Dogs on Thursday, Extreme Bravery edition!

Remember this Dogs on Thursday post from a couple of weeks ago? It was Cooper and his, shall we say..."issues" with thunderstorms? I have never had a dog who was so terrified of thunder. This poor boy goes berserk and just paces back and forth and digs, digs, digs, trying to get away from the thunder. I've tried"babying" him, ignoring him (THAT was hard!) and finally meds from my WonderVet. Nothing helped. Not even a little bit. So, several weeks ago when I read about the Thundershirt on facebook, I decided to give it a try. They offer a money-back guarantee, so all I had to lose was the cost of shipping.


It arrived, and I have to day I wasn't very hopeful. It just looked like a light-weight doggie coat with velcro flaps. Big deal. How can that help? Bring on the thunder and lets test this baby out... We waited, and waited, and waited, and no thunder! Weeks went by, and still no storms! I was starting to think this shirt had some kind of special magic -- just buying it can keep storms out of the area! Best purchase I ever made!

And then came this past Tuesday... The sky was dark and menacing when I got home from work. I logged on to the weather.com and this warning was flashing:

A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 900 PM EDT TUESDAY EVENING FOR NORTHERN DELAWARE AND NORTHEAST MARYLAND AND SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY AND SOUTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA.

Here comes the test for the Thundershirt! I put it on Cooper, and snugged it up really tight (thanks to Chan for that tip) being careful not to catch his little "winkie" under the shirt. (Cooper says "Please don't refer to my winkie as 'little', OK?") I turned on two television sets, set them to different channels and turned the volume up on both. I debated on giving him one of his doggie tranquilizers, too, but they really don't work for him, so why bother, right?

Before long, the thunder moved into the area, and I knew this would be a good test. I have to say, I am impressed with the shirt. Cooper was surprisingly calm. It's like he was a totally different dog. He was a little uneasy a couple of times, but as soon as I told him everything was fine, he just went back to sleep. That's right...SLEEP! He took a nap during a thunderstorm!!! If I had any money at all, I would invest it in the Thundershirt company. After paying off my credit cards...and buying that little house I am dying for...and donating a large chunk of money to several animal causes...and then I would invest in the company.

I don't know how this shirt works, or why it works, but it sure does work for Cooper! All in all, Cooper gives his new thundershirt two thumbs up. Or at least he would if he had any thumbs. Cooper says, "When I am wearing my new shirt, I am no longer a cowardly lion...I am the king of the beasts!"