Our older dalmation has severe thunderstorm anxiety. She shivers, hides, pants, and whines. It is terrible! I was another skeptical shopper, but willing to try the Thundershirt after reading about it in my Yahoo group. Some people in the group were getting good results.
I am happy to say that we have also had good results. Now, that doesn't mean it's an instant and 100% cure. It has lessened our dog's anxiety during storms by about 75%. She is still anxious, but she doesn't tremble, pant, whine, or hide. She will still pace some, but mainly she just lays down and looks unhappy until the storm is over. So it's a huge improvement.
I read another review about how tight the shirt is, so much so the reviewer worried about the product's safety. All I can say is that I think they bought the wrong size. We adjust the shirt so that it is snug, not tight. Our dog didn't like the shirt at first, and looked at us like we had lost our minds when we put it on her the first time. But she has gotten used to it. She even stands and looks at us when a storm is approaching, waiting for us to get her shirt.
We live in South Florida, the lightning capital of the world. So we have frequent strong thunderstorms. The Thundershirt has helped us get through this last rainy season with less problems and a happier dog. I think it's worth trying and I am glad we did.
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Ever since my Ellie was a puppy...now 9, loud noises, like fireworks and thunderstorms are a problem.
She goes into complete panic mode.
This 80lb Shepherd mix looses her doggy mind, trying to climb in anything that has a door. The fridge if we are looking for something, the cupboards even the dishwasher, for example.
Tried doggy downers, but once she is in that panic she will not chew a tablet.
We live in Florida, where a wicked thunderstorm could pop up without warning.
So we purchased this shirt to see if this might be some salvation for us, and relief for the dog.
Well...she lets us put it on her with no fuss. I let her give it a good sniff over before attempting to put it on her.
She actually likes the shirt and shows some sign of excitement when it's presented.
Now during storms, and this took a couple of times, She seems to not to try to climb in the cupboards or have that look of abject terror in her eyes.
Now she gets the shirt...goes into the small guest bathroom. and lies on the floor in the the dark.
Don't get me wrong, there still is allot of pacing and panting before the final result. but it is more positive behavior.
I wouldn't call it a miracle cure, but it seems to help a take the edge off.
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OK currently I'm rating this 4 stars, but I may come back and change this depending on how things continue to go.
For some background I have a chihuahua mix who is deeply attached to me. He has issues with separation anxiety and a hyper-aggressiveness toward other dogs, particularly large dogs. If he so much as sees a dog or anything else that may be threatening (a person walking by or a noise downstairs) he will start barking as ferociously as a chihuahua can bark. It's problematic for me because he is an agility dog and I have to constantly be aware that he may try to attack the dogs near me at any moment he feels like they're encroaching on his territory (namely, me). I've done obedience training with him since he was 10 weeks old and he's a SUPER well behaved dog aside from these issues.
After researching online, I came to realize that he may be suffering from some form of anxiety, which is causing him to act out because he feels threatened. Thus, I came upon the Thundershirt.
I'm really not the type of person to purchase items that seem gimmicky, and admittedly, this shirt screams gimmick. However, with nearly 600 reviews on Amazon and a 4.5 star rating, I had to try it. Anything is worth trying if it will remedy a big issue in my dog's life. I don't want him to feel like he has to protect me all the time as that causes undue stress.
So, after receiving the shirt, I opened the box and was greeted with a very cute plastic packaging for the shirt. Almost like a manilla envelope except see-through. The shirt was very well made and soft to the touch..but I was more concerned with testing it out rather than inspecting the intricacies of how it was made.
I put it on my dog after taking a moment to think about the logic behind the velcro straps and it fit him nice and snug. I ordered an extra small my dog is about 8 lbs but very lanky and it fit him perfectly. I opted to go with the sizing on the Thundershirt website vs. the Amazon website as I've been burned by Amazon having improper sizing info in the past.
I was debating on an XXS vs. a XS.
For example on Amazon an XXS states:
Size XXS for dogs less that 12 pounds and with a chese size of 9" 13.5"
Whereas the Thundershirt website states:
Size Chest Size Weight
XXS 9"-13.5" < 7 lbs.
That's a HUGE difference. So I highly recommend using Thundershirt sizing to decide on which is best for your dog.
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Here is the complete chart:
Size Chest Size Weight
XXS 9"-13.5" < 7 lbs.
XS 13"-18" 8-14 lbs.
S 16"-23" 15-25 lbs.
M 18"-26" 26-40 lbs.
L 24"-32" 41-64 lbs.
XL 31"-40" 65-110 lbs.
XXL 38"-50" > 110 lbs.
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OK so regarding the efficiency of this shirt.
I tested it outdoors with my dog on our front driveway just absorbing the sounds and sights of a normal neighborhood.
My dog laid out in the sun and didn't seem reactive to much, whereas he normally would be. A neighbor walked their dog relatively near us, and my dog barked a little but he didn't run after the dog despite not being on a leash. Usually he won't leave my side but it can be unpredictable when it comes to dogs.
The next day I took him out again and this time I forgot to put the shirt on. He was more on edge, and when a neighbor brought out their little dog, my dog went crazy and went running up to their dog barking. I grabbed him and took him straight inside.
The next day, I tried it with the shirt again. This time children came running by, other dogs, etc. and he didn't move.. he actually just lay on his side and didn't react much. He might give a little bark here and there, but no where near his normal level of intensity.
I tried his shirt during his advanced obedience training. He's in a class with all large dogs and the first day (without the shirt)he was shaking and just terrified. He would bark everytime the other dogs seemed to be a safe enough distance away, and wouldn't perform anything in front of the class since he was so scared. (sometimes I think my dog is bipolar). The second day of class (with the shirt) he was way more calm and less scared of the other dogs. We walked by 3 large dogs and he didn't make a peep. He performed in front of the class and was just more mellow overall, although he is still shakey and seems scared.
I gave it 4 stars because I DO see improvement in my dog and it has only been about a week or so. However, I feel that although it takes the edge off him, I don't feel like the videos they post showing miraculous changes just by putting on the shirt are accurate. Perhaps there are dogs that this effect will happen, but I would consider it a rarity rather than the norm. I would have preferred more accurate marketing that really stresses the need to do behavioral modification in addition to the shirt. They do mention this, but its very brief compared to the marketing showing it as a miracle shirt.
And after reading so many reviews, it seems I'm not alone in this shirt being part of a process rather than a fix.
Overall, I recommend it and I'm going to try it with my friend's dog who is VERY hyper and see if it solves any issues with him.
EDIT: The shirt worked miraculously on my friend's dog. The dog is high strung, paces, jumps up on people and overall just "starving" for attention. Won't let you pet any other dogs and has to be the center of attention constantly, which wears my friend out.
We put the shirt on him and he just calmed down completely to normal dog levels. He lay down, relaxed.. yet, when the other dogs wanted to play, he still had energy to play. I played fetch with my dog in front of him and he just lay down and watched and didn't have the urge to go get the ball himself, which he normally would do.
We took the shirt off him to see if maybe he was just in a mellow mood and he immediately got hyper and started pacing everywhere again. She's going to be buying one of these shirts because it made such a big difference in how he behaved.
Honest reviews on Thundershirt Dog Anxiety Treatment
I'll admit, I was a little skeptical about how well this shirt would work for our 11 year old black lab mix, Mollie. She has ALWAYS been deathly afraid of thunder when a storm blows up, she paces, pants, trembles uncontrollably, and is just generally very, VERY anxious. We could never provide her much solace, even in our laps. But, I had seen a wonderful movie on HBO called "Temple Grandin" starring Claire Danes in the title role. This true story is about an amazing autistic woman who, through courage, strength of will, and a brilliant mind, completed college and earned Master's & Doctoral degrees in animal sciences. She also is a pioneer in new approaches to cattle ranching and slaughter house management. By empathizing with the animals, and keenly observing their behavior during immunizations, dips, and being lead into the slaughter house, she redesigned much of how it all was done, leading to much calmer & easier to herd cattle, and as humane as possible slaughter.
Anyway, early in the movie, while spending a summer as a teenager at an aunt's cattle ranch for the summer, she observed that the cattle were calmed when placed in a holding device called a "squeeze chute" that pressed in on them tightly. She was fascinated by it, and her aunt allowed her to try it out. Finding that it calmed her nervousness dramatically, she built a smaller-sized version for herself that she used while in college and beyond.
Remembering this from the movie, I decided to get a Thundershirt for Mollie. Well, let me tell you, it works wonders, at least for our Girl. In fact, it is thundering outside as I type this and Mollie, with her pink rugby-style Thundershirt on is laying calmly on the floor in her bed beside me. No panting, trembling or pacing. No apparent anxiety at all! And, to top it off, my wife is vacuuming in the next room (another "trigger" for Mollie's anxiety), and she is apparently not bothered by it either.
Your "mileage may vary" as it is said, but I recommend you at least try one for yourself if you have a dog who gets overly anxious during thunderstorms. If it works half as good as it does for our Mollie, just think how much happier & at peace your dog will be during a storm!
Oh, and as an aside, unlike some other reviewer's dogs, our Mollie has no problem moving around & relaxing when wearing her Thundershirt. The key, I think, is to be sure & order the correct size by measuring your dog around the deepest part of their chest. Doing this caused me to order one size larger than I would have guessed she needed. Also, don't put it on too tightly! Finally, while the material could cause her to be hot, we run the air conditioning in our house consistently at 72° and she is comfortable while wearing it.
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We didn't buy our thundershirt for "thunderstorms". We read that the shirt was supposed to help ALL anxiety problems. We have a two-year old Lab/Golden Retriever mix. We love him to death, but since the day we got him (he was ten weeks old)he got very anxious whenever we had to leave him alone or take him for a drive. We recorded him on our webcam whenever we left. We would leave him kongs of frozen canned dog food or peanut butter, or any type of food that would take him a while to finish off. Once the food was eaten and he realized he was alone, he would start to pant, start crying, then start howling up toward the ceiling, calling for us. The crate just wouldn't work. We made it his "happy place" by putting toys and food in it. He happily goes into the crate to rest when we are home, but as soon as we left, he would howl, bark, and try to break out of the crate. What we did then was put a gate up and left him in the kitchen so that he had more room. The barking lessened, but he still did it. Whenever he laid down in the recorded videos we had of him, his head would be up and his ears would be back. Our main problem was when he barked, we didn't want him getting the neighbors angry...he has a LOUD bark, especially when he's anxious. We tried the thundershirt. We put it on him, he didn't try to chew it off or get uncomfortable. We recorded him with it on and we left for an hour. While in the shirt, he simply went next to the gate and laid down. After watching the whole video, he didn't bark a SINGLE time. That made us so happy that he felt like he was being hugged, so he didn't bark. The only thing I don't like is, as I said earlier, whenever we leave, we leave him food to work on in his kongs. Since we have had the shirt and we leave him, he seems to lose interest in his food. He just chills out and lays down with no barking. I like that he gets mellow, I guess that's what it's SUPPOSED to do, but for our extremely food-motivated dog to NOT touch his food when we put him in the thundershirt is odd. I don't know, it just seems like he's drugged or something while in the thundershirt. It doesn't hurt him, his personality just gets really mellow which is what you want if you don't want your dog to be anxious during stressful times for them. I would recommend if you are using this shirt for crate training or seperation anxiety, record your pooch while you are gone and see how he reacts when you aren't there. It was just nice to see that this shirt is not JUST for thunderstorms. If the shirt doesn't work, then return it with the money-back guarantee.
