Does your dog suffer from separation anxiety, noise anxiety, fireworks anxiety, thunderstorm anxiety, traveling anxiety, crating anxiety, or an obsessive barker? Is your dog fearful of new situations? Then we might just have a drug free solution for you! Its called the Thundershirt! What is a Thundershirt you ask? Well here is a little information for you!
With its patent-pending design, Thundershirt’s gentle, constant pressure has a dramatic calming effect for most dogs if they are anxious, fearful or over-excited. Based on surveys completed by over two thousand customers, over 80% of dogs show significant improvement in symptoms when using Thundershirt. Thundershirt is already helping tens of thousands of dogs around the world, and is recommended by thousands of veterinarians and dog trainers.
As for WHY Thundershirt’s gentle pressure works to calm a dog, experts such as Dr. Temple Grandin believe that pressure has a calming effect on the nervous system. Using pressure to relieve anxiety has been a common practice for years. For example:
- TTouch dog trainers use pressure to address a wide variety of anxieties.
- Veterinarians use pressure to relax cattle when they are administering vaccinations.
- People with autism use pressure to relieve their persistent anxiety.
- Children with certain behavioral problems use pressure shirts and weighted vests to relax and focus.
- Parents use swaddling to calm an inconsolable newborn infant.
Until now, there just hasn’t been a well-designed, inexpensive pressure wrap commonly used for dog anxiety. Thundershirt is changing that! Thousands of veterinarians and dog trainers now recommend Thundershirts for their anxiety cases. Visit their website and check it out! Tons of information here!
So there is just a little information on the wonderful Thundershirt. I (Sara Bonin) have actually witnessed the wonderful things the Thundershirt can do! I have used it on two of my own personal dogs who both had horrible fears of thunderstorms and one with destructive separation anxiety. My pit bull/lab mix would go crazy and get destructive anytime she was left alone or there was a storm with thunder. We didn’t know what to do! So we heard about the Thundershirt and decided it couldn’t hurt to try it out. Normally Nikki would be panting, barking, shaking, and pacing all over the house when it was fixing to storm, after a few days of wearing the Thundershirt she was calm and relaxed during one of the most violent storms we had here in Arkansas in 2011, the storm that produced the Joplin tornado. Our other dog Rocky a little chihuahua was terrified of storms so we got him one as well, and he weathered last years wicked weather with ease. I love the Thundershirt! So do my dogs!
Our Thundershirt trial with Barney:
So today I’m going to start documenting each week of my new dog Barney, use of the Thundershirt. I’m hoping it can help Barney overcome some issues he has. Barney was a stray that our animal control officer picked up under a shed at the elementary school and brought to the clinic, I fell in love with him. Barney is fearful of new situations, strangers, storms, being left alone, car rides, and most of all men! Especially men in hats. He trembles, growls, and has ‘accidents’ anytime he is scared. I feel a lot of his fear may be linked to an abusive previous owner. I want to show Barney that most situations aren’t bad and I needed a way to help calm him! So cross your fingers and stay tuned!
Here is Barney helping us with some office work sporting his spiffy Thundershirt!! He’s been calm, cool, and collected so far! Hes hardly trembling this morning!
