By Dr. Gary Pusillo:

A knock at the door and a giant blue creature appears! The creature says “trick or treat,” but your dog thinks “trick or eat?”

The natural tendency of a dog when facing an unknown “invader” in its territory is to decide either to run or attack. Country dogs like my Komondor that have built in armor, do not retreat; they “eat,” or defend themselves. Latte the female Komondor that lives on my Iowa farm can be seen with my middle daughter Andrea during a chance meeting with a blue creature on a TV set.

A giant blue creature showing up on my farm in the evening darkness will be greeted by two sets of turbo charged teeth; no questions asked. You never surprise a farm raised Komondor in the dark of the night,

Territorial aggression can be very problematic in the urban environment during the Halloween Trick or Treating activities. For the safety of your dog and the big blue creatures at your door please do the following:

• Do not let your dog have access to the door where unknown creatures will be begging for treats

• Put a sign on the door alerting children and parents to the fact that pets live in the house. When I was a young “trick or treater,” I usually found out the hard way that dogs did not like monsters invading their territory.

• Isolate the access door from your pet with a children’s gate or other appropriate barrier. Even though you might locate the dog in another room during Halloween, someone in the household might forget and let the dog out. It is highly advisable to have a back-up barrier to handle territorial aggression and escape.

• Do not leave any treats accessible to your pet at any time. Not only will they eat things bad for them, some dogs consider the treats their property and they will defend their treasure aggressively even if they do not like the taste.

• Never leave you dog tied up where you can not see it! Crazy people often are inspired to do unthinkable things to pets during Halloween. Protect your dog from the crazy people by keeping them safely isolated. Never let black cats out of your sight during the Halloween season.

Be safe and have fun.