7 Pawesome Dog Birthday Ideas to make your dog’s tail wag!

Your dog’s birthday or gotcha day is on the horizon and you’re looking for inspiration to make it a special day full of things your dog will love!

Mash and I have you covered with a list of 7 pawesome dog birthday ideas that we think your bestie will LOVE! So, let’s get planning your dog’s pawfect birthday!

7 Pawesome Dog Birthday Ideas...

1. Take a trip to your pup’s favourite pet shop 

Take your pup for a birthday outing and let them choose some super scrummy treatos in your local petstore, our favourites at the moment are Yora hand-baked biscuits

I love the fact that Yora is a completely sustainable pet food supplier and Mash loves the taste of these hand-baked biscuits

2. Arrange a dog pawty in the park

You don’t have to do party food or even decorate just invite your dog’s favourite friends to get together and play whilst you catch up with your friends too!

If you really want to push the boat out you could instigate some pawty games - 6 legged race? Musical Sits? Paws the Pawcel? Sorry, couldn't resist!

3. Bake a dog birthday cake

The way to a dog's heart is through his tummy - ok so we made that up but how about baking your pooch a dog birthday cake to celebrate?!

Recipe

Carrot & Apple Birthday Cake for Dogs (with yoghurty peanut butter icing!)

THE CAKE:

2 Cups Grated Carrot

3 Cups Wholemeal Flour

1/2 Cup Rolled Oats

2 Teaspoon Cinnamon

1/2 Cup Applesauce

4 Free Range Eggs (Beaten)

THE YOGHURTY PEANUT BUTTER ICING:

1 ½ Cups Plain Greek Yogurt

1 Cup Smooth Natural Peanut Butter (unsalted with no added sugars)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 175 C/ 350F. Lightly grease a 25cm round cake tin or we used 3 x springform mini cake tins

1. Combine grated carrot, beaten eggs and applesauce in a medium bowl.
2. Combine flour, oats and cinnamon in a large bowl.
3. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients to form a thick batter.
4. Spoon the mixture evenly into the cake tin/s and place in the oven.
5. Bake for 25 minutes (may vary depending on oven). Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack.
6. If you’re not using the mini cake tins, once cooled, cut out 3 x circles to create the cake layers. You could use a large cup to cut out the circles
7. Using a spoon, mix together the yoghurt and peanut butter and spread your icing mixture to each layer of the cake (including the top layer)
8. Place each layer on top of each other and press together.
9. Sprinkle with carrot peel gratings for extra texture & decoration

TIP: With the leftover icing you could make bone or paw shaped decorations by putting in a shaped ice cube tray and putting in the fridge to set

4. Or buy a dog birthday cake!

Now if you’re not a confident baker like me (I can burn water even though I trained as a chef as part of my university course!) you can always skip baking your own pup cake and order one instead!

I recently ordered the most beautiful little dog birthday cake from Roccycocotreats (you can find her on Etsy or her own website by clicking on the link)

How much nicer does this cake look compared to the one I baked? Definitely worth the money I’d say!!

5. Your dog's favourite walkies

After all that cake you’ll want some exercise so why not head out to your dog’s favourite walk? Let them take the lead and stop and sniff all those weemails to make it truly their birthday walk. You could even play some games along the way (throw some treats onto the ground for hide and seek or play piggy in the middle using a ball thrown between 2 hoomans)

6. Indulge your dog with an edible dog birthday card

If after that exercise you’re starting to feel peckish… How about a super awesome edible birthday card for your best buddy? 

Yes you read that right, the amazing guys at D is for Dog make fantastic, raw hide free, edible birthday cards for dogs! 

We chose “chompable cheddar” as Mash is as much a cheese fiend as I am. Let’s put it this way, I barely got the chance to take a photo of the card before it was gone!

7. Set up a dog birthday photoshoot

Get a large waterproof background and tape it to a wall near a large window or patio doors. Decorate with some great birthday decorations such a bunting, balloons, confetti etc. Before you bring the cake in, take a few photos of your dog to check you can get your decorations and bunting in the frame then bring in their cake and snap away!

Our dogs deserve to be celebrated and utterly spoiled all year round but it's even more fun to make their birthday even more special. Don’t furget to take plenty of photos of your dog tucking into their birthday pupcake and having a blast with their friends. Use the hashtag #tailwaggingpawtraits so we can see the fun time you had!

Check out these top dog photography tips to help you take some fab photos on the day. 

Does your dog deserve the best?

If you’d like to make your dog’s birthday or gotcha day extra special, why not get in touch to discuss a special dog birthday photoshoot? 

If you don’t want to deal with the mess of a dog birthday photoshoot, don’t have to room or the time to be baking then our Dog birthday photoshoots are the perfect answer! Just click on the link above for more information

Your dog will get their very own personalised birthday cake and card, plenty of fun playing in our dog friendly studio and special birthday belly rubs. 

You are very welcome to pop on your party hats too and join in the fun and as part of the dog birthday photoshoot you’ll get your favourite photo as a large print mounted and ready to frame, plus 5 birthday cards with your pup’s photo on to send to your family and friends AND the second best bit? We do all the tidying up so you don’t have to!

Click here to find out more about our extra special Dog Birthday Photoshoots

Let’s make the memories last forever!