Does It Work? Thundershirt

Does your dog whimper when you leave the house?  Does he go into the shakes when he hears loud noises? 

A survey shows nearly 23 million dogs in the US suffer from anxiety.

The Thundershirt claims to ease dogs fears through pressure.  We put it to the test in this 7 On Your Side Consumer Watch.

Bobby Millwood, one of our testers describes his dog Molly as "loving and smart."

But though pure Cocker Spaniel, she's a bit of a fraidy cat.  Loud noises like thunder and fireworks trigger the shakes. Check out this home video of her response to gunfire outside.  

"She's shaking like you think she's going to actually die."

Millwood and his wife Lynn say those trembles can last more than a half hour.  Often she'll run to the closet to hide in the hamper. 

Missy Settle's English Bulldog shares that fear of loud noises and he's afraid of car rides, too. Winston's anxiety appears in the form of irregular breathing that leads to over heating.

"He got himself so worked up that he almost had a heat stroke and died.  They had to give him cool IV fluids and put him in the ice bath and stay the night," said Settles.

And then there's Coco who resorts to incessant growling and barking when he's anxious.

"He just goes crazy," said owner, Libby Hipps.

They are 3 perfect petrified pooches to test the Thundershirt.  The tight fit jacket claims to calm the dog's nervous system through constant gentle pressure around their torso.

For 2 months Molly, Winston and Coco were velcroed up when thunder or strangers rolled in.

The product claims to calm fears from noises, separation, car travel, and also combat excessive barking.

No one has that down like Coco, but his owner says the jacket did little to cover up the problem.

"It didn't change his demeanor or anything like that, he was constantly barking barking barking.  He hates to wear clothes. It was more of a nuisance trying to keep it on," said Hipps.

In fact, while we were there, Coco even bit his owner. 

On the other end of the scale, 65 pound Winston didn't have much luck either.

You can see, sudden noises still make him skiddish.  And when it comes to the car, he'd rather take his owner for a ride.

"We were really hoping it would work because we hate to see him like this and we were hoping to find something without having to give him medication," said Settles.

It may not work for everyone but the makers of the Thundershirt say a survey of over 2000 customers found 80 percent of dogs showed an improvement.

 And for mid-size Molly, the Thundershift proved to be juuuust right.

 The Millwoods showed 7 On Your Side home video of her outside in the rain and thunder and she isn't rushing for cover.  

We asked the makers of the Thunder shirt why some dogs take to it so much better than others.

 Spokeswoman Fraces Fawcett told us:

 "Unfortunately, we haven't been able to identify any key predictors for which dogs will respond to the Thundershirt...Based on our 2011 Anxiety Survey, we found that our success rates are highest with noise anxieties, but we also see very strong results with a wide variety of other issues. We haven't seen any indicators that the Thundershirt is more or less effective with one breed versus another, or for younger dogs versus older."

The Millwoods insist at $36, it's a wise investment.

Still the Millwoods call it a "remarkable improvement."

But if Winston and Coco had the last word, they'd say the Thundershirt's bark would definitely be bigger than it's bite.