Sound Triggers and Thundershirts

Animals being the instinctual creatures they are, respond to external stimulus almost immediately. Much more quickly than the limited perception of our urban-dulled instincts can afford, in fact. Even domesticated pets are especially sensitive to loud noises, to the point where it seems almost as if their autonomous nervous system takes over and they begin to take very active measures to avoid being exposed to “whatever” caused the sound. In the case of dogs they like to run fast and far when in the presence of loud noise, and even cause damage to property by digging or clawing their way through drywall, and even jumping to their death over walls into oncoming traffic. A worse way to go than an imaginary sound I would think. It’s actually reminiscent of how I felt as a kid, really loud and especially directed noises such as people yelling or glass being shattered or dropped would really cause me lots of duress. I never really did get used to it, which brings me to my next point.

The best time to teach someone is when they are young, so obviously it’s best to train them when they are still babies by purposefully causing loud noise and dropping objects near them on a regular basis. it may sound cruel at first, but preparing them for “heartache” when they are younger definitely makes them a lot more prone to survive when they are older.

But sometimes you just can’t train your dog to withstand loud sounds, because’ he’s too old or too sensitive, so other remedies exist, some of them pretty simple like typing your dog to a leash when you know there’s going to be an excess of loud stimuli (like if fireworks are going off around your house). Other more interesting ones are the concepts of Thundershirts, which is a sort of compression shirt which relaxes the animal because of the persistent pressure on their body (e.g. perhaps by giving them something to focus on other than their own discomfort). Although sound, and the effects on the brain and the potential effects that are beneficial to the body are primary topics of the brain in terms of relaxation and focus, I’ve decided to explain any relaxation topics of interest that I find in general, since the idea here is to provide useful information to others and in general learn by myself.

With that said, apparently this thundershirt concept is applied on a regular basis to children with autism and can be applied to children with other nervous conditions to get them to relax through the concept of deep pressure touch. Knowing myself to be a very nervous and unrelaxed person at one point in my life, I would turn to relaxation techniques and when that didn’t work, something more forward like drinking. The relaxation wrap sounds like a wonderful idea in this case, and as an idea can probably help aid in insomnia for animals and possibly one day in the future, people.

Interesting points that have arisen are exactly how sound affects the animal brain and causes action in the nervous system, as it relates to control. In many ways, negative reinforcement is the primary teaching mechanism for many people and animals. Who would after all do something if the risk of pain is too great unless you are a member of the Jackass crew or the benefits of reward are greater. A loud sound is naturally in grained in most of use to be a sign of trouble, and thus even passive loud impulsive sounds we usually are startled by. Even the thundershirt if not used on properly can cause the dog’s Pavlovian response to be triggered and them associate the shirt with the storm (or fireworks) providing that the shirt doesn’t relax them sufficiently. The mind in general is an interesting reactive mechanism.