Doggie Advent

Five years ago, I posted an advent calendar that’s been a family tradition since I was too small to remember. A Kiss a Day ‘Til Christmas is the way we count down until the big day, and this year, we wanted to include our new furry friend in the festivities. We needed a Doggie Advent version of our Kiss a Days.

The name is not as cute, I’ll admit, but the idea is certainly popular with our dog, Braida. We simply replaced the Hershey kisses with Snausages, and every night, we clip off a Snausage and Braida gets to enjoy a treat with the rest of the family.

As a side note, Braida only joined our family in January. I’ve never had a pet — with the exception of a beta fish in college — so this has been a new journey for me. It’s a lot more challenging than younger me thought it would be, but Braida makes it worth it.

She’s a sweet Dutch shepherd/Lab mix, and came from the local animal shelter. We don’t know her backstory, but she came to us with some pretty high anxiety and fear of being abandoned, so I don’t think it was entirely happy.

We chose her because she is just about the sweetest dog around, and our kids can pull her ears and tail all day (not that we let them). All she does is let out a little sigh and shoot me a resigned look.

Doggie Advent, Step-by-Step

Materials

24 Snausages (or other doggie treats. Here’s a recipe for peanut butter coconut ones that could easily be molded into Kisses!)
Saran wrap
yarn
doghouse printable printed on cardstock
hot glue
cardboard/cardstock circle

Instructions

For images of how this is put together, check out this post. This is done the same way, only with Snausages instead of kisses!

Lay out a sheet of Saran wrap approximately 4′ long. You’ll need it completely flat.
Cut the Saran wrap in half long ways so that you have 2 sheets that are 4′ long.
You can either make 2 of these, or get rid of the 2nd sheet.
Lay the Snausages in the center of the Saran wrap. You’ll want to space them evenly as possible.
Wrap the Saran around the Snausages to make a long tube with the treats in the center.
Cut the yarn into 25 two-inch pieces.
Slide the yarn underneath the tube between each of the treats. Tie the yarn off, and trim the tails. Be sure to tie one before the 1st treat and after the last one.
Cut out and decorate the doghouse topper.
Cut a 3″ length of yarn and make a loop. Glue the loop to the back of the topper.
Glue the cardboard/cardstock circle to the topper on top of the yarn loop. This is to stablize the topper and keep the weight of the treats from ripping it.
Glue the Snausage string to the circle on the back of the topper. You’re done!