When Lightning Strikes

Thunder follows.  Following the thunder comes the drip, drip drip, from a shaking, shivering, panicing, panting, pacing 80 pound yellow lab.  Somewhere between her bed and my head she lost her brain.  Commands cease to work, and she is just a mess.  When you have a dog who for 11 years has been terrified of thunder, it makes for long afternoons and nights when you live in Florida.  It is almost a daily occurrence during the summer  months here and our dog has terrible anxiety attacks when it is thundering.  If it isn't bad enough during the day, the nighttime thunder storms are really bad.  Nothing quite like an 80 pound dog standing at the head of the bed to wake you up at night.  Once you wake up then she paces at the top of the bed, and that is where our heads are, so paw in the right eye, then on the tracheae, never good.  So when my mom called and told me about an ad she saw in a magazine we jumped at the opportunity to buy a Thundershirt.  Over the years we have tried medications to sooth the dog, but they are so long lasting that the storms are long gone, and the dog remains droopy all day, and night.  Today the shirt arrived, fast delivery, which was really nice, and I was really glad to see it.  All week we have had a shivering, panting, pacing dog on our hands.  Out of the package and on to her back the Thundershirt went.  The storm was over, but we rewarded her with a few dog biscuits to make her love the shirt.  The instructions were easy to understand, and offered easy tips to ensure that the pup would like her shirt.  First impressions?  Well made shirt, nice color, fit great, easy to put on.
Just a few hours later another storm was rolling through, so I just slipped the thundershirt over her head.  At first I thought this was not going to work.  She was already upset with "sky dog"(as we call thunder).  After about 10 minutes she seemed much calmer.  I am not going to say this is a cure all for her thunder anxiety, but she was not panting, shivering, yes, but no panting, and no pacing.  We were able to play on the floor and she did not even step on me once! (Bonus, baby can't pull her fur through the Thundershirt!)  The real test was the ability to follow her commands.  We put this shirt to the test, we called"outside", with only slight hesitation she got up and headed to the door.  We looked at each other with great amazement.  She would never go out in a storm before.  So out we went, and with only a little extra encouragement, she headed into the grass!  WOW!  Thundershirt where have you been all my life.
Then last night we took the shirt off and went to bed.  At 4 in the morning another thunder storm came through with a crashing thunder that woke us all up.  I grabbed the thundershirt from beside my bed and again slipped it over her head.  This really was the test.  She was upset, and shaking, and on the bed, but no panting, no pacing, no face stepping!  This takes the edge of for our poor scared dog, and I, even if pushed from my side of the bed, can still get a decent nights sleep through  a storm!  Thundershirt we thank you for helping our dog, and now if you could just make some dog breath mints we would be all set!