Does your child have a bad case of puppy love? Cure it with these tail-waggin' Dog Party Ideas for your child's next birthday! You'll find that you can easily tailor party ideas, games, and activities to fit specific dog party themes, like Blue's Clues or Scooby Doo.
Planning & Invitations
It's important to select a location for your Dog Party early in the planning process. If you'd rather not have the party at home, consider reserving a local recreation center room, a community clubhouse, or your church hall. Or try one of the other locations listed in our When & Where to Have the Party article.
What Do I Need for the Party?
If you plan to use dog-themed party supplies, such as doggy decorations and paper tableware featuring a puppy pattern, our Suggested Party Supply List may be helpful while you're shopping. Please note that you may not need everything on the list; it is intended only as a guide.
Invitations
Make your own invitations with construction paper and a little creativity. Cut heavy white paper into dog bone shapes, and write on the party details. Another option is to fold sheets of paper in half to create card-style invitations, and decorate them with paw print and puppy stickers. Or to save time, you can purchase our adorable Dog Invitations.
Dog Party Favors
Thank your guests for attending your child's party with fun puppy party favors like small stuffed dogs, red bandanas, dog stickers, bone cookie cutters, dog themed candy, small frisbees, coloring books, and "dog tags" made from our personalized bag tags or luggage tags.
To simplify the process, consider our Dog Party Favor Sets that include a matching bag! You can also take a look at our large selection of individual Dog Party Favors, Favor Boxes and Bags to create your own goody bags. If you want to add Candy, we offer lots of sweet treats that kids love. Whichever favors you choose, your guests will be wagging their happy tails all the way home!
Additional Party Planning Tips
To simplify the rest of the party planning process, check out our Party Planning 101 section for ideas on when and where to have the party, our party planning timeline, and other party planning basics. Or, just read the paragraphs below for dog-themed decorating and food ideas, fun puppy party activities, and more for your child’s party.
Decorating & Food Ideas
Fun Ideas to Set the Mood
- Let paw prints lead the way! Use sidewalk chalk to draw puppy prints on the driveway or sidewalk, or up the steps. Construction paper paw prints can be used indoors. You can also use dry erase markers to create paw prints on windows or mirrors.
- Use a large cardboard box to create a "doghouse." Place it in front of your open door, and let your guests crawl through it to enter the party area.
- Draw dog faces on white balloons with a black marker, attach construction paper ears, and place them around the party space in groups of five. Or, simply tie or weight groups of five balloons throughout the party space, mixing any two colors. Choose from our large selection of dog-shaped balloons, colorful latex balloons, and balloon weights.
- As your guests arrive, use a washable black marker to draw a doggie nose and whiskers on each child's face. Tie a red bandana loosely around each child's neck, too.
- Your child’s own stuffed dogs will make great decorations. Set a group of toy dogs on the table as a centerpiece, or set groups of stuffed dogs in baskets around the party space.
- Make large signs with sayings like “Wipe Your Paws”, “Puppy Crossing”, “Beware of Dogs”, “No Cats Allowed”, etc., and hang them on the doors and walls.
- Play songs like “Puppy Love”, “Who Let the Dogs Out”, “How Much is That Doggy in the Window”, and “BINGO”.
- Cut white dog bones from construction paper to use as place cards for the table.
- Ask an older child or adult to make balloon dogs for the children. Use our easy Balloon Animals Kit that includes an instruction book, balloons, and balloon inflator. There’s no need to master the entire book! Just choose from the three different dog shapes included in the book and young guests will be delighted!
Dog-Gone Good Party Food!
- Serve snacks, ice cream and cake to your guests in new, clean dog bowls personalized with the children’s names. Use paint pens or permanent markers to personalize the bowls.
- Serve cookies or sandwiches cut with a dog bone cookie cutter. Brownies or crispy rice cereal treats are other good choices to use with the bone cookie cutter.
- Offer “Puppy Chow” made from cereal snack mix.
- Make a few “Dog Food” labels for empty containers, and fill them with round children’s cereal, such as Cheerios or Fruit Loops.
- Fill a bowl with graham cracker snacks in the shape of doggie bones, often sold as Scooby Snacks.
- Hot dogs make great puppy party food, too, of course!
- Rename cupcakes “Pupcakes”, and decorate each with white icing and a paw print. To create a paw print, use one junior mint candy as the paw pad and four brown M&Ms as the toes.
- Make a large paw print cake by using one round cake as the paw and four small cupcakes around the top half as the toes. When you serve the cake and sing “Happy Birthday”, let your guests bark between each verse (“Happy Birthday to you, WOOF…”).
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