Stress remedies
Do they really work?

I don't know about you but when I first started looking for something to help Sasha with her anxiety I came up against a bewildering array of treatments and a barrage of advice.  

Sasha is probably fairly typical of a lot of highly strung collies.  She's acutely aware of everything around her and she can bark a lot at anything that moves.  This makes life a bit difficult sometimes but it's a collie trait and it's not the problem. 

One of the reasons I searched for  stress remedy was that Sasha is also a fearful dog.  Busy environments tend to frighten her and she can suddenly go to pieces at shows.  If she goes into the exercise area she likes all of us to go with her and at training classes she can be such a scaredy pants that she shuts down completely. 

Worse than this, however is that she sometimes suffers from border collie collapse where she becomes completely uncoordinated and unable to stand.  This may also be called exercise induced collapse or heat induced collapse.  The vets can't treat the condition but they have recommended to us that we try to control the excitement at training classes and shows as much as possible.  Hence the search for calming treatments and stress remedies.

These days we are largely managing Sasha's stress levels and reducing them as much as possible so that she can enjoy a normal life.  With a stressed dog you really have to find what works for them as one treatment may suit one dog but be completely ineffective with another. 

Here are some of the things that you can try to help a stressed dog. 

 *At shows, park in the quietest place possible.  It may mean walking a lot further but it really does help.  

 *Try to take the quietest route to the ring where you're competing. 

 *Get someone to queue for you so that you aren't surrounded by excitable dogs whilst you wait your turn.

 *Try using a stress remedy.

And here are some suggestions from other people

Rescue Remedy may help, I think the other one I've heard is emergency essence  

I was chatting to someone yesterday who wants to show his dogs but one of them is very barky & he got something from Dorwest Herbs, again a few drops in her water & it apparently calmed the dog down a lot.

My vet said out of all the natural remedies the Valerian looks like the only one that could really help.

I've used Valerian on over the years -use it during the firework months and maybe it helped to delay the onset of seizures as it is used to help control epilepsy in the early stages so it must do something! But I don't think it works all that well for anxiety - it might take the sting out of the tail a little bit and might help with mild anxiety.

Magnesium came up in discussions as helpful. I've not used it but I will look into it if it is okay with other meds. (Ask your vet about this.)

She will probably always get excited but I cannot recommend loose lead walking highly enough. It has helped Ry loads to cope with difficult situations and definitely has a calming, relaxing effect on him and me.

I've used Rescue Remedy for Mawgan at shows but it didn't help, however it did help Bob with his fear of fireworks, so it depends on the dog. With Bob we started using it for a couple of weeks before the firework season in his water and then as 5 Nov got nearer by dropping onto his tongue, he was definitely alot calmer.

Sasha sounds like Mawgan who is totally different at shows, she was so edgy, its taken a lot of calming work with her, using a combination of gencon, to give me confidence that she won't lunge forward and Tellington Touch to calm us both (it does make you calmer) when queuing, she now queues nicely and I have had comments from people that its nice to see such a calm dog in the queue. She now wears a flat collar and lead which was my aim. I also took Mawgan on a canine massage course last year and this does also help the calm her down.

I tried the Skullcap stuff with Jette a couple of years ago but decided even if she was giddy and soooo excited and all over the place, she was my giddy girl and I loved her just like that so never tried it again...now she's 6 she is calmer

All the training desensitisation under the sun!

I agree with all the above, and you might try calming signals - they work on Jock (yawning etc) The Turid Rugaas book is brill.

Amber thought an aeroplane flying overhead sounded a lot like thunder, so that got her going a bit with her sound phobia. I've tried different things with her like Kalms and stuff to drop on the tongue, but none of its worked.

It seems to have worked to a certain extent. Bernie queued for us and Sasha got a clear round in the grade 1 to 7 combined jumping at the SWAT show. She didn't get e'd in any of the the other classes and came out with only five or ten faults in each.

Don't know if this would help but elsewhere I've seen this recommended
Google Protocol for Relaxation.

Here are some useful links to some of the stress remedies mentioned. 
(Do look at the last one as it's quite intriguing and it's free.!)

Rescue Remedy

Dorwest

Valerian

Tellington Touch

Turid Rugaas

Gencon

Protocol for Relaxation - This one is a really interesting page on the Dog Scouts of America site.  It gives a set of exercises for you and your dog.  To quote, "This set of exercises has helped countless numbers of dogs learn to relax in the presence of various stimulus. It helps dogs that get over excited, aggressive, that are fearful, that have no "off switch and any dog that goes through this."

(I am going to try it with Sasha and will report back on the results. )Pat 5th August 2011.