Each of our dogs has their own fears and phobias. The biggest ones for Sheba are thunderstorms and wind, for Luke it is strangers, and for Cricket it is fireworks and riding in the car. We have tried thundershirts and anxiety wraps, ignoring it, comforting them, and pretty much anything else you can think of, other than drugs. I don’t like to turn to drugs unless we have to.
So when I found out a company we’ve been working with, PL360, had a natural anxiety relief formula, that 
sounded like something I wanted to try. Their cleaning and grooming products which we’ve reviewed are plant based, and they believe that natural is better when it comes to our pets’ health and wellness. They’ve worked with veterinarians and experts to come up with natural supplements that support healthy pets.
I had planned to try the supplements around the 4th of July with Cricket, but we got lucky and for the most part our neighborhood was quiet! But when I decided to take Cricket for a play date with her beagle cousins last weekend, I thought it would be great to try this product and see if it helped her when riding in the car. Most of our car rides are short to close places to walk or swim, but this hike was over a half hour drive away and I hate for her to be nervous that whole time. Stress isn’t good for any of us.
I gave her the pill with a snack about an hour and a half before we left. Normally we’ve barely gotten down the road and Cricket is nervously fidgeting, panting, shaking, and trying to climb into my lap. This time she quickly just lay down on the seat next to me! I felt her and could see she was shaking just a bit, and she was panting as well, but nothing like she normally does. She stayed lying down for almost the whole ride! She tried to get on the floor once or twice and I told her no, and she lay back down.
The other thing that happens when we take her places is that when we arrive at our destination she starts jumping around like her life depends on getting out of that car right now. She’ll often whine, cry, and even bark. This time she did get up like she wanted to get out, but she was not frantic and when I told her to stay, she did. I even got out of the car and did a couple of things and she stayed in there quietly watching me. Frankly, I was amazed.
I was surprised as well, to be honest, because after all our fails with other natural methods, I didn’t expect this to help. I also wondered if she was just having a good day for some reason. So one morning this week I took her in the car to drive to a different part of our rail trail for a jog. I didn’t give her the anxiety relief, and she acted just like she used to. You can see in the following photos how she looks nervous. She tried to climb in my lap before we even left our driveway. She wants to get on the floor, which is not allowed when we’re driving! (We weren’t moving in any of these photos…I could get arrested in my state for using my phone when driving, and wouldn’t anyway).
I am pleased with this product, and I feel now like I can take Cricket in the car more, and that the more she rides, the more comfortable she will hopefully get. It was difficult to want to take her places when I knew it was stressful for her, but now I know we can do better. Sheba doesn’t love riding either, but she just lies right down in the back and doesn’t move. But I’m going to give it to her for longer rides too. Next up: trying this with Luke when strangers come to the house to see if it relaxes him at all. I will report on how that goes once we’ve tried it.
I am including a photo of the back of the bottle so you can see all the ingredients for yourself; that it is not appropriate for dogs under 14 weeks of age, and other important information. Please read before deciding if this would be right for your pet (or even better check with your veterinarian).
By the way, these are chewable pills and Cricket took it with no problem. In fact, when I opened the bottle Luke came running too when he smelled them, and he wanted one!
Giveaway! PL360 has agreed to give away a bottle of Anxiety Relief to three of our readers! Just fill out the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win.
No purchase necessary. Giveaway is open to 18 and over US residents only. Void where prohibited. Giveaway will run from Friday, August 14, 2015 through Wednesday, August 19, 2015 at 11:59pm ET. Three (3) winners will be randomly selected by Rafflecopter and notified via email. The winner will have 48 hours to claim their prize; failure to do so will result in forfeiture of the prize. Participants must read and agree to Rafflecopter’s and Wag ‘n Woof Pet’s Privacy Policy before entering and participating in this promotion. Facebook and Twitter do not sponsor, administer or endorse this promotion. Prizes are donated by PL360 Pets. and Wag ‘n Woof Pets is not responsible for prize fulfillment.
Disclaimer: We were provided with one bottle of Anxiety Relief by PL360 free of charge for our own use, and chose to write this review. Wag ‘n Woof Pets only shares products we believe will be of interest to our readers, and all reviews are our own honest opinions. PL360 is not responsible for the content of this article.
Oh I’m so glad you found something that is helping her! I hope it works with Luke too.
I hope I win! I’ve been meaning to talk to my vet about Mia’s anxiety. She shakes and wants to crawl in our laps when she hears beeping (like the oven timer). Very occasionally she wakes me up and just sort of whines at me for a few hours. I don’t want to give her something every day, but it would be good to try something I can give her just when she’s feeling anxious.
I have a few dogs with storm and fireworks anxiety. 🙁
That’s great that it seemed to help Cricket so much! Rita loves to ride in the car for short rides, but if the ride goes on too long (like hours… we’ve gone on some LONG road trips) and there are loud sounds (big trucks on the road, etc.) she starts to get very anxious.
Cricket reminds me of my beagle. Like Rita, Bailey also was great with short car rides, but we used to drive to my mom’s often, which was 6 hours away and involved driving over about 5 or 6 cattle guards in the last 30 min of the drive. The car would make a loud rattling sound when we’d go over those – and she would freak out! The first time it happened, I was alone in the car with her, and it was a narrow winding mountain road with no where to pull over and she was freaking out and trying to get into my seat with me! It was so stressful! We used to try everything to dope her up but she would always freak out (though never as bad as that first time) when we would hit that stretch of road. Ugh. Bad memories! Luckily now my mom is only an hour away on nice smooth roads! 🙂
That’s great your Mom is so much closer now! I can’t even imagine how the girls would be on a long car ride. Maybe we’ll work up to that someday though. Ironically, riding in the car is one of the things Luke is not afraid of, though he’s afraid of just about anything else. And that’s only as long as no one, human or dog, gets too close to the car. But he loves the riding part!
My dog Mike is senior and he gets very anxious. he’s losing his eyesight too, so that doesn’t help. He is very afraid of the garbage trucks; of which there are three different ones that each pass our house twice on the same day! He is also afraid of the microwave, the vacuum and one of the cats, but most of all going in the car.
Oh, poor Mike. I can see where losing his eyesight could lead to more fears. It’s tough when they get old and their fears increase. Gosh, I think I’m afraid of a lot more things now than I was when I was younger!
Good luck in the giveaway, it sounds like Mike could really benefit from this.
Well the good news is that i am home with him all day long. Mike just sticks by Mommy, that’s his one and only plan.
You should see how he barks when we make popcorn in the microwave, he thinks it’s an invasion. (it’s sort of comical because we know that he is not actually in danger)
You are so lucky you can be home with Mike all the time, and that really must make things easier for him.
Oh, I know, sometimes it’s hard not to chuckle at some of the silly things they can be afraid of, even though you feel bad for them. Our Sheba is pretty much afraid of anything new (furniture, etc.) we put into a room, and she’ll avoid that room for days.
My younger dog is very anxious in general- it’s genetic and several of his siblings have the same issue. Everything worries him, especially other people, or anything moving. We do a LOT of training to manage and to help him overcome it, and he’s come a long way. But would love to try this and see if it helps.
Thunder, fireworks, planes flying by and the washer noises all cause my dog, Ella, to have anxiety 🙁
Aw, poor Ella. Our golden Sheba is also afraid of the vacuum, I forgot about that one. Luckily I don’t do vacuum too often. 🙂
Good luck in the giveaway, and thanks for coming by and entering.
Thunder and lighting cause my dog to have anxiety.
What a great experience, thanks for sharing it with us. Love pl360 products
Hi Jan! I’ve tried the Rafflecopter, but even though the individual entries show submitted, the tally box is saying I have no entries.
I would really like to try this stuff for Shadow (if the vet okays it) for when Sam gets into his male-menopause moods.
Oh no, Sue. I just checked it and your entries do not show up. Did you try refreshing and doing it again, or would it not let you? I’m going to try it on my hubby’s computer and see if it works.
Don’t worry, we’ll get you entered one way or another!
I tried a few separate times; but I was entering on my phone, so maybe Rafflecopter just doesn’t like Apple products?
Well, it is supposed to, and I just read that they made some updates to make it work even better on mobile devices.
However, it seemed to work fine on my hubby’s computer, yet his entries don’t show up when I go to my account either. So I guess I need to get in touch with them.
Thanks for letting me know you had a problem, I’ll get back to you when I get some answers!
Not a problem. I did just try again and got the same result. Must be Rafflecopter.
my oldest used to be very scared of thunderstorms, but now that she cant hear, it no longer bothers her. now my one of my younger girls has started to get scared of thunder storms which just started this yr and she is 6.
Sometimes you have to wonder why they develop these fears later on? Our golden retriever Moses could hear the storms coming long before we did.
Good luck in the giveaway, I do think this could really help.
Honey is a mildly timid dog. It’s why we’re frequently training to build her confidence. But I worry that a big storm at sea would upset her (I know it will upset me).
She’s only occasionally concerned by storms. But when they’re rocking the boat, I could see it becoming a potential issue for us.
That is definitely the scary sounding part to me….I would be needing some anxiety relief myself, for sure! I hide in our basement when bad storms roll through….and the dogs are happy to follow me down there.
It is great that you found something to help Cricket.
Mr. N hates being left home alone. He thinks he should go everywhere!
Wouldn’t it be great if we could actually take our dogs absolutely everywhere?
We’re glad this helped Cricket. We wonder if they offer anything for cats.
I don’t believe they do at this time. I hope they branch out that way in the future.
ANything and I mean anything to help Layla with Fireworks will make me a happy Mom, the poor lil one is petrified and hides in the bathroom, nothing will tempt her to come out of there its pathetic. I actually during fireworks times put her bed, food, water everything she needs in there
thanks for this giveaway
Good luck in the giveaway…it sounds like Layla could definitely benefit from this. We just hate to see them so afraid, don’t we?
This product sounds great! I am glad it’s working for you!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
Overall we are pretty good. Mom blasts our TV to drown out fireworks noise
Lily & Edward
I sometimes wonder which is louder to our neighbors….the fireworks, or the TV from our house…LOL!
Bentley does not like thunderstorms at all. We usually put his Anxiety Wrap AND his SmartPetLove Heartbeat Harness on him. I love PL360 and this sounds awesome.
Oh, poor Bentley! That heartbeat harness is something else I might try someday too.
I am pretty mellow, but as you know from BlogPaws, my furs get all bent when there are tons of dogs around. This might help with that. We love PL360!
I definitely think it could possibly help with that! We are loving everything we’ve tried from PL360 too. They also have joint supplements which we might try someday. Right now everyone is doing OK though so we’re not going to mess with anything at this point!
oh many thanks for such a great review. I will try it too… Easy dislike cars and it is no fun to have 80lbs on my lap every time when we need the car. and I can only go to rustic places, because I always look like a tramp full of pawprints and covered in dogs hair :o)
LOL…I can only imagine! I thought 22 lbs of Cricket on my lap was bad enough!