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Whatever the situation that makes your dog anxious, fearful, reactive or over-excited, Thundershirt's gentle, constant pressure can bring calm and focus back to your dog. A terrific solution for many types of anxiety including thunder, fireworks, separation, travel, and crate anxieties. And a terrific solution for eliminating "bad leash manners" such as pulling or reactivity towards other animals and people.

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Thundershirt’s patent-pending design is a pressure wrap that applies a gentle, constant pressure on a dog’s torso.  From real world experience, we know with certainty that Thundershirt DOES WORK. That is why we are able to offer a money-back guarantee.  A survey of Thundershirt users shows that over 85% of dogs show significant improvement in at least one anxiety symptom when using Thundershirt. 

As for WHY Thundershirt's gentle pressure works to calm a dog…no one knows for sure.  There are theories, but no scientific studies to prove them.  According to some experts such as Dr. Temple Grandin, pressure has a calming effect on the nervous system.  Using pressure to relieve anxiety has been a common practice for years.  For example:

• TTouch dog trainers use pressure to address noise anxiety and a variety of other anxieties.
• Veterinarians use pressure to relax cattle when they are administering vaccinations.
  
• Some autistic people use pressure to relieve their persistent anxiety.
  

Until now, there just hasn’t been a well-designed, inexpensive pressure wrap commonly used for canine anxiety.  Thundershirt intends to change that!

How To Use Thundershirt

Thundershirt is an excellent treatment for most types of canine anxiety.  For many anxieties, we recommend just putting on a Thundershirt and observing the results (No training!)…You very well may see significant improvement for noise, crate, travel and others with absolutely no training.  For more complicated anxiety cases, we recommend using Thundershirt as part of a behavior modification program.

One thing is for certain, for a very large percentage of dogs, Thundershirt’s gentle, constant pressure has a terrific calming effect.  This has obvious benefits for most types of anxiety.  But Thundershirt is also a very useful tool for managing excitability or hyperactivity with strangers, on the leash, or in a training environment.   Thundershirt’s calming effect helps a dog to focus (or refocus) her energies in a more constructive direction, allowing training to be more effective.

Click on a subject from the list below for more detailed instructions for how best to use Thundershirt for various issues.  We’d like to offer a special thanks to Jenn Merritt, CPDT, (www.bluedogk9.com) for her many contributions in developing the programs below.


Introducing Thundershirt to Your Dog, and How to Put It On
Before putting Thundershirt on your dog for the first time, we recommend offering a small amount of food to your dog using the Thundershirt as a “plate”.   Dogs typically become more comfortable and trusting of something that “brings” them food or anything that they associate with food.  So this is an easy little trick to quickly create a positive association with Thundershirt for your dog.

Thundershirt has been developed to be very easy to put on.  Just lay it over your dog’s back and secure with the chest and torso straps.  The Velcro fasteners make Thundershirt very adjustable to many different body shapes.  See the illustrations and steps below for more information about how to put Thundershirt on.  Or click here for the instructions included in the packaging.

Step 1.	Place the Thundershirt on your dog’s back and wrap the Short Flap under the torso.
Step 2.	Wrap the Long Flap under the torso and secure with Velcro onto the short flap.  Make a comfortable, but snug, fit.  You should be able to easily slide your fingers between the Thundershirt and your dog’s torso.
Step 3.	Wrap the Top Flap down onto the Long Flap and secure with Velcro.  Adjust to improve the snug fit and keep Thundershirt securely in place.
Step 4.	Wrap the Chest Straps around the front of the dog and secure with Velcro.  You should be able to easily slide your fingers under the Chest Straps and should not feel restricting around your dog’s neck.

	Noise Anxiety Click above for details on how to use Thundershirt for Noise Anxiety.
	Travel Anxiety Click above for details on how to use Thundershirt for Travel Anxiety.
	Crate Anxiety As with noise and travel anxieties, a Thundershirt alone may be enough to solve your issues.  The use of Thundershirt alone has eliminated or significantly reduced symptoms such as severe shaking, panting, barking/whining, "digging" or chewing.  But there are also steps you can take to further help your dog be happy and comfortable in her crate.   Additional information will be available here soon (under construction).
	Separation Anxiety Separation anxiety can be an extremely challenging issue to manage and is often very stressful…for both the dog and her owners.  In milder cases, a Thundershirt alone may be enough to solve your issues.  It is absolutely a good first step to take…Thundershirt’s calming effects will mostly help and will definitely do no harm.   For a more detailed behavior modification program utilizing Thundershirt, please consult your trainer.  Additional information will be available here soon (under construction).
	Leash Pulling / Reactivity / General Hyperactivity or Excitability Thundershirt’s calming effects can greatly reduce issues related to walking on leash, reactivity, or just general hyperactivity and excitability.  For example, Thundershirt has been used with terrific results for dogs that become overly excited when visitors arrive at their home.  Thundershirt has been used to calm dogs on leashes and allow the dog to be more focused on the owner’s “requests”.
	General Training Tool Dogs often become excited or distracted during training sessions, especially if in a multi-dog classroom environment.  Thundershirt can help tremendously in those circumstances to reduce excitability, reactivity, and help focus the dogs on the training exercises.

So there are many different uses for Thundershirt…it’s not just for Noise.  Whatever the anxiety or excitability issue, Thundershirt is an excellent solution to try to bring calm and focus back to your dog.