There’s a Storm Brewing–Break out the Thundershirts!
What in heck is a Thundershirt? No, it’s not the preferred garment of the latest cinema superhero, or a body builder’s lifting uniform. What it is might surprise you…especially if you have a dog that is terrified of thunderstorms, fireworks, and other loud noises. In fact, if the Thundershirt performs as advertised, it might just make life with your “canine coward,” a bit more tolerable when nature rumbles.
Almost everyone in the dog world knows someone with a dog that suffers a Jekyll and Hyde transformation when loud noises are the order of the day. Sadly, with the exception of doggie tranquilizers, there hasn’t been a real solution for those poor shivering canine souls. For competition canines, unnerved by loud sounds at canine disc, agility, flyball, and dock diving competitions, tranquilizers are simply not an option. However, the entrepreneurs at Thundershirts.com may have a winner with the Thundershirt.
The Thundershirt borrows from methods used in the fields of human psychiatry and animal husbandry. Tight fitting garments have been used for decades to calm agitated human patients and constricting animal chutes have been used to soothe agitated domestic animals like cows and hogs (somehow we can’t imagine a shirt on a cow).
Simply put, the Thundershirt is a tight-fitting garment that gently squeezes the torso of the wearer and, for reasons not fully understood, tends to exert a calming effect on the “squeezee.“ Does it work? Well, we don’t know for sure, but there is certainly an anecdotal basis to believe that the Thundershirt might work for some canines. Thundershirt literature claims that 80 percent of dog owners report a significant reduction in canine anxiety. Thundershirt also offers a 100% money back guarantee for users. At a recent pet industry show, Thundershirts were selling like hotcakes, which certainly suggests that the Thundershirt folks have a winner on their hands.
If you’ve had some experience with the Thundershirt, let us know what you think and we will pass the information on to the masses.
For more information, please visit thundershirt.com.