Latest news with #AndreaY.Tu
Yahoo
27-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Can ThunderShirts really help ease a dog's anxiety? Here's what a vet says
Some dogs are just a little high-strung. I have an anxious pup, and I tried it all — trainers, supplements, calming music, Dog TV and more — before visiting a vet for prescription anxiety medication. That helped, but my dog has recently become more anxious about car rides, and I've thought about adding a ThunderShirt to our rotation. Not familiar with the ThunderShirt? It's a compressive vest that applies gentle, constant pressure to your pet, similar to swaddling an infant or getting cozy under a weighted blanket. The brand recommends it for thunderstorms, fireworks, vet visits, separation anxiety and travel. But does it work? I talked to a behavior veterinarian to find out. Dr. Andrea Y. Tu, chief of veterinary behavior services at the Heart of Chelsea Veterinary Group in New York City, treats animals for anxiety, reactivity and other behavioral issues. She says every dog is different, but it could be worth a shot: "It may or may not work, but it's not going to do harm." "The way Thunder Shirts work is through something called moderate- to deep-pressure compression, and in humans and in some animals, it has been shown to reduce sympathetic arousal or your 'flight or fight' response," Tu says. She adds that there's limited evidence to show that this works on dogs, but that many vets recommend trying them because there are no adverse effects. However, she also notes that not all dogs are good candidates for a ThunderShirt. For dogs who are mildly scared or anxious, it could work, but it's not the best option for dogs that are extremely anxious or going into a full-on panic. It also works best for anxiety around specific events (for instance, travel or fireworks) instead of ongoing anxiety. A good analogy, Tu says: Think about people who are scared of flying. If you're a tiny bit nervous, you might over-prepare for your flight and feel a little tense or on edge at the airport. If you're mildly nervous, you might order a drink or a cup of chamomile tea before your flight. If you're more nervous than that, you might take an over-the-counter medication, do breathing exercises, hold your partner's hand and try to distract yourself with reading or a movie. And finally, if flying sends you into a panic, you may need to work with a psychiatrist. A compression wrap or a weighted blanket isn't going to work for most people in the latter two categories, she says. So, how do you know how anxious your dog is? Mild anxiety often shows up as yawning, excessive licking (especially around the mouth and nose), frequent blinking or pacing. Dogs with more intense anxiety may put their tail between their legs, tuck their ears back, shake, cry or howl. Truly terrified dogs might stiffen up, stare, growl, snap, break through doors or soil themselves involuntarily. One caveat Tu adds is that, for your dog, anything that's new can be scary and feel weird. If your dog has never worn a shirt before, a ThunderShirt may freak them out more. "Before you go spend money on this expensive ThunderShirt, if you have like another doggy shirt or stuff like that, find a slightly more snug one and put it on your dog," Tu says. "If your dog is the type where they're like, 'I love this. I look great. I enjoy wearing shirts,' they're probably a good candidate for the ThunderShirt." For dogs that don't like wearing shirts or the feeling of something on their skin, "Don't even bother," she says. "It's going to take you more time to get them used to that than the benefit from the ThunderShirt." Of course, a ThunderShirt isn't your only option for an anxious pup. We've rounded up more ways to keep your dog calm during fireworks and thunderstorms, including an Adaptil diffuser (from the maker of ThunderShirts) and select calming dog supplements. Need pet insurance for your beloved furry friend? Check out the offers below:
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Puzzle toys are essential for healthy dog enrichment — a behavior vet explains why
Have you heard of dog puzzle toys? They give pups the chance to sniff, scratch, dig and hunt for treats. My toy poodle loves his, and a trainer once told me that toys like these could help tire him out on rainy days when neither of us wants to go for a walk. I also recently spoke with a behavior veterinarian, who revealed that these types of challenges are even more important for your dog than you might think. Dr. Andrea Y. Tu, DVM, is chief of veterinary behavior services at the Heart of Chelsea Veterinary Group in New York City. She treats animals for things like separation anxiety, reactivity and other behavioral issues and told me puzzle toys are one of her favorite tools for canine enrichment. "Dogs need something to do. They really don't get a lot of enrichment and ... natural stimulation that they would if they lived outside," she says. "These puzzle toys allow that kind of exploration, like foraging, for instance. It allows a bit of that activity in the natural sense," she says. Tu explains that dogs instinctively want to sniff and hunt. While outdoors is the natural environment for that behavior, most pups only go outside for a small part of their day. Without longer stints, they get bored or anxious — or both — and look for ways to entertain themselves. This is why they do things like destroy your favorite pair of shoes or bark excessively. "So, making sure that they get what they naturally need really helps with those kinds of mental health behavioral concerns," she says. Tu says the first step to prevent canine boredom is to change how you feed your dog. "If I could do one thing that I hope will make a big difference in my field, it's to get rid of the bowl," she notes. "All meals should be fed out of a puzzle toy. If every single meal can be fed out of a puzzle toy or some sort of manipulation toy instead of a bowl, that would do wonders for pets' enrichment and mental health." This recommendation is based on a concept called contrafreeloading, which states that some animals, when given a choice, prefer to work for food even when an identical meal is readily available. "That's where puzzle toys come in, or anything that they have to explore, look, dig, push around, play around with," Tu says, noting that the use of such products works with a dog's "natural instinct of how feeding should occur and all of that important behavior that relates to feeding." She even encourages pet owners to occasionally increase the challenge by hiding a puzzle underneath a blanket or creating further diversions that require a dog to seek out their sustenance. Tu also shares that these challenges don't have to be food-focused — it's more about the hunt. If your dog is very playful and less food-motivated, for example, they might enjoy a puzzle stuffed with smaller toys rather than treats. Keep in mind that puzzle toys don't have to be difficult — in other words, the goal isn't to stump your dog. Your pup may be content wrangling a peanut butter-stuffed Kong one day, while the next she'll enjoy using her nose and paws to dig around a more complicated challenge. The aim is to have a mix of easy and hard options. Tu explains it like this: If you like to play games on your phone, some days you'll tackle the challenging New York Times crossword puzzle while on others you'll opt for Bubble Shooter because it's easier, helps calm nervous energy or just gives your brain time to decompress. "The goal is to have different versions [of puzzle games]" for your dogs. She also advises against getting overly complex products that can't be solved. "If you get the ones that are super complicated, they do get frustrated and they won't want to play with it anymore." Additionally, Tu says, puzzle toys don't need to be expensive and can even be DIY. An easy one she recommends, particularly for gentle chewers, is punching holes in a paper towel tube, filling it with kibble and sealing the ends so your dog can roll it around until all the food falls out. For dogs who need a tougher challenge, she recommends a Russian Dolls-esque box approach: "Fill a smaller cardboard box with some crumpled up newspaper and kibble hidden in the paper, punch small holes in the small box, then put that in a medium box that is loosely closed. The goal is to let your dog destroy the larger box to get to the smaller box, and either roll around the smaller box so the kibble falls out or open it up to get at the crumpled paper inside." The bottom line? Creating a puzzle diversion for your pet does not need to involve a lot of expense or effort. I've thrown kibble or treats into my dog's toy basket and let him dig through it until he finds each tasty morsel. Don't want to DIY a puzzle toy and need something durable? Tu recommends these. Want more ideas? I reached out to the Yahoo Shopping team to share their favorites — and included two of my own at the end. Need pet insurance for your beloved furry friend? Check out the offers below:
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Why you should let your dog stop and sniff on a walk, according to a vet psychiatrist
My partner and I recently had a debate about how to walk our dog. Let me explain: Every morning, I take AJ for a walk on the same one-mile route for about 25–35 minutes. One day, my boyfriend took him on the same route and came back after around 15 minutes. My dog seemed restless after that, barking more at passing neighbors and nudging me to play as I worked from home. I figured my partner had taken a shortcut, and AJ just needed a longer walk to tire him out. A few days later, when we walked the pup together, it hit me — my fast-walker boyfriend wasn't letting him stop and sniff. On the other hand, I'd been letting him pause and poke at almost anything he wanted to. I, too, am someone who "walks with purpose," but I figured the purpose was to let AJ enjoy his time outside, not necessarily clock steps for the day. So, what's more important: How far your dog walks? Or how much time it spends sniffing and exploring while doing so? I decided to get some advice from experts. First, I reached out to Dr. Andrea Y. Tu, DVM, chief of veterinary behavior services at the Heart of Chelsea Veterinary Group in New York City. She's a behavior veterinarian, aka a veterinary psychiatrist, who treats animals based on signs like anxiety and reactiveness. To answer this question, we should consider how dogs perceive the world, she notes. Humans mainly take in our world through vision, but for dogs it's smell. Yu likened a dog's walk to a teenager and social media. Picture this: Your teen looks at TikTok while you stand over them and tell them when to scroll, what to like, how to comment and so on. No one's having fun, right? While you probably have rules about how your teen behaves online, for the most part, they get to control how they spend that time. When it comes to your dog's walks, let them "scroll" the ground with their nose, exploring new scents and doing other dog-like things. "Your walk is not for you, it's for your dog," Tu says. "Let them take their time. They should be the one that's choosing what they're doing. It's not a time to just force them to sit next to you and be a little controlled robot, because that's not fun, and honestly, it's also really not a good life." We often suppress our pets' natural behaviors — like stopping to sniff on a walk — because we find it to be inappropriate, inconvenient or we just want to show them that we're in charge, she says (the latter, she stresses, is especially "stupid and silly"). "Their lives tend to be small as a result of being our companion animals, so we really should provide them with as much enrichment and as much fun as we can. And a really easy way to do that is to let them take their time on walks." Trainer Daniel Neale, MSc, of Shelby Semel Dog Training wholeheartedly agrees. "Sniffing isn't optional — it's a need," he says. "From a training and behavior standpoint, sniffing is a powerful form of mental enrichment. It's calming, it lowers stress and it helps fulfill a biological need, especially for dogs who might not have a backyard to explore. I often say sniffing is like a combination of yoga, Sudoku, and checking your DMs all rolled into one. Research shows that dogs who are allowed to sniff more on walks tend to be more relaxed and less likely to show behavioral issues at home." But what if you don't have all the time to let your dog saunter and snuffle? Or, like me, you live in a city and can't just open the back door to a gated yard? Just how much sniffing time is necessary? "It doesn't have to be the whole walk, but giving your dog dedicated sniffing time, especially at the start and end, can go a long way. Even a few minutes makes a difference," Neale says. "If you're in a rush or navigating a busy street, build in a short detour to a quieter block or patch of grass where your dog can decompress and do their thing." Here's another classic dog-walking question that many pet owners are unsure about. I let AJ walk (but not pull) ahead of me and even prefer it. I can keep a better eye on him and any other pups coming our way than if he were walking behind or beside me. You've probably heard, and might still believe, that your dog should not be allowed to walk in front of you because it shows dominance. I asked Tu about this. She shared that the dominance theory comes from a nearly 80-year-old study done with wolves and the findings were disproven over 50 years ago. There is no scientific evidence that letting your pup walk in front of you allows him to show dominance, an assertion that the Association of Professional Dog Trainers has reiterated. "Dogs and cats and our domesticated animals are not dumb enough to think that we are also dogs," Tu explains. "There is a hierarchy system in animals, absolutely, but they do not consider us part of that system. Having a person come in and say, 'I am going to be dominant' — you're actually being a bully. It's neither based on science nor is it fair or kind." So go ahead, let your dog explore without restraint. You can even try a long leash if it's safe for both of you and those around you — and don't forget the treats! After talking to the experts, our pup now gets at least 20–30 minutes to sniff outside in the morning, no matter who's walking him. We don't aim for distance — we focus on time and how much AJ gets to explore. If either of us is in a hurry, we let him sniff all around the block rather than forcing a longer walk through the park. The result is a tired but happy and relaxed pooch. I like how Neale put it: "The next time your dog pauses at the same lamppost for the fourth time? Take a breath, give them a moment, and remind yourself: They're not stalling, they're downloading the neighborhood." Need pet insurance for your beloved furry friend? Check out the offers below:
