Does the Anxiety Wrap Work?

Does your dog suffer from anxieties, fears or phobias? Stress is common in our pet dogs and most owners want to find relief for their dog’s anxiety. We asked does the anxiety wrap work?

What is The Anxiety Wrap?

The Anxiety Wrap® uses gentle, constant, maintained pressure to relieve stress and lessen fears in dogs. It alleviates five major conditions; fear, anxiety, hyperactivity, insecurity, and shyness.

The Anxiety Wrap may help with any of the following dog behaviour problems (click on them to get more info about each issue):

Here’s how wrapping your dog up can help with their anxiety…

How does the anxiety wrap work with helping anxiety?

Tactile pressure is known to produce a calming effect in humans, pigs, and dogs, so it makes sense that putting some gentle pressure around your dog may help reduce their stress. A bit like having a cuddle!

Few products that claim to help pet behaviours have actually been tested but The Anxiety Wrap has been put to the test with dogs suffering from thunderstorm phobia.

The behaviour of dogs was recorded during storms. Behaviours included panting, shaking, inappropriate elimination (toileting), pacing, attention seeking, vocalisation, inappetence, salivation and hiding behaviours. Owners (who were practiced at putting the wrap on their dog) recorded their dog’s behaviour while wearing the wrap, over 5 thunderstorms.

Owner results

Most owners rated the Wrap as a useful treatment for their dog during thunderstorms. Owners reported that the same behaviours still took place but pacing and shaking lessened. Overall, an almost 50% decrease in the intensity, frequency, or duration of clinical anxiety signs associated with thunderstorm phobia was apparent.

Ok, so the Wrap does not remove Thunderstorm phobia altogether and the one criticism of using products such as this one is that owners will no longer engage in behaviour modification therapy, which will be the ultimate solution to their pet’s problem. So, you still need to work on your dog’s issue with behaviour therapy.

Dog Anxiety Problems Solved Ebooks

Separation Anxiety

How to Use The Anxiety Wrap

1. Size

First of all, you need to choose the correct size of Anxiety Wrap for your dog. It needs to fit snuggly, to maintain the pressure needed to calm your dog but not be too tight. The best guide is to measure your dog’s chest size and use the guide on the packet to choose the appropriate size.

2. Fitting the Anxiety Wrap on your dog

When you first access the Wrap, it does look a little tricky. There are labels attached which help you decipher which end of the wrap goes on which end of your dog! There are also detailed instructions on how to fit the Wrap and a video, posted below for your convenience. In the study, three-quarters of owners had no problem in fitting The Anxiety Wrap.

Perhaps even better news is that 90% of dogs do not attempt to remove the Wrap when wearing it. Most happily accept it. 80% of owners in the study above intended to continue to use the wrap during thunderstorms.

The Anxiety Wrap: Does it work? — Chilli dog wearing her Anxiety Wrap

Tips on dogs wearing the anxiety wrap

I would suggest that you practice putting the wrap on your dog before a storm hits. When a storm has arrived it may be too difficult to place this on your dog. You can ever put it on and associate it with something pleasant like a treat. Let your dog wear the wrap little and often. It is better to have it on a couple of times a month for 10 minutes, even if there is no storm. Build up time until your dog is able to wear the Wrap for 30-40 minutes. Maybe eventually your dog will look forward to a storm happening but that’s a long way down the therapy track!

You will need to to use your Anxiety Wrap over many different storms, to see its most effective use. Of course, that it tricky when you cannot always be with your dog but try to use whenever possible.

Remember – it’s not just thunderstorm phobias that this Anxiety Wrap may help with. If your dog has separation anxiety or any of the behaviour problems listed above, The Anxiety Wrap may help.

Note: Dr Jo accepts no responsibility for the use or misuse of the Anxiety Wrap nor guarantees the effectiveness of this device on your dog’s behaviour problem.

More information on calming pets

Other treatments for thunderstorm phobias

Desensitisation: In canine firework phobias, 80% of owners reported behavioural improvement in their dog’s phobic response to fireworks after desensitising their dog using audio counter-conditioning – playing sounds to their dog.

Veterinary Medication: Speak to your vet about the use of veterinary medicine for your dog, if they are severely stressed. Anxiety has been shown to be reduced by around 50% while using medications such as clomipramine, alprazolam, together with behaviour modification and 94% of owners reported some degree of behavioural improvement.

Homeopathic treatments: Use of homeopathic treatments also seemed to help thunder phobic dogs but placebo trials also worked with these owners.

Dog Appeasing Pheromone: Adaptil, in combination with behaviour modification and/or pharmacotherapy helped 70% of dogs, according to their owners.

Research on Anxiety Wrap and other Thunderstorm/Firework treatments
1. The effectiveness of the Anxiety Wrap in the treatment of canine thunderstorm phobia

2. Ambulatory monitoring of cardiovascular responses during behavioral modification of an aggressive dog. Williams, N.G., Borchelt, P.J., Sollers III, J.J., Gasper, P.W., Thayer, J.F., 2003. Biomed. Sci. Instrum. 39, 214-219.

3. Use of clomipramine, alprazolam, and behavior modification for treatment of storm phobia in dogs.Crowell-Davis, S.L., Seibert, L.M., Sung, W., Parthasarathy, V., Curtis, T.M., 2003. J. Am. Vet. Med. Assoc. 222, 744-748.

4. A double-blind placebo-controlled study into the efficacy of a homeopathic remedy for fear of firework noises in the dog (Canis familiaris). Cracknell, N.R., Mills, D.S., 2008. Vet. J. 177, 80-88.

5. Evaluation of dog-appeasing pheromone as a potential treatment for dogs fearful of firework. Sheppard, G., Mills, D.S., 2003. Vet. Rec. 152, 432-436.