Forget the candy: the three best things about Halloween are (1) the over-the-top displays some New Yorkers put up at home, (2) seeing locals in costume on the subway on Halloween night, and (3) DOG COSTUME CONTESTS. The fact we don't have dog costume contests happening year-round is a national oversight that should be corrected with haste, but in the meantime, let us savor all the chances we get to gaze lovingly at other people's dogs dressed up as hot dogs and the like whenever we can.
To that end, hundreds of dogs were dressed up in their finest Halloween outfits this weekend at the 21st annual Great PUPkin Dog Costume Contest in Fort Greene. As you'll see in the gallery up above, the costume that popped up the most was the flower-strewn Midsommar get-up, but sadly, none of those folk horror film fans "won" the day.
The big winner was a pup outfitted in The Red Baron and Snoopy costume; coming in second was StarWars: The Pups Strike Back; third was Honey I Blew Up Chester; and other standouts included Willy Wonka & The Goldendoodle Ticket, Hot-Dog Cart, King Henry VIII & Anne Boleyn, Remy the Pug Thanksgiving Dinner, Hannah the Fox in the Hen House, Megan Puppino for President, Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. You can see several of them strutting their stuff in the gallery or in the video below.
But of course, this isn't really about winners and losers—because every dog who participated, whether they were dressed as a Goldendoodle Ticket or Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, were winners.
If you find yourself jonesin' for more dog-costume-slideshow-content, please enjoy these pics from Great PUPkin parades past: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013. Make sure you whisper to your screen that you would pet each and every one of the pups.
