Night Fury meets Night Furry

Why didn't we think of this sooner?!!
If we had, we would've taken Alpha to the Hobbes and Landes HOWL-o-ween Party for Dogs last October... and we would've slayed!

Well, there's no such thing as too-late-the-hero in this household.  So we still went with making Alpha's costume, for future reference.

Now one tip when putting on a costume on your dog for the first time:  If your dog --like ours-- is used to running around au naturel, there will be some grief dressing him or her up.  So work with what's already there.  Think of a costume that would take into consideration the color of your dog and the bare minimum of only wearing a leash with simple and light add-ons.  Accessorizing is the best you can go with a first timer.

In Alpha's case, we went with How to Train Your Dragon's Night Fury.  The costume is so easy and cheap to make.

All we needed was a roll of electrical tape, some barbecue sticks, and a couple of old black stockings.

The wing skeleton is a little tricky.  Let electrical tape save your day.

Then, we just slid the skeletons into each stocking and made sure the stockings clung tautly to the shape of the frames.  Electrical tape did the job again in binding the loose ends of the stockings so it was easier to wrap them around the leash.

The tail is the easy part.  We just took the left over part of one stocking and twined tape around it.  The knotted loop at one end is important.  That's where Alpha's stubby little tail goes.

And  --it's done!  Alpha was a little fussy when we started putting it on her.  But later on, she got comfortable and totally forgot she even had wings!

So I guess it's a date next HOWL-o-ween?