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Thunder Shirts for Dogs

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This is a bit late to save you from bonfire night this year, but might be worth knowing for New Year ... I bought one of these for Willow (a very frightened of fireworks retired greyhound), somewhat in desperation it has to be said. Thought I'd feedback that it does seem to have worked - Will has definitely been calmer, although still nervous, she's been much more settled.

Got mine at Pets at Home 'cos they had one in her size, but they're available all over the place I think

 

http://www.petsathome.com/shop/thundershirt-the-best-solution-for-dog-anxiety-56451

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Fortunately, our grey doesn't even seem to register fireworks... Or much else for that matter. I've heard good things about the Thundershirts, though. Made in America http://www.thundershirt.com/ and it looks like PaH are selling them at a reasonable price, which is unusual for American products over here!

 

They do seem to be available a bit cheaper on line if you shop around, but one catalogue I saw them in was selling them at £49.99 :shock:

Even so, £30-£35 is still a fair bit to shell out for something that might or might not work - so just thought I'd let everyone know our findings!!!!!

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Even so, £30-£35 is still a fair bit to shell out for something that might or might not work - so just thought I'd let everyone know our findings!!!!!

 

I have heard good things about Thundershirts too. I also have a feeling that you can return them for a refund if you find they don't help your dog, so that might be worth checking out if anyone is thinking of trying one for their dog.

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Even so, £30-£35 is still a fair bit to shell out for something that might or might not work - so just thought I'd let everyone know our findings!!!!!

 

I have heard good things about Thundershirts too. I also have a feeling that you can return them for a refund if you find they don't help your dog, so that might be worth checking out if anyone is thinking of trying one for their dog.

 

 

It certainly does say "satisfaction guaranteed" on the packet so I'm sure they'd do a refund if it didn't work ...

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There's a lot of information about them on the lurcher forum I use; I borrowed one to try for Ruby, who lives life on the edge, but it didn't work much - that's not to say that it won't work for your dog though.

 

I have tried various other products and therapies in the past too - T Touch had some effect and has made her generally less edgy. Plug-ins and the like made no difference whatsoever, but I recently started her on Seren-um and it really seems to be making a difference; I get the tablet form from Pests at Home and crush them into her food or a wee bit of peanut butter. She seems to be calmer all round and coped much better with fireworks than in previous years.

 

From experience it's just a case of trying various things and seeing what suits your dog... a friend has a noise desensitising CD which I am going to borrow and try.

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The Thunder Shirt is based on Tellington Touch, I believe.

I've also got a fireworks CD which we listen to incessantly in the weeks leading up to November :roll: - Willow definitely gets used to the fireworks on that and can cope with it being quite loud by the time we've been playing it a while. That said, the problem with the CDs is that I don't think they can recreate the "feel" of fireworks (hard to explain that, but you can feel as well as hear real fireworks :anxious: )- and I think that's what really winds Willow up.

Interestingly, I tried her on Serene-um and didn't really find it made any difference - just goes to show I guess that every dog is different.

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It might work in conjunction with positive rewarding; I am using it at the moment to bring Rubes down from her usual frantic state when fireworks are going off (and she IS a lot better) and then, when she's a bit more receptive, using positive treating with the CD to condition her to accept them more. She is definitely more chilled though and I understand that it has a cumulative effect.... there was a thread on LL (in 'chat') about it.

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Interesting... Positive training has made a huge difference already. We can now walk past most people without barking and lungeing (although I always keep Tango on a short lead and a treat in front of her nose to be on the safe side) but I can tell with some people she is still very edgy and is being obedient rather than okay about the situation.

I wonder if it would just help take the edge off her anxiety a bit? :think:

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Hmmm.... we are two years on and seem to have somewhat plateaued, so after some further ideas really! She went loopy at a man in a pub the other day - poor chap was minding his own business, trying to serve drinks behind the bar and she went bonkers barking and making an awful racket! (Pacified by roast beef in the end :roll: ) She has been into plenty of pubs before (makes me sound like an alcoholic - I'm not! :lol: ) and never reacted at anyone. It all seems to be terribly random!

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It can be odd and random to us, but I guess that it makes sense to them, have you thought of contactingJim Greenwood? he's an excellent behaviourist who specialises in hounds. He travels around and will sometimes split a day for you if he's in the area anyway. He's the god of dog training to me and works on a positive reward basis, but REALLY understands dogs and reads them well.... works a lot with LL on their rescues, so you can imagine the type of stuff he's used to dealing with.

 

My dogs NEVER mis-behave around him :roll: they seem to know that he's got them sussed.

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