Life lately…

1. Teton and the husband at the beach. Looks like T is getting a talkin’ to but I think they were just resting. The husband is wearing a ginormous backpack because he’s training for a climb later this month.

2. Teton and I before our Saturday morning walk. The heinous orange shirt will make sense when you consider #4.

3. Basking in the sun on our walk. It was early (around 7:45 AM) when I took this shot and already beautiful out.

4. My first day as a volunteer at Puget Sound Goat Rescue. I bottle-fed this three-week-old lamb, Bongo, and his pal, another three-week-old goat named Nacho. It was pretty awful. 😉 I also learned how to milk a goat and cleaned out some barns.

5. It only took me about three hours to make these pretzel bites on Sunday.

6. And it only took the husband about two hours to make me this raised vegetable planter. What should I plant?

7. What Teton did today while I was at work. Life’s rough.

8. What he’s doing right now. Um, hello! Isn’t it time for my evening walk?

So, the Thundershirt…

Teton was a hot mess on the 4th – panting, whining, pacing, and just generally stressing out. I decided at the last minute to call Petco and see if they had any medium Thundershirts left in stock. Luckily, they had one left and held it for me until I could get there.

The husband and I were hanging out at my parent’s house with my mom, dad, sister, and brother-in-law, so my sister and I took Teton to Petco to snag the Thundershirt. With the help of a sales associate, we put the Thundershirt on Teton and I dropped the $39.99 and headed back to my parent’s house. At first it seemed like the Thundershirt was working. Teton’s panting slowed and he laid down almost immediately after we got to my parent’s.

I realized after about an hour, however, that Teton really wasn’t any better with the Thundershirt. In fact, because of all of his hair and the fact that it was somewhat warm outside and in the house, he seemed a little worse. Basically, the Thundershirt was making him hot, which led to increased panting and anxiety. There were a mess-load of boom sticks going off around my parent’s house, so after just a few hours there, we decided it was best for Teton if we headed home. I think being in a setting that wasn’t his (even though he’s been to my parent’s numerous times before and is comfortable there) exacerbated the anxiety that he was experiencing even more.

When we got back to our place, I took the Thundershirt off and Teton immediately acted differently. He was still nervous since fireworks were continuing, but his panting slowed and he finally laid down and relaxed.

I returned the Thundershirt today for a full refund. Hooray for 100% satisfaction guarantees!

I realize that the fact that the Thundershirt didn’t work for Teton on the 4th could have been due to a number of outside factors such as weather and environment, but because he doesn’t have any issues aside from fireworks (such as separation or travel anxiety) it wasn’t worth it to me to keep the Thundershirt.

I firmly believe that the Thundershirt works miracles on many other dogs (based on your Facebook comments and the multitude of positive reviews I’ve read) so if your dog struggles with anxiety surrounding thunderstorms, fireworks, travel, or other situational occurrences, it’s certainly worth giving the Thundershirt a try.

Thanks to those of you who shared your Thundershirt experience!