Anxiety Pressure Wraps – Will They Calm Your Dog?

Thank you for visiting my site on anxiety pressure wrap reviews where I will be reviewing a couple different yet similar anxiety pressure wraps for dogs. Anyone who has ever experienced watching their dog shaking uncontrollably or running frantically during a thunder storm will do just about anything to calm that dog. It is one of the most helpless feelings a pet owner can experience, not being able to comfort or calm a terrified dog.

Many dogs will actually run away during a thunderstorm, fireworks display or even upon hearing gun shots in their neighborhood, searching for a safe place to hide or just running on instinct to get away from the noise. Sometimes dogs will run for miles. Sometimes owners never find them.

Several methods exist to help a dog overcome its sense of panic during the onset of loud noises, a few of them being massage, desensitization, drugs, relaxation CDs (yes, even for dogs) and anxiety pressure wraps.

Studies have been done on the effects of touch in both humans and animals. Temple Grandin is well known for her development of the squeeze box for people after realizing the calming effect a  squeeze chute had on cattle.  She experimented with herself and found that the deep touch pressure of the squeeze box or hug box helped relieve her from the overwhelming stress associated with her autism.

The deep touch pressure of an anxiety body wrap may have a calming effect on your dog

There are 2 types of touch pressure on a body, whether human or animal – deep touch pressure and light touch pressure. When a cow or even a dog feels the light touch pressure of a fly land on its back, it will twitch its skin until the fly leaves. But if a firm hand were placed in the same spot on the animal, it would actually calm the animal. This is the principal of the anxiety pressure wrap for dogs.

A light touch on an animal’s body alerts the nervous system and kind of puts the ends of the sensory nerves on high alert. It can be an irritating sensation that excites the animal into action rather than calms it. But deep pressure as from a firm hand or even wrapping your arms around a dog’s body can be more relaxing and calming, assuming the dog is familiar with you. Never wrap your arms around a strange dog.

So the principal of the anxiety wrap is to put this deep pressure on a dog just before a fireworks show or when a thunderstorm is imminent. The idea is that this pressure will calm your dog and although it may not completely relieve all the fears, it will drastically reduce the anxiety your dog feels.

The 2 different anxiety body wraps for dogs are the original Anxiety Wrap® and the Thundershirt® – both similar but with a few differences. Learn more about the Anxiety Wrap® and Thundershirt®.

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