The Thundershirt

Has anybody heard of this?



It's a solution to owning a dog with high anxiety. Although it does sound too good to be true. The results have been positive to a number of people who have tried it for their dogs. Here's a link on one of the reviews I've read. The owner of this blog is a foster mom from Canada and she has explicitly explained the advantages of it in terms of chewing, comfort and others changes it has brought.

I actually saw these in our local pet store last week. I have to admit that I laughed because the idea sounds so strange but if some people are finding that they do work it can only be a good thing. It makes me wonder if the dogs behavior improves only because of the owners expectations. When the owner is more relaxed the dog relaxes too.

If they do work then it's a great, drug free, way to calm an anxious dog but I would imagine that a lot will depend on the dog and whether it finds wearing a coat stressful in itself.

Neither of the dogs I have right now really need any stress relief, in fact getting them off the sofa would be a bonus, but my previous dogs would have benefited from calming down a bit!

I just saw this advertised the other day and was reading about it. It sounds like a great product if it does what it claims to do. I was curious if it could work on cats though. I had a cat that was terrified of thunder, rain showers, fireworks, balloons, balls, etc. I wish there had been a product like this that could work on cats back when he was alive!

Yes, I have heard of it. I have been using pressure wraps in my professional practice for several years and they do work. The original pressure wrap, the Anxiety Wrap was the first to hit the market in 2001. It is the only patented pressure wrap and the only one studied in a clinical research study, to my knowledge. It is also the only pressure wrap that uses both maintained pressure and acupressure to achieve its calming effect. The Storm Defender is a similar product but it supposedly works in a different way and the manufacturer does not consider it to be a pressure wrap.

Besides being a professional dog trainer I am a registered nurse and I can vouch for the fact that pressure does in fact work to calm people with autism as well as animals. Dr. Temple Grandin was a pioneer in this area with the invention of her "squeeze machine" some years ago. Linda Tellington-Jones was also a pioneer with her work with T-Touch. The inventor of the original Anxiety Wrap used her knowledge as a Certified Professional Dog Trainer and T-Touch Practitioner to invent the Anxiety Wrap.

I have had clients order the Thundershirt by mistake and we have not seen it to be effective in reducing anxious behavior. To learn more about how the Anxiety Wrap and Thundershirt compare, see this article: http://anxietywrapsays.blogspot.com/2012...shirt.html

(07-04-2012 04:36 AM)laurasav Wrote:  I just saw this advertised the other day and was reading about it. It sounds like a great product if it does what it claims to do. I was curious if it could work on cats though. I had a cat that was terrified of thunder, rain showers, fireworks, balloons, balls, etc. I wish there had been a product like this that could work on cats back when he was alive!

Yes, they do have ones for cats. It's quite rare to hear about cats with separation anxiety. I guess I always have this idea that cats prefer being by themselves and only seeking attention when they feel like it.

With the future comes great inventions and innovations.

(07-04-2012 09:11 AM)Prodogtrainer Wrote:  Yes, I have heard of it. I have been using pressure wraps in my professional practice for several years and they do work. The original pressure wrap, the Anxiety Wrap was the first to hit the market in 2001. It is the only patented pressure wrap and the only one studied in a clinical research study, to my knowledge. It is also the only pressure wrap that uses both maintained pressure and acupressure to achieve its calming effect. The Storm Defender is a similar product but it supposedly works in a different way and the manufacturer does not consider it to be a pressure wrap.

Besides being a professional dog trainer I am a registered nurse and I can vouch for the fact that pressure does in fact work to calm people with autism as well as animals. Dr. Temple Grandin was a pioneer in this area with the invention of her "squeeze machine" some years ago. Linda Tellingeton-Jones was also a pioneer with her work with T-Touch. The inventor of the original Anxiety Wrap used her knowledge as a Certified Professional Dog Trainer and T-Touch Practitioner to invent the Anxiety Wrap.

I have had clients order the Thundershirt by mistake and we have not seen it to be effective in reducing anxious behavior. To learn more about how the Anxiety Wrap and Thundershirt compare, see this article: http://anxietywrapsays.blogspot.com/2012...shirt.html

That's informative. I've seen the Tellington Touch. And it is quite effective- even Cesar Milan uses it to relax his charges. But not everybody can learn it effectively by just watching it on videos or reading about it. It's definitely advantageous for people who would definitely be taught first hand. Even I would want the opportunity to learn it.

There's no assurance that the Thundershirt is the only solution to each and every case of anxiety there is. I believe that's why different cases have different strategies. What may work for one dog may not be effective on another. Some owners would rather bring their dogs to behaviorists and trainers while other would prefer using wraps and jackets.

Furthermore, the blog which focuses mainly on Anxiety Wraps added this about their Thundershirt Research.

"Symptoms are subjective, whereas signs are objective observations. It is impossible to evaluate symptoms in dogs since dogs do not have verbal language."

Don't you think clinical researches should be done to the Thundershirt before we could truly say that it isn't effective?

Still, I do appreciate this input. It's always better to have comparisons.

I have never heard of the Thundershirt or the therapy that Prodogtrainer talked about. I have seen the Tellington Touch videos. This I can understand because massage can be very soothing. I have seen Temple Grandin's box, too. I sort of understand how that gives comfort. With the Thundershirt, it almost seems like they are trying to imitated the feeling of a hug. Is that why it works?

I think if it works for your dog then do it. I don't think it would work on my Jack Russell, though. She has to wear a little jacket when it's cold. It's been a year that she's had to wear it (not every day), but she is still freaked out by it. I suspect the Thundershirt would do the same thing to her.

As a Certified Professional Dog Trainer and a Tellington TTouch Practitioner, I highly recommend and use Thundershirt for a variety of issues including noise/thunder anxiety with dogs and with cats. Linda Tellington-Jones, founder of the TTouch Method has been advocating the use of pressure/body wraps for literally decades. The main reasons I recommend the Thundershirt over other body wraps: it is the easiest to put on and adjust, has no cumbersome extra straps, and, in the vast majority of cases, eases anxieties, relaxes body tension, reduces arousal, etc. and Thundershirt has a 30 day money back guarantee. I use Thundershirt year-round with my own dogs, even in the hot/humid North Carolina summers and have never had an issue with overheating.

The other thing I like is that Thundershirts are now so widely available at retail stores, veterinary offices, and direct from professional trainers, you can take your dog with you to try out which size is the best fit, which takes the guesswork out of determining sizes.

I have written extensively about the TTouch Method and body wraps for the APDT Chronicle of the Dog. You can download the entire series of articles from my website at: http://www.bluedogk9.com/dog-training-resources/.

Jenn Merritt, CPDT-KA.
Tellington TTouch Companion Animal Practitioner.
http://www.bluedogk9.com

(07-04-2012 03:46 PM)haopee Wrote:  [quote='laurasav' pid='3655' dateline='1341340561']
I just saw this advertised the other day and was reading about it. It sounds like a great product if it does what it claims to do. I was curious if it could work on cats though. I had a cat that was terrified of thunder, rain showers, fireworks, balloons, balls, etc. I wish there had been a product like this that could work on cats back when he was alive!

From haopee: Yes, they do have ones for cats. It's quite rare to hear about cats with separation anxiety. I guess I always have this idea that cats prefer being by themselves and only seeking attention when they feel like it.

It's true that cats are usually fine being left alone. The one cat I mentioned above that was afraid of so much, he was also horrified of me ever leaving him at home. If I had anyone watch him while we went on vacation, he would yowl and cry and work himself into a tizzy that they were witness to. He was always faithfully by the door whenever I'd come home, even after a short errand trip to a store. He was quite neurotic, poor thing. But I will always love that cat the best of any animal before or after! He was so in tune to me, like we could read each other's minds!

We went to Pet Supplies Plus yesterday to get some litter and there was a big rack of the Thundershirts displayed near the registers. Looks like they're going to be a big seller. If I had a dog, I'd get one to try it if I thought he needed it!