Comfort Zone® Plug-In???
 

I was looking at dog stuff on the internet and I came across this Comfort Zone® Plug-in on the Doctors Foster and Smith website. It's supposed to help your dog with separation anxiety, destructive behavior, potty accidents, and some other things by releasing a calming pheromone. It's only $34.99 for the plug-in and $21.99 for the refill. I think that is a pretty reasonable price, especially if it really worked. I was kind of thinking about trying it because when left alone, Lola shreds paper all over the house and Rebel(my mom's Yorkie) chews the coffee table. I would like to find something that will stop them!

Has anyone heard of this or tried it? I would love to read some positive reviews before buying.

Comfort Zone® Plug-in for Dogs

I have tried them when puppies were little and wild. It says that it can take a cumulative time period for optimal results. So I'm not sure if my pups calmed with a couple weeks' time or if the product actually worked. But I'm a firm believer in the placebo effect. ;) So for me, there was some improvement - just can't tell you for sure that's what it was. :)

I tried it to when i first got Keoki I think it worked but am not sure either- it's worth a shot- I don't use it anymore but he had seperation anxiety when I first got him.

The Gentleman that invented the DAP diffuser and I have to go look up my notes ... Spoke to us at the PABA conference in May.
Pheromones work.
Here is the BUT.. it must run all the time, all the time no turning it off not running out and it should take affect in man can I remember .. 2 days????

Now that said some dogs it has little effect on.

Pretty cool sitting there listening to this French Dr. explain just how it works and why. Oh so cute and that nice thick french voice. Be still my beating heart.... sadly he was married.

JL

I started using it at 13 weeks and now my pup is 5 months old... I bought it so that it would help with seperation anxiety while I was at work for 8 hours each day. Like the others have said, I don't know for sure if it works (b/c I'm not there to monitor his behavior) but temperment wise, Wall-E seems to be fine staying alone in his pen while I'm at work. He doesn't seem to have any noticable behavioral issues.. no chewing or ripping things apart when left alone. I say- its worth a shot, you never know!

Yorkiemother- do you know if the inventor of DAP mentioned when to ween a dog off the pheromone diffuser or how long a person should use it? Wall-E is 5 months and I just ran out of the stuff and didn't know if I should buy a refill or just not use it anymore since Wall-E is older... any suggestions out there?

I tried that for Rudy when he was little. Sadly it didn't help him. :( But every dog is different. If I remember right the liquid in the plug in didn't last all that long and for having to use it all the time, it got expensive. To me anyway.

I don't know about the plug in, but I bought the spray. I wanted it to spray around to help calm them for grooming and then in the car for travel. I didn't notice a difference at all and for us, it certainly wasn't worth the money, but I'm glad that it's helped others!

I actually would think if Waall-e is doing fine he can go with out it.

The suggestion was made that before you bring a puppy home you start it in the breeders house and yours two days befroe and run it until the puppy is well settled in.

For sepration axiety it should run until you have worked a rehab program start to finish and see a change in the dog.


JL

My understanding is that the spray is less effective and so is the plug in unitl it been in the air and built up for a few days.

JL

That may be. I can't remember exactly what it says, I know it said to spray 30-60 min. prior to car trip or whatever. It's a strong smell when you spray it.
It has a medicinal smell. I hope the plug in works!

You may have better luck with lavender or lavender and chamomile in a sash them the spray.

I know when I burn lavender incense I have a quite dog.
Experimenting with scents is kind of fun to see what your dog will respond to.

Let me go drag up the conference notes and see what he wrote as he said he spoke different from what he gave us and I have just not read it yet.

JL

PATRICK PAGEAT, DVM, PhD,
DBFVS, DECVBM-CA
Dr. Pageat graduated from The National Veterinary
School of Lyon in 1984 and received his PhD from
the Faculty of Paris-VI in 1991. He holds a diploma
in Veterinary Behavior from the French Veterinary
Schools, and is a Diplomate of the European College
of Behavioral Veterinary Medicine. He currently is
Professor in charge Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
of Torino (Italy). Dr. Pageat founded Pherosynthese
Research Centre, a private R & D laboratory
specializing in chemical communication and is
their Scientific Director. Dr. Pageat is the inventor
of “D.A.P.” (dog appeasing pheromone) and
Feliway (a synthetic cat pheromone). Both products
may be the key to providing treatment for dogs and
cats with stress-related conditions and behavioral
problems.

Pheromonatherapy – A New Adjunct
In Managing Behavioral Therapy
Chemical communication is common to every
living creatures. Among the wide range of chemical
signals, the pheromones play a specific role in
delivering intraspecific information which does not
involve any analysis through the cortical brain
areas but on the contrary activate the limbic and
hypothalamic areas. Thanks to the evolution of the
techniques used in chemistry, the precision in the
analysis of the odorous secretions has been
improved and recent findings in the understanding
of the structure of the pheromones, make it possible
to synthetize artificial pheromones.
Pheromonatherapy is a therapeutical technique
which uses those artificial pheromones with the
purpose of modifying the emotional reactions and
the hormonal secretions of our animals. This
evidence based therapy is now used in different
species including pets, livestock and zoo animals.
This lectures presents the most common
applications of pheromonatherapy, the different rules
that lead to select and prescribe it and its association
with other therapies, especially behavior
modification programs.