DIY Advent Calendar for Dogs

Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #ClausAndPaws #CollectiveBias

My daughter, S, loves to spoil our dog, Sugar Ray, with treats.  She also likes to pretend that she has presents for him.  She will go and find toys and treats to box or wrap up to give to him.  Since every year my daughter gets an advent calendar I knew that she would love to have an advent calendar for the dog.  That way she could help him count down to Christmas too.  S definently considers Sugar Ray to be her brother.  Having an advent calendar for the dog will also help me keep track of how many treats she has given him!

Supplies for Advent Calendar

While I was at Walmart, I picked up PEDIGREE® DENTASTIX® Beef Flavor and PEDIGREE® Jumbone to use as treats in the advent calendar.  The PEDIGREE® DENTASTIX® I used for the the daily treat because they offer good oral care.  While the PEDIGREE® Jumbone is perfect for keeping your dog busy, so I thought it would be perfect for Christmas Eve to entertain our dog while we unwrap presents.  Yes, we open all of our presents from each other on Christmas Eve and only Santa’s presents are on Christmas morning.

To house the daily treats, I used small kraft gift bags, however you could also use tissue paper, wrapping paper or small boxes.  I wanted to decorate the outside of the gift bags, so I gathered up crafting supplies such as stickers, scrapbooking paper, tags, Christmas stamps, numbers and washi tape.  

Assembling DIY Advent Calendar

First, I decorated the outside of all the kraft gift bags.  I tried to make each one a little different.  Stamps are so much fun to use and since they can be used over and over they are economical too!  I tried to limit myself to the colors white/cream, red and black so that all the bags look like they fit together even though they are different.  

This is a fun activity to do with your children!  I enlisted the help of my daughter and you can see her creations on numbers 7 through 10.

I wanted to keep the PEDIGREE® DENTASTIX® fresh, so I placed each one in a snack size zipper bag before placing in my kraft gift bag.  I then used small wooden clothespins or a little bit of washi tape to secure the bags closed.

Displaying the DIY Advent Calendar

There are several different ways to display this advent calendar; I decided to place all the bags in a metal basket because I wanted to keep them up away from the dog (he could smell the treats from across the house and came running when I was assembling).

Different Options

I wanted Sugar Ray’s advent calendar to be the same number of days as S’s, so I made 24 gift bags.  However, you might decide that you want to only do the 12 days of Christmas.

You could also use the same idea for creating a DIY Advent Calendar for your children minus the dog treats.  Instead use small toys, crayons, chocolate or even things you want to do with your child that day (bake cookies, visit santa, make cards, etc).

Looking for an advent calendar idea for cats?  Try using TEMTATIONS® Treats.

Be sure to check out more great gift ideas for our furry friends here.  I’d love to hear about a favorite pet you will be gifting treats to this holiday season!