How It Works

With its patent-pending design, Thundershirt’s gentle, constant pressure has a dramatic calming effect for most dogs if they are anxious, fearful or over-excited. Based on surveys completed by over two thousand customers, over 80% of dogs show significant improvement in symptoms when using Thundershirt. Thundershirt is already helping tens of thousands of dogs around the world, and is recommended by thousands of veterinarians and dog trainers.

As for WHY Thundershirt’s gentle pressure works to calm a dog, experts such as Dr. Temple Grandin believe that pressure has a calming effect on the nervous system. Using pressure to relieve anxiety has been a common practice for years. For example:

• TTouch dog trainers use pressure to address a wide variety of anxieties.
• Veterinarians use pressure to relax cattle when they are administering vaccinations.
• People with autism use pressure to relieve their persistent anxiety.
• Children with certain behavioral problems use pressure shirts and weighted vests to relax and focus.
• Parents use swaddling to calm an inconsolable newborn infant.

Until now, there just hasn’t been a well-designed, inexpensive pressure wrap commonly used for dog anxiety. Thundershirt is changing that! Thousands of veterinarians and dog trainers now recommend Thundershirts for their anxiety cases.

How To Use Thundershirt

Thundershirt is an excellent treatment for most types of dog anxiety and fear issues. For many anxieties, we recommend just putting on a Thundershirt and observing the results (No training!). You very well may see significant improvement for noise, crate, travel, barking and others with absolutely no training. For more complicated anxiety cases, we recommend using Thundershirt as part of a behavior modification program.

One thing is for certain, for a very large percentage of dogs, Thundershirt’s gentle, constant pressure has a terrific calming effect. This has obvious benefits for most types of anxiety. But Thundershirt is also a very useful tool for managing excitability or hyperactivity with strangers, on the leash, or in a training environment. Thundershirt’s calming effect helps a dog to focus (or refocus) her energies in a more constructive direction, allowing training to be more effective.

Introducing Thundershirt to Your Dog, and How to Put It On

Before putting Thundershirt on your dog for the first time, we recommend offering a small amount of food to your dog using the Thundershirt as a “plate”. Dogs typically become more comfortable and trusting of something that “brings” them food or anything that they associate with food. So this is an easy little trick to quickly create a positive association with Thundershirt for your dog.

Thundershirt has been developed to be very easy to put on. Just lay it over your dog’s back and secure with the chest and torso straps. The Velcro fasteners make Thundershirt very adjustable to many different body shapes.  

·         Step 1  Place the Thundershirt on your dog’s back and wrap the Short Flap under the torso.

·         Step 2  Wrap the Long Flap under the torso and secure with Velcro onto the short flap. Make a comfortable, but snug, fit. You should be able to easily slide your fingers between the Thundershirt and your dog’s torso.

·         Step 3  Wrap the Top Flap down onto the Long Flap and secure with Velcro. Adjust to improve the snug fit and keep Thundershirt securely in place.

·         Step 4  Wrap the Chest Straps around the front of the dog and secure with Velcro. You should be able to easily slide your fingers under the Chest Straps and should not feel restricting around your dog’s neck.