Wrap up your dog…

….hhhmmm…..  for what you ask??  for noise phobia such as thunderstorms or fireworks or for stress or anxiety.  I hear these days about the new “Thundershirt”…  hhmm…  catchy name so people think the concept is new. 

In…ohh..  lets say sometime around 2002 I read about the Anxiety Wrap and purchased one for Josephine who was and has been the only dog of the 8 that I’ve had recently that had a thunderstorm  or fireworks phobia.  Please read about it here:  The Anxiety Wrap and how it works.

Prior to that I had read about Linda Tellington’s TTouch Bodywork and how to “wrap” a dog and even bought a videotape of how to do it. Here is more information including pictures or “wrapped” dogs.  Other links I found interesting were Linda’s extensive background with horses and Linda’s more recent information including her BLOG.  She has been working on dogs since the 1980s.  Anyway, like I said..  I bought an Anxiety Wrap which I guess is comparable to buying potato salad in the deli instead of making my own!!    That was 2002.

I found various used for it other than the noise or anxiety (which, by the way, I think it really did help in those situations).  When Teddy had hip surgery  he refused to move (seriously would sit for hours in the same place) when I put the Elizabethan (cone) collar on him so I had to figure out something else to do…  enter the Anxiety Wrap that had been packed away for a few years.   Because it didn’t cover totally where he had the surgery I had to improvise to cover that area…  well, let’s just say – a picture is worth a thousand words…. (please don’t laugh..  I don’t take my dogs in public looking like this!  ..  ok..  snicker then..) 

And then there was Ari who was a very long dog and he had a lump removed from his rump, the collar wasn’t good enough because he could still reach it so again I pulled out the Anxiety Wrap.  Yet again a picture is worth a thousand words.  Nothing really phased him.  Little did I know that perhaps a Band-Aid would have been sufficient.

So now, there is  the Thundershirt.  Same concept – different name.  There is also the Storm Defender.

What would I do now?  First I would go to a thrift shop and get a t-shirt that is in good shape and would fit rather snug but not too tight on my dog.  Then I would get some wide wrap (self adhering) and would read the directions online to do it myself.  (Hmm… guess I’m making that potato salad now..)

Here, by the way, is one person’s opinion on the Thundershirt vs. the Anxiety Wrap.  I can’t make the comparison because I haven’t used both but this person has.  However, Thundershirt’s ties to the HSUS (Humane Society of the United States) would make me NOT want to buy anything from them…  but THAT is WHOLE other post!

Ari again.. 
don’t know why this time but it must have been during hunting season
because his reflective coat is over it!

 

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