Thundershirts for dogs?

[Becky]

What do you do for behavior mod? Is it basic happy time during storms with food and play?

My friend's dog is very fearful during storms and I'm trying to encourage her to try something -- shirts, or DAP at least.

So far, behavior mod has entailed happy distracting things when the first signs of a storm start. Cody's fear, although not severe to the point of destruction or injury, is pretty deeply-seated. As a result, he gets worked up at the very early signs of a storm- wind, darkening sky, far-off thunder, etc. So we've got a lot of "triggers" to undo. When I'm home, we play. Playing outside seems to be particularly effective for him, maybe because it's additional exposure to his triggers. We've done the food thing too with high-value treats when play isn't an option.

There comes a point when I can't distract him. That's when the shirt goes on, the collar comes off, and I focus on making him feel safe.

Irene demonstrated to DH and me that we've made some progress. There was a lot of dark, wind, and rain, but very little thunder and lightning, and he remained pretty calm throughout. He didn't even need the shirt, just an occasional chomp on his stuffed cow

Baby steps...