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Thunder shirt has anyone tried one?


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I use the Thunder Shirt on Nan, She is terrified of gunshot and thunder....her eyes roll back and she bolts. I out a thundershirt on her, did clicker training in the house and if I was outside, let her work the sheep fast! it helped her a lot. Now I put it on if there is a big storm and not for gunshots. When she hear gun shot or thunder while in the house, she runs up to me and opens her mouth like a baby sparrow for treats. if it is really bad, she will cuddle next to me on the couch.

 

if we are outside she bolts for the gate to work sheep. I let her work sheep and she doesn't have a down and she goes very fast but ignores the thunder. I put it on her on other times (not gunshot or thunder) so she doesn't associate it all the time with the noise. I fuss over her when I do it so much that Maid and Rainey gave me snotty jealous looks so I put shirts on them and fuss over them and treat them. They have learned that shirt equals treats and lots of fussing over them. I used to put it on Roo before trials to help settle him and down it did some help but not very much.

 

I have used it on the other thunder phobic dogs with clicker training with treats and it helps. I liked it so much that I signed up to be a dealer since I was buying lots of them. I did notice you have to put it on TIGHT otherwise it didn't work.

 

I never just put on the thundershirt alone...I also added the clicker training/treats to keep their attention to me.

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Diane, I think that some sort of training also helps when a dog has a major problem. I did counter conditioning with my dog in the beginning when she first used the calming cap. The drugs also helped with mine. Music helps mine, but she is smart and has learned the weather radio alarm is a trigger for her. When they do the weekly tests she will start to run when she hears it regardless of the weather. When the alarms are just for flooding without thunder it can be annoying as we live on the corner of 3 counties so get tons of alarms at times.

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she is smart and has learned the weather radio alarm is a trigger for her. When they do the weekly tests she will start to run when she hears it regardless of the weather. When the alarms are just for flooding without thunder it can be annoying as we live on the corner of 3 counties so get tons of alarms at times.

 

This is definitely something to be aware of. My thunder- noise fearful dog has also figured this out and and reacts to the alerts as well.

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I've never used a "thundershirt" but wrap my Cola in one of my old t-shirts and do exactly as geonni said, tie a knot at the hem, put her legs through the sleeves and it works nicely. I wouldn't say it's a cure-all, but she is extremely thunder phobic, noise/sound phobic and I notice a calming sensation when wearing "dad's" ratty shirts ;) She will run out of the room if someone takes a picture, doesn't have to be of her, either... someone could be texting and if she's suspicious, poof--gone!

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And if he's right about the Thundershirt not working until you've created a positive, calming association with it, then why would hugging my dog during a thunderstorm (basically the same thing as what the Thundershirt does) work?

Maybe because your dog has a positive, calming association with being hugged by you?

 

It's really hard for me to conceptualize hugging my dog as being basically the same thing as him wearing a thundershirt. I can see several ways in which he might process it differently. I also have no trouble making allowances for the way Cesar might express something differently than I would, any more than I have trouble making allowances for the way a Scottish shepherd might express something differently than I would. They both might be saying something worth making an effort to hear.

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I've thought about using one for Tess. She is mildly anxious in general, and very sensitive to a few noises. Over time she's gotten much better but the sound of skateboards (or scooters) and the sound of a bouncing basketball still send her over the edge.

 

I decided since I couldn't really predict these sounds so a thundershirt wasn't my best option.

 

On the recommendation of someone here I looked into Pet Naturals Calming Treats and decided to try them. Tess gets one every day and will get another on days we are doing something that might make her nervous. They've been working really well overall.

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Maybe because your dog has a positive, calming association with being hugged by you?

 

It's really hard for me to conceptualize hugging my dog as being basically the same thing as him wearing a thundershirt. I can see several ways in which he might process it differently.

 

Knowing that in general dogs don't like being hugged, I don't normally hug my dogs. So Bodhi didn't have any prior experience with me hugging him to have made any associations, positive or negative, when I hugged him during a thunderstorm.

 

It was just an impulse on my part. I'd recently heard about Temple Grandin's writing about firm hugs being helpful in calming autistic children when they were anxious. So when Bodhi climbed up on my lap during a storm I hugged him very firmly, and he stopped trembling quite so much. We had storms several days in a row that time and we repeated it (along with melatonin) and he trembled less and less each time till he wasn't trembling at all anymore. The combination of melatonin and firm hugging has gotten him to the point that most of the time now he's only mildly nervous and doesn't even come to me for hugs anymore.

 

So, sure, he's got positive, calming association to my hugging him now, but he didn't have one when I started it. Of course, an argument could be made that he had a positive, calming association to bodily contact with me, since he did seek it out on his own, and that that in turn led to the hugging being effective.

 

As far as a correlation between hugs and Thundershirts, I can't say for sure, but I suspect it's the compression in both cases producing a physiological effect that Temple Grandin noticed in autistic kids.

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It's funny how a distraction can seem to make a dog less stressed. A friend picks up her little dog and does 'I'm a little teapot' complete with song and actions. The dog goes quiet, looks very weirded out, and then settles down once put down again. Works like a charm every time.

 

 

I hesitate to reccommend it as a method, but anyone tries it please post video. :P

Especially if you have bigger dogs.

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