I have been seeing the Thundershirt in pet stores since we adopted Agnes a year ago. I had never seen or heard of it before, and I'm intrigued as to its purpose and/or effectiveness.
As a qurious member of Quora, I asked a question this morning, regarding the Thundershirt. For two reasons: a) because it's the 4th of July and I'm thinking of going to see fireworks tonight in Marina del Rey (and we're concerned to leave Agnes home alone in case the neighborhood gets its fair share of firework explosions, which I believe it might). b) Agnes tends to whine a lot in the car and I'm wondering if the Thundershirt might even be calming in the car.
What are your thoughts? Do you have a pet with anxiety? Have you tried the Thundershirt? Does it work? I got a splendid answer from a member and here it is.
Read below if you can't click on the page:
"The Thundershirt is a knockoff. The original Anxiety Wrap, invented by Certified Professional Dog Trainer and T-Touch Practitioner, Susan Sharpe in 2001 was on the market 8 years before the introduction of the Thundershirt. The Anxiety Wrap is the original and the only pressure wrap that is patented. It works with both maintained pressure (http://anxietywrap.com/files/pdf...) and acupressure to achieve behavioral calm.
The technique of pressure applied to the body for calming has been around for decades. Dr. Temple Grandin, a professor of animal science at Colorado State University designed a "squeeze machine" (http://www.grandin.com/inc/squee...) to help relieve her own symptoms of anxiety while in college. She got the idea from observing cattle in a chute to calm them during inoculations.
Linda Tellington-Jones was also a pioneer in a technique of bodywork and gentle handling she named T-Touch. T-Touch (http://www.ttouch.com/) incorporates the use of special equipment such as leashes and body wraps with ace bandages to aid in calming.
Susan Sharpe consulted with Dr. Temple Grandin (and is mentioned in her book, "Animals Make Us Human," pg. 54) in her development of the original Anxiety Wrap. She also used what she knew as a T-Touch Practitioner to come up with her final original design after experimentation with over 90 different prototypes.
As a registered nurse I have witnessed the use of pressure to calm people with autism. I have also witnessed dramatic and immediate results with the donning of the Anxiety Wrap in a wide variety of dogs with various anxiety-related disorders.
To my knowledge, the Anxiety Wrap is not only the original and the only patented pressure wrap and the only pressure wrap that uses both maintained pressure and acupressure, but it is the only one that has been clinically tested in a research study. A recent study conducted by veterinarian, Dr. Nicholas Dodman at the prestigious Cummings Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. The researchers determined that the Anxiety Wrap was a "safe and effective treatment for thunderstorm phobia." Specifically, they found that the Anxiety Wrap was effective in 89% of the study participants (dogs)."
Thank you, Cindy Ludwig, for your thorough and thoughtful response.
Happy 4th of July to all our readers/visitors. Enjoy and be safe!
-MN
Saturday, March 2, 2013 at 1:14PM 
