Not The Mama

When I first met Matilda, my girlfriend Jes’ tiny American Staffordshire Terrier mix, she didn’t like me.  She didn’t like my hat.  She didn’t like me sitting in the recliner.  I was beginning to think she just didn’t like ME.  As often happens when boy meets girl, Jes and I became more serious and I was around Matilda and her younger adopted brother Bubba more and more.  We’ve been working with Matilda and Bubba very intensely for over a year now. She’s a very intelligent dog but her constantly shifting attention span and daily fears and anxieties were preventing her from fully grasping her training.  We stumbled upon the idea of dog “anxiety wraps” while looking at pictures of Pitbulls on the Internet.  All the dogs we saw were wearing jackets or shirts and one photo caption even used the phrase “anxiety pajamas.” I was a short Google search away from the Thundershirt.  I watched the “How To” videos and the testimonials and examples of how well the Thundershirt worked, I gladly paid the $37 dollars plus shipping.  No questions asked.

There it was on the porch. The Thundershirt had arrived.  Not a moment too soon either, as Matilda was having an especially anxious day.  She shot out of her crate like a cannonball, took a few warm-up laps around the living and dining rooms and then turned to great me. I wrapped her up in the Thundershirt and I waited.  Neither Matilda nor I really understood what was happening…I thought that nothing was happening as Matilda continued to run rampant throughout the house. And then…the calm.  She sat in the hallway and looked at me, REALLY looked at me.  Then she lay down.  She slept.  Within forty minutes, our Tasmanian devil of a dog was calm and waiting for a signal or command from me.  The pressure of the Thundershirt was like a calming hug all over her body and she was like a different dog.

We kept Matilda in the Thundershirt a lot for a week or two.  She wears it less now, but I think it’s important to remind her how comfortable she can be in her own skin.  She listens better, behaves better on our walks, is less anxious about other dogs and cats, and has been able to really concentrate when in a training setting.  I can’t tell you how it works other than to repeat myself.  The  sturdy velcro holds the soft fabric of the Thundershirt in place and it “hugs” her throughout her chest and back.  That’s all it does really.

Temple Grandin is a person with high-functioning autism.  She’s also a Doctor of Animal Science and a Professor at Colorado State University.  In her paper “Calming Effects Of Deep Touch Pressure in Patients with Autistic Disorder, College Students, and Animals” she describes the thinking behind devices like Grandin’s own “squeeze machine” and anxiety wraps like the Thundershirt.  She defines “deep touch” as “firm touching, holding…petting of animals” and she explains how this form of touch has been proven to calm children with autism, humans with a number of psychiatric disorders, and animals.

Dr. Grandin’s findings describe exactly what the Thundershirt appears to do for Matilda.  Her anxieties disappear, her fears are quelled, and the entire world opens up in front of her.  I’m sure that not everyone or every dog has the same experience with “deep-touch” style therapy; every person and every dog are different, thankfully. I do know, however, that implementing the concept has worked wonders for Matilda, her training, and our household in general.  Things are calm, no one fights, toys and resources are shared willingly, and all-afternoon-long naps are had by all.  The change has been incredible.

Written by: Brian Romans

*Follow Brian on twitter @spraycansam

Resources:

“Calming Effects of Deep Touch Pressure in Patients with Autistic Disorder, College Students, and Animals.” Temple Grandin, Ph.D. Journal of Child and Adolescent Pychopharmacology. Vol. 2. No 1, 1992