them an Easter basket to hold to store their Easter treats. Take some inspiration from dogfluencers like Ghost and Wren or The Daxie Trouble, or improvise with a hair tie like Gust the Dachshund, and have fun!

Go for Spring walkies

It always feels like a breath of fresh air when Spring rolls around, not least because of the blooming flora that begins to appear and brighten up our days. Make it a challenge to find the perfect Spring backdrop for picturesque walkies with your four-legged friend. We love to visit National Trust sites for this very reason – the grounds are always pristine and well-maintained, from snowdrops at Nymans to the carpet of bluebells at Blickling Estate as far as the eye can see. To see blossom that falls like pink snow from the trees, head to Sizergh, Chartwell or Stourhead. For a low/no cost alternative, celebrate the arrival of sunnier days by simply spending some time walking through the Spring countryside with your pooch – just watch out for new arrivals such as lambs as you walk through the countryside!

Easter presents for your dog!

Here are just a few of our favourite Easter presents to gift your dog this year! (Updated for 2024)

• Easter themed treats. We love these seasonal Lamb and Chicken flavoured treats from Pooch & Mutt. Not only are they Easter themed but they’re the perfect size to fit inside…
• Fillable eggs. As we’ve mentioned, one of our favourite ways to celebrate Easter with dogs is by making them an Easter egg hunt, or using the eggs as enrichment toys! Simple open them, fill with your pooch’s favourite treats, and hide them around your home or garden for a cute Easter egg hunt!
• Easter eggs. Even your dog deserves to have an Easter egg of their own – give your dog this dog-safe egg to include them in the festivities this year!
• Dress up outfits. We LOVE this full bunny dress up set! The ears and bandana are so sweet together, and the set also comes with a rope carrot toy for your dog to play with! Perfect for an Easter pawtrait photoshoot. If you struggle to get your dog to wear a headband, these cute bandanas are the perfect Easter accessory. There are other styles if it’s your dog’s first Easter too!
• Toys! The best way to involve your dogs in any festivity is to play with them! This sweet Easter egg-shaped toy is sure to be a hit, or this carrot one! For a toy that’s cute all year round, we also love this duck rope toy that’s great for teething pups.