Literature & Studies

Changes achieved with pressure garments in movement and body control are neurophysiological and biomechanical in nature. Exact mechanisms are yet unknown. Central nervous system is a complex organization of nerve cells in which all activity is generated from external stimuli (Kottke, 1980). Nervous system gets feedback from our motor cortex and turns the sensory and proprioseptic feedback into movement. Proprioception, deep pressure, viobration and light touch are all somatosensory inputs that enhance learning within the central nervous system: this is how we interpret the world itself.

 

    Recommended publications and sources

    • Coren, Stanley, How Dogs Think: Understanding the Canine Mind. New York: Free Press. 2004

    • Grandin, T. 1992. Calming effects of deep touch pressure in patients with autistic disorder, college students, and animals. Journal of Child and Adolescent
    • Psychopharmacology 2(1): 63-72.
      Gray, Henry. 1918. Anatomy of the Human Body. Bartleby.com.
    • Braid A. MacRae et al. 2011. Compression garments and exercise Garment considerations physiology and performance. Arbeitsphysiologie 09/2011;112(5):1783-95.
    • Dennis-Peter Born et al. 2013. Bringing Light into the Dark: Effects of Compression Clothing on Performance and Recovery. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 2013, 8, 4-18.
    • Korpela, Janika; Lehtinen, Eeva. Fyysinen ja psyykkinen palautuminen kevytpainevaatetta käytettäessä. Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu, 2014-11-27T07:35:12Z. Theseus-link
    • Lindsay, Steven R. Handbook of applied dog behavior and training. 2 Vols. Iowa: Iowa SP. 2000. Vol. 1.
    • Metsäranta, Lennu. Mittatilauspainehousujen vaikutukset palautumiseen kaksi vuorokautta hypertrofisen, maksimivoima- ja nopeusvoimakuormituksen jälkeen. Jyväskylän yliopisto, URN:NBN:fi:jyu-201505211948. Theseus-link
    • Newby, Jonica. (2004, Spring). Dogs Do See Differently. The Bark., pp. 36.
    • Serpell, James, ed. The domestic dog: its evolution, behavior, and interaction with people. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. 1995.

    Survey / Lymed, Smartdog ky (Katriina Tiira), Movet Oy, Police Dog Training Centre

    In recent years, dogs owned by the Police Dog Training Centre have participated in some studies and surveys. Three of them have focused on increasing the health and well-being of police dogs, and one has studied the relationship between the dog’s personality and the results of explosives tests.

    Lymed participated in a pressure garment survey aimed to find out whether Lymed Dog pressure garment might relieve the negative feelings of some dogs when traveling in a car or whether they’d have an impact on some other problematic behavior. Below is a brief description of the survey, its backgrounds and results.

     

    Ten (N = 10) police dogs participated in the survey. These dogs reportedly had problems with traveling in the car, or fears related to surfaces, separation anxiety or combinations of these. A custom-made pressure garment was made for all the dogs participating in the survey.

    The material and methods were as follows:
    Eight of the dogs were Belgian shepherd Malinois and two were Labradors. Efforts were made to detect the effect of the pressure garment by arranging two identical test days, in which the dog was exposed to its problem behavior.

    On the first day of testing the dog’s problem was studied without wearing the pressure garment. On the second day – which was set up to be as identical as possible with the first testing day – dog was exposed to its problem behavior. On the second day the dog was wearing its Lymed pressure garment. On both test days, dog behavior in a problematic situation was recorded, cortisol and creatine values were measured, and its activity levels was measured with a FitBark activity meter. The test days were scheduled so that all events from the dog’s feeding and outdoor activities were carried out similarly, with the same schedule. In addition to these measurements, the dog’s handler’s thoughts and experiences were mapped by a behavioral questionnaire. The questionnaire covered both test days and the dog’s work assignments.

    The results can be summarized as follows:
    – Nine handlers felt that the pressure garment calmed the dog down, in a scale of “a bit – very much”
    – Six of the handlers found that the garment helped in dealing with the problem behavior, in a scale of “a little bit – very much”
    – Half of the handlers felt that the pressure garment helped the dog to focus more while working, in a scale of “a bit  – a lot”
    – Four handlers were uncapable of answering questions about the dog’s working methods and one handler thought that the pressure garment did not affect the dog’s ability to concentrate on the job

    The cortisol measurements did not show a statistically significant difference between the two test days (t = 0.841, df = 9, N = 10, p = 0.422), although on the second day (when wearing the pressure garment) some dogs had a cortisol value of almost half of the first day. Correspondingly with one dog, the cortisol value from day one to day two had risen sharply.

    Experiences from the survey show that some dogs get considerable relief from using a custom-made Lymed Dog pressure garment. Further studies, however, would be needed to better identify the types of problems and types of dogs that would benefit the most by using Lymed pressure garments.

    Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Helsinki UNI

    Lymed was a part of a study, conducted by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Helsinki, on noise phobic dogs. The pilot study was set up to find out whether the use of Lymed Animal garments effect the behaviour of noise phobic dogs.

    The initial results and the summary of the study, which indicates that the Lymed Animal garment might reduce the acute stress reaction and speed up the recovery after stress, can be read below.

    26.3.2015

    The effect of pressure vest on noise phobic dogs in a double-blinded experiment

    Research group

    • Project leader: professor Anna Valros, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland, anna.valros@helsinki.fi

    • Anne-Maria Pekkin, Department of Child Psychiatry, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oulu, Finland, anne.pekkin@student.oulu.fi

    • Laura Hänninen, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland,

    • Katriina Tiira, Department of Veterinary Biosciences and Research Programs Unit, University of Helsinki & The Folkhälsan Research Center, Finland,

    • Aija Koskela, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland,

    • Merja Pöytäkangas, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland,

    • Hannes Lohi, Department of Veterinary Biosciences and Research Programs Unit, University of Helsinki, Finland

     

    Fear of loud noises is a very common welfare problem in pet dogs, and the severity of fearful reaction varies from mild anxiety to severe phobia. Commercial pressure vests have been tested on dogs to relief noise phobia and peripheral oxytocin has been suggested to be one of the stress-relieving mediators. However the effect of vests has not been tested in a controlled situation. We tested whether pressure vests calm severely noise phobic dogs in a double-blinded experiment, and if the possible effect differs between deep and light pressure vests. We also studied if the deep pressure vest increases oxytocin secreted in urine.

    We recruited 28 dogs (mean age 5.9 years, range 2-11 years) via an ongoing study on the genetic background of noise sensitivity by the Finnish Canine Genetic Research Group. The participating dogs represented 14 breeds, from which the majority were Lagotto Romagnolo and Strafforshire Bullterreiers. Of the dogs 18 were female and 10 male dogs.

    Two vests of similar texture (Lymed Animal™ supporting garments, Lymed Ltd®, Finland) were individually customized for each dog. The deep pressure vest (DEEP) created a pressure of approximately 10-12 mmHg and the light pressure vest (LIGHT) a pressure of approximately 2-3 mmHg pressure. Each dog was tested three times either without any vest (CONTROL) or with DEEP or LIGHT vests in a semi-randomized order. During tests dogs were exposed to 2 minutes of 70-73 dB firework sound (noise), and the dogs´ behaviour was video recorded 2 minutes before (pre-noise), during (noise) and 2 minutes after (recovery) the noise. Saliva samples were collected four times during the noise test day: at arrival, before the pre-noise interval (20 from arrival), and 20 and 40 min after the noise exposure. In addition, urine samples were collected when the deep pressure vest was first fitted: one sample before dressing the dog in the vest and one sample after 30 min exposure to the deep vest.

    We analysed the differences between treatments (CONTROL, DEEP and LIGHT) for behavioural parameters (activity, body and tail postures, vocalization, time spent near owner) and saliva cortisol, and compared the urine oxytocin between samples taken before and after exposure to the DEEP vest.

    The DEEP vest reduced lying time in the dogs during noise exposure. The vests had no significant effect on saliva cortisol or urine oxytocin. However, we found that during noise exposure total lying time with any vest correlated positively with the saliva cortisol measured after noise exposure, indicating that increased lying time was a sign of higher stress level in the dogs. Thus, the DEEP vest appeared to reduce stress-related lying (freezing behavior) during the noise exposure

    Both DEEP and LIGHT vests increased the time the dogs spent near their owners during noise exposure. Time spent near the owner when wearing the DEEP vest during the recovery interval correlated positively with the urine oxytocin. These results indicate that oxytocin might be related to the dog´s tendency to seek owner support and the vests might effect this behaviour positively.

    We did not find a clear therapeutic effect of using pressure vests in noise phobic dogs in a double-blinded experimental set-up. However, our results indicate that the pressure vest might reduce the acute stress reaction and speed up the recovery after stress, possibly partly by facilitating more owner support seeking in the dogs. More controlled studies are needed to ascertain the benefit of pressure vest for treating noise-phobia, but should preferably be performed in the dogs home environment.