Dog Birthday Party Ideas and More

It’s no secret that millions of Americans celebrate their dog’s birthday and many are looking for dog birthday party ideas. It’s the whole reason I started this online store, which sells dog-themed and dog-shaped cake pans for making a dog birthday cake, among other items.

Sometimes dog birthday party ideas morph into ideas for other kinds of celebrations. These might include:

• cat quinceanera
• quinceanera for dogs
• gotcha day celebration
• dog bark mitzvah

Bark Mitzvah for a Dog

Some Jewish dog owners will celebrate their dog’s “bark” mitzvah, which happens when the dog turns 13. Just like the coming-of-age celebration for a 13-year-old human boy or girl, they want to have a reason to celebrate their dog’s milestone birthday. In fact, there was a "Modern Family" bark mitzvah episode. In it Jay takes his French bulldog Stella to a party that turns out to be a bark mitzvah.

Quinceanera for Dogs

Turns out families that would normally celebrate a quinceañera for their daughter’s 15th birthday also want to do the same for their dog. Yes, dogs live to be 15, if not older—our family’s first rescue Buffy lived to just shy of his 16th birthday.

Anyway, back to the notion of a quinceañera for dogs. One young lady in Corpus Christi, Texas, recently held a quinceañera for her Chihuahua, Lupita Concita.

Lupita isn’t technically 15 in human years. Her owner, Miranda Sanchez, fudged the numbers a bit because she wanted to have the party.

According to an article in the Kansas City Star, Sanchez told Teen Vogue that Lupita is actually slightly older than two years—which equates to 15 in human years, she said.

Here are some of the ways Sanchez celebrated her dog:

• dog-sized pink dress and tiara from Build a Bear (what a great idea of buying dog clothes at Build a Bear!)
• pink roses
• printed invitations
• cupcakes and cake

Her cousin Miranda Sanchez tweeted pictures from the quinceañera, and they went viral. Not only did one tweet have more than 16,000 retweets but also it had over 58,000 likes.

Lupita, the dog, has her own Instagram. Here is a picture she posted from her quinceañera party.

Cat Quinceanera

Even cat owners can get into the spirit of the quinceañera. In 2017 a Charlotte, North Carolina, family threw a cat quinceañera for their cat, Luna, according to the Charlotte Observer.

Like Lupita, Luna has her own presence on social media. And guess what? In 2018, Luna had a princess-themed Sweet 16. Feliz cumpleaños!

Gotcha Party

For families that rescue animals, one of the biggest challenges with celebrating birthdays is you may not know when your dog or cat was born. Thus the notion of a "Gotcha Party" or "Gotcha Day Party" was born. 

The idea behind the Gotcha celebration is simple: throw what would normally be a birthday party for your dog or cat, but time it for their adoption anniversary or Gotcha Day. You can use many of the same dog birthday party ideas for a Gotcah Day party.

In fact, regardless of what you're celebrating, this blog post on National Pet Day party ideas has great games and activities that you could use at a birthday party for your pet, a Bark Mitzvah for your dog or cat quinceañera or a Gotcha Party.