How to Carve a Pumpkin that Looks Just Like Your Dog

By Tamara McRill

Have the perfect pumpkin sitting in front of you and out of ideas on what to carve? Just look to your favorite canine companion for inspiration! Carving a pumpkin in my dogs’ images is hands-down my favorite Halloween tradition. It’s even a project that can be tackled by the less than artistic among us. There are three basic options you can use to carve the exact likeness of your dog:

Dog Breed Pumpkin Templates

If your dog is the poster child for his breed in looks, then chances are you can do a quick online search and come up with a pumpkin template or stencil that looks remarkably similar. Just type the breed plus “pumpkin template” into your browser. For example, my Wuppy is a Chocolate Labrador, so I would search for “chocolate lab pumpkin template.”

There are plenty of sites and articles online to find these, such as Better Homes and Gardens. Once you find the best template for your dog, you’ll need to print the template.

Altering Templates for an Exact Look

For mixed dogs that look mostly like one breed, you can use a template and add the minor changes. Our dog Dusty is a Dalmatian and Pitbull mix, but mostly resembles the first in the face. So for him I can get away with printing out a Dalmatian stencil and drawing in slightly wider cheeks and perkier ears. Altering the template is also an excellent way to personalize pumpkins for purebred dogs. This way you can get the spots in the same place or make sure fringe placement is exact.

Exact Dog Portrait Template

Templates are wonderful for breed-specific dogs, but maybe you have a mixed masterpiece like our Cody. We have a good idea of his mix, but I have never been able to find a pumpkin carving template that looks just like him. So I came up with a simple way to make my own.