Product Review-Calming Collars

Of course anyone who meets him knows Bob is utterly adorable. Unfortunately he also has some issues, he has mild fears of strange objects (a plastic blowing in the street can make him nervous, and he hates the noise passing buses.) He can also get very excited and lunge when we encounter strange dogs on walks.   We have used treats and clicker training to teach Bob the look at me cue (say his name and have him look at us) and he is doing much better, but  he still has his moments.   When I saw Calming Collars mentioned in this article from the dog aware website I decided to give them a try.  Bob's issues, thank goodness, are no wear near bad enough to warrant medication so the collar seemed like a nice easy thing to try.  I e-mailed the company and described Bob's issues and they were very nice to get back to me right away.  They said Bob would be a good candidate for a collar and I ordered one.


Once nice thing about the collars is they come in very cute fabrics.  (I wanted to take a close up picture of Bob's collar, but unfortunately he rolled in mud the first day we had it and I couldn't wash it to clean it.  You can't really get the collars wet.)   The collars are filled with a calming blend of herbs.  One combination Calm Me Down, the one I got for Bob, helps with anxiety and the other Good To Go, is for dogs who suffer from motion sickness.    The company also makes cooling collars for hot days.

Our collar arrived quickly and Bob didn't mind wearing it at all.  He only wears it on walks and the rest of the time we store it in a plastic bag to preserve the sent of the herbs, it smells really strong!   On the days Bob has worn it there have been no incidents with lunging, but I am still very careful and alert.  He does seem less fearful of objects and was not so freaked by passing buses.   Last night, Bob wore the collar to our local Pet Smart and very nicely greeted a bulldog, Rocco, he met there.  He was on perfect behavior for the whole trip.

Here is a picture of Bob in his collar (I previously posted this picture, but as I mentioned he rolled in the dirt and I didn't want a picture of dingy dirty collar on here.