It’s National Dress Up Your Pet Day!
Founded in 2009, National Dress Up Your Pet Day gives you an excuse to abandon revision and make a gloomy January more cheery by snazzifying your cuddly companions
It’s our favourite day of the year! The holiday’s founder Colleen Paige reminds us of the true meaning of NDUYP Day – it’s not “a day to disrespect our pets with uncomfortable, vulgar and/or seasonally inappropriate costumes for the sake of a laugh or photo shoot”.
The Tab recommends bribing them with treats to make them much more compliant, particularly if they’re as enthusiastic about food as our (plus sized) model, Hogan.
Follow our guide to make sure you’re a successful, respectful pet-dresser this year.
Festive wear
Avoid being “seasonally inappropriate” and keep Christmas costumes strictly for Christmas. Nobody wants to see your Christmas jumper in January and the same goes for pets (although admittedly theirs are much cuter).
Bonus points if your pet’s displeased expression matches the sentiment on their glum hat
Hallowe’en wear
Scary costumes work too, but cute superhero outfits are the best. Matching your costume to your pets would be even better, but I doubt they make Superpug outfits for humans, unfortunately.
Super pug’s superpower is judging you for forcing him to wear this costume
Formal wear
Do you often look at your pet and wish he/she wouldn’t dress so casually all the time? Yeah, me too.
If your pet is too chubby for a full tuxedo costume, a front apron and bow tie is just as cute
Don’t get weird with it
Avoid this.
Bedroom eyes?
National day costumes
Proudly display your pet on Instagram wearing this, and do not be put off if accounts like the scary “stopthisisabuse” like the photos. You know it’s cute and that’s all that matters. Right?
Note: if you dress up your dog before, and not after starting your St. Patrick’s day drinking, the experience will be much more pleasant
Tab pets
If all else fails, or you don’t have a wealth of tiny animal costumes at your disposal, stick your pet in a Tab t-shirt. Nobody’s going to argue that that isn’t adorable.
Student journalism: serious business.
Want to show off your own snaps of pets dressed up? Send your photos to [email protected] or tweet us @TheTab. All animals welcome (not spiders).