Handel & The Thundershirt

   One of the newer training aids often suggested by Positive Reinforcement trainers for dogs that have anxiety issues is a Thundershirt.  Really just a tight fitting wrapped coat, it's meant to act like a hug providing a steady and comforting pressure to the dog's thorax.  Compression based devices have been shown to be very affective in helping other animals and humans find calm in anxious situations.  Renowned doctor of animal science and high-functioning autistic,Temple Grandin famously made herself a "hugging machine" during her college days to help herself relax.   Humans have been using swaddling for thousands of years as a means of quieting fussy babies.

 The Thundershirt works on this principal, all in a safe and breathable fabric attached tightly with velcro.  They are now readily available online and now at bigbox petsupply stores like PetSmart and Petco.  Coming in at around $39 the Thundershirt comes in a few colors and can even be embroidered before delivery for a small additional fee.  However, if it doesn't help with your dog's anxiety it's just an expensive jacket.

   I've recommended the Thundershirt several times to shelter adopters and heard of some people having success...though all recommendations contained a "may work for some dogs" clause.  My informal survey suggested that some success was seen in about 50% of the dogs who tried it.  So I was hopeful, but not overly expectant when buying one for Handel...but if it did work for him the benefits far outweighed the cost.

  So we picked one up, put it on and went straight out to play some ball.  I think some owners describe their dogs becoming frozen by the experience of wearing the shirt for the first time...some dogs will never get over this (and therefore, the Thundershirt does not work for them), but many dogs just need an immediate distraction to get them over the initial moments and seem to be fine after that.  Handel was fine!  In fact, his face appeared instantly happier and more relaxed, his pupils were less dilated than usual and his constant whining was down to a minimum.  We kept the Thundershirt on for a whole day and the longer it was on the better he seemed to be doing.  Growling still happened from time to time, but the husband stalking was almost non-existent...he even climbed up to sit next to Chris on the sofa.  So the Thundershirt worked wonderfully for Handel, right?

  Well, not entirely...while it was on he showed real improvement.  I was quite happy.  Unfortunately in our case, I somehow managed to develop amnesia about his sound sensitivity to velcro.  So late in the evening when he was very sleepy (and so was I), we went to take the Thundershirt off.  With the first sound of ripping velcro, Handel whipped his head around and snapped at my hand, before backing away from me whining.

   Silly me.  After exhausting every high value treat in the house (including left over steak), I gave up and pulled out the muzzle.  Thank goodness we'd worked on wearing a muzzle through CC/D, otherwise he might be wearing a half velcro-ed Thundershirt still.  A whole day's good work with the Thundershirt undone by five minutes of velcro noise.  Sigh. So...will we still keep trying to make the Thundershirt work???  Of course!  But we've got a lot of backing up to do before that.  Now off to desensitize and counter condition for velcro!   I guess it just goes to show that there are no easy fixes.