# Thundershirt or other suggestions?



## Sweet Summer Time (Nov 24, 2010)

Ok we got Stuart (approx 1 year old) male rescue about 5 weeks ago, now. He is a wonderful dog, very sweet, hardly does anything wrong in front of you, and if you say no or drop he does it right away. He is potty trained ...he sleeps downstairs with his big sis (3 years old) all night never had an acciednt in the house at night. We borrowed a huge crate for him when we got him, and have had to put him in it when we go to work. (come home for lunch) etc...have tried to let him stay out of the crate off and on, and have had just a few successes. Hubby has been home all last week and this week so we have really been trying to work on leaving for awhile and coming back.....he hasn't done anything with the furniture , but has shredded magazines ( our fault I know) but he also pees on his bed, or shredds his blankets. I'm really leaning towards seperation anxiety as an issue. Trying to not make this so long but give enough info to see if anyone might have suggestions or ideas, I was also looking into the thunderjacket idea...has anyone had any good experiences with this? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. I hate keeping him in the crate, and want to work toward goal of being out with my other golden.


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## Sammy3goldens (Dec 23, 2013)

I bought the expensive thunder jackets for all three of my dogs, but my husband did not think they would work, and broke all the rules. Fortunately my husband loves the dogs dearly, so no harm was done. I wish we had read and discussed the philosophy (truth) in using the jackets before investing in them. He just pets them during a storm and tells them they will be ok. That is fine, but he should ignore them. 

I re-read the first part of your message. We closed off a section of the recreation room for our puppy. He had an area to walk and sniff around, but it was like a large crate. We blocked off the rest of the room and house with a long section of fencing. We have used this for all of our young dogs and it work great. There are all kinds of fences and hardware cloth that are easy to manipulate to give a puppy more room. 

The downside of these wonderful dogs is that they are puppies for three years. Ours still has to be supervised when he plays with anything fluffy - that goes for bedding. He will always find the seam, and start tearing it apart. 

Sammy


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Contain him to a small area right now. He doesn't have to be in a crate, but absolutely should not have full access to the house until he settles in. 

All dogs are different, but it took our Arthur a year to get settled in. Not saying it will take that long with your new dog, but I'd give him a few months to learn the rules of the house.


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

Please please please do not even think about the word "separation anxiety" about your dog. All the behaviors you are describing are 100% NORMAL for a 1 year old male dog in a new home!!!
All he is showing you is that he is being allowed too much unsupervised freedom. That is not a crime. It's just a management compliance issue on YOUR part 
You bought the crate, so use it. Put him in there with NO BEDDING and only a few indestructible toys (kongs with treats inside them, hard bones). After a few months and he is used to sleeping and/or playing quietly with his toys in the crate, you can begin to babygate him in a confined area, like the kitchen, bathroom or laundry room, where he has very limited access to random stuff to chew on. My 11 month old golden is in this stage and does great. 
If you put him in a thundershirt I think the only thing you'll get out of it is a chewed up thundershirt. He's being a dog. Your turn to be a consistent owner!


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## Sweet Summer Time (Nov 24, 2010)

Thank you everyone for your input!
K-9Design: I think you are probably right, we may be rushing the whole process! I realise all puppies are different, but I think he really has thrown us for a loop since he has had such good manners otherwise, we tried to give him more credit then he probably deserves! 
We used the crate for him for 4 weeks and also tried the block off the kitchen thing, but all he did was rip up his blankets and pee on his bed.
The big thing that really made us think it is seperation anxiety is the fact that he has never been crated at night and sleeps downstairs (upstairs where we sleep is baby gated off) and has no problem at all through the whole night! I feel like he is ok as long as he knows we are in the house but when we leave, it's a whole other story! 

Funny story:
We did get a thundershirt last night for him... he seems to like it, hubby left for 1/2 hour to try it out.....he didnt chew the thundershirt, but found the toilet paper roll! 
Lol! I foresee more crate in his future!


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

Uhh yeah, he's just being a puppy and you're letting him loose to discover Disneyland in your house. 
True separation anxiety is MUCH more rare than people think. It's a label that is applied and thrown around WAY MORE than it ought to be. Why start out your relationship with this new dog with a label that is most likely inaccurate but will follow him his whole life, when he's only behaving normally? Don't feel guilty about leaving him in the crate. He's OK. It's appropriate. Just do it. When he's older he'll be fine loose in the house. Best of luck.


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## Sweet Summer Time (Nov 24, 2010)

REALLY????


How will I ever live with myself!!!!!


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## Brave (Oct 26, 2012)

I clicked on this hoping to get some feedback on the thunder shirt. I've decided to try it out on my Bear when we're expecting fireworks. I have heard great things about it, so I think it's worth the $40 to try it. 

In regards to the destruction - I agree that it doesn't sound like separation anxiety. 

From what I've seen separation anxiety manifests as inconsolable, and uncontrollable freak-outs. I've seen a dog throw a tantrum so vicious they actually broke out of their crate. I've seen the same dog jump through plate glass to get to their owner, rip open the dog door (the slide you put over it to make it inaccessible). Tantrums so intense they pee and poo from anxiety. A byproduct is destruction of various things, but just because a dog destroys things doesn't mean they have separation anxiety. 

We had two dogs over for a week and even though they are 5 and 3 years old respectively, they tore down a set of curtains, shredded a package of shampoo wipes, and chewed through some cords. It was a combo of high-energy dogs not getting enough exercise and being bored. So we crated them. They were safe and nothing was destroyed. 

My Bear is 16 months old and I cannot trust him with squeaky stuffed toys alone. He likes to maim them. So when I leave, I gate off the kitty box (he likes litter), put the stuffies up high and make sure he has lots of hard toys to chew on (antlers, kongs, nylabones, etc). 


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## Sweet Summer Time (Nov 24, 2010)

Brave: Yes I was hoping for more information about the thunder shirt as well. He did pee on his bed and shredded his blanket as stated before. I did forget to add that when he was first put in his crate he did push down the door and the actual whole side of the crate.....we had to reinforce the wire cage with tie straps. No matter what his deal is, I was really hoping to hear some more on anyone that had used the thunder shirts.


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

Wow, you really went to a lot of trouble. That'll teach me to ever respond to someone's questions.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

If it helps.... we tried thundershirts with Jacks who has had anxiety issues in the past, primarily connected to noise phobias as well as a then untreated thyroid issue. 

Thundershirts (I believe) work great with dogs who have "air pressure" related issues. They do absolutely NOTHING for dogs who have noise related issues. 

With Jacks - the thundershirt added to his discomfort and made him more stressed. 

I agree with Anney, that jumping to the conclusion that it's separation anxiety is probably not the best if there is a more simple and obvious answer. 

Sometimes just backing up the boat to keeping him in a small dog proofed room when you are not home (if you absolutely can't use a crate for some reason) and treating this dog the same way you would a puppy who has not been potty trained and doesn't have a set daily schedule (sleep at night, sleep during those hours of the day when no one is home, etc).


ETA - I should have added to be fair... my sister still can't forget the time we went to church and came back to find lava rocks (absorbs odors) scattered all over our basement floor. This when Bertie was about 4-5 months old. We suspect that Bertie started it - but Jacks probably helped. <- To this day, my sister has "pick up lava rocks and put up high" on her proof-before-leaving-house checklist.


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## Brave (Oct 26, 2012)

Megora said:


> If it helps.... we tried thundershirts with Jacks who has had anxiety issues in the past, primarily connected to noise phobias as well as a then untreated thyroid issue.
> 
> Thundershirts (I believe) work great with dogs who have "air pressure" related issues. They do absolutely NOTHING for dogs who have noise related issues.
> 
> ...


Thanks Megora for the insight on air vs noise anxiety. I never thought of that. 

OP - I agree with taking a step back and crating the dog. The thunder shirt may help, but if its destruction you want to avoid, confinement and puppy proofing is the way to go. If you are dead set on calling this seperation anxiety, I recommend setting up a nanny cam for a week and take the footage to a veterinary behaviorist to get their opinion. 

None of us can see your dog. So it's hard to tell if this is or is not separation anxiety. IMO, it's not. But it's also not my dog. Nor have I seen the behaviors for myself. 


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## solinvictus (Oct 23, 2008)

A thundershirt isn't magic. It does use preasure points to help a dog feel more secure but usually without desensitization and counterconditioning to the problem it doesn't help a lot unless the problem isn't very severe to begin with.

I agree with Anney and Megora that you have a young dog that will find fun activities to do (not what we think is fun but what they think is fun) when you are not there to supervise.

When you are not there the dog is not ready to make good choices. Since there isn't any way to actually train the pup for when you are not there and he is finding (learning bad habits) use management until he is older. A room set up for his safety or a crate.

Your sign should really say....

I am giving my dog to much freedom and he is making poor choices.


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## Charliethree (Jul 18, 2010)

I have had some success with the Thundershirt and with an overall anxious dog, helped to calm her on walks, and during thunderstorms. Have also used Rescue Remedy which has helped to calm and settle. Longer term I have also used a DAP (dog appeasing pheromones) diffuser,(in the room the dogs sleep) and found it worked well in helping to calm an anxious dog.


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## Maggies mom (Jan 6, 2006)

The thunder shirt has works great for one of my dogs that doesnt care for Thunder and fire works, put the shirt on her and she acts normal. I have a 6 year old that does fine for 2-3 hours alone while im gone(with other dogs) after that time he loves to get into trouble. I can walk him 3 miles before I leave and he still gets into trouble. That being said, he is crated while Im gone. When I pick up my keys he runs to his crate and lays down. Maybe its the wire crate.... Out of 5 dogs I have only one that will go in a wire crate, the others wont step foot in one.


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## Lennap (Jul 9, 2010)

I have used the thunder shirt with great success to help Remy with his fear of thunder and fireworks. However it does not work if I put it on preemptively knowing that a storm or fireworks are coming. He needs to get scared - then he gets all happy when I pick up the shirt, and is totally calmed down when I put it on. 

It's pretty weird.


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## lhowemt (Jun 28, 2013)

Sweet Summer Time said:


> REALLY????
> 
> 
> How will I ever live with myself!!!!!


Too funny. I don't see a problem with your description, it's not like you are committing insurance fraud or are asking for disability accommodations. 

We get so hung up on words. I had a chocolate lab that I could not crate train. She also had "separation anxieties" and I described her as such because she had a much harder time being left alone than my other dogs. Probably less than some, more than others, and I'm sure I could describe it differently.

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## Sweet Summer Time (Nov 24, 2010)

lhowemt said:


> Too funny. I don't see a problem with your description, it's not like you are committing insurance fraud or are asking for disability accommodations.
> 
> We get so hung up on words. I had a chocolate lab that I could not crate train. She also had "separation anxieties" and I described her as such because she had a much harder time being left alone than my other dogs. Probably less than some, more than others, and I'm sure I could describe it differently.
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


Finally someone that gets the humor in this!  
We are currently working on getting him to want to go in his crate when we leave by trying treats and squeaky toys to entice him. Also getting him to sit and down in cage and trying to get him in a calm state before opening the door. He has no problem with the crate as he goes in and out of it frequently on his own even lays down in it while we are home. But when we get ready to leave he gets very nervous. He starts panting and doesnt want to go in the crate. We are also doing things that probably would look crazy if someone on the outside saw.......we go get our jackets on and grab car keys like we are leaving then go sit down on the couch and wait for him to relax before taking them off. Have been consistent with the crate thing all week..... and will continue. if we can get him to be more relaxed when we leave ....then will try the kitchen space again. The thundershirt does relax him seems more outside the crate then in. Small steps but hopefully we will get there!


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