Post Your Pet

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

Indicates that three systematic reviews of all research articles found no evidence of effectiveness beyond placebo.

Originally Posted by ZenGum

I note that RR has brandy in it.

Booze isn't placebo, as well all know... Yeah, it's not an actual neurological effect. You put a couple drops under your tongue and there's an immediate numbing and loosening of the salivary glands. Like I said, it wears off quickly. But sometimes it's enough to allow a person who is already trying to stave off momentary stress enough opportunity to regain control. It won't do anything for someone with a genuine panic condition, but then again neither will a big swig of brandy.

[Nirvana]

I don't think dogs are capable of the placebo effect and Rescue Remedy comes in alcohol free.

[Lamplighter]

FWIW, Dana's suggestion about de-sensitizing to sounds while playing
with the dog is similar to training hunting dogs to not be gun-shy.

Another good learning situation is at the dog's feeding time,
while dogs are eager about food and will quickly adjust and ignore sharp sounds.
Starting with simple tapping on a pot, and then over a few days,
building up to dropping pots on the floor, shouting "BANG", and so on really works well,
especially for fire works before the holidays like the (US) 4th of July.

I think dogs hear the rumble of distant thunder before we humans do,
and so playing such sounds during feeding times might be helpful too.

[Perry Winkle]

Originally Posted by Nirvana

I don't think dogs are capable of the placebo effect and Rescue Remedy comes in alcohol free.

No, but they are highly keyed into their human's behavior.

I would imagine the placebo effect can be transitive. Human gets mellower expecting the dog to get mellow. The dog gets mellower because of the change in the human.

Absent a human the dog has no input and thus doesn't change its behavior. I would guess that's what the studies control for, but I didn't read the linked articles.

The dog might also develop a conditioned response so that getting the drops mellows them out just by having been given drops.