Dog Appeasing Pheromone

Life among humans can sometimes be stressful for our canines. Especially for those dogs who might have missed early socialization or have other issues.

Of course the best thing to help these dogs is to get them feeling safe and use counter conditioning and desensitization to help them feel better about the things that bother them.  Some people believe there are products can help calm dogs just a bit.  One of those such products is "Dog Appeasing Pheromone" or DAP.



Below are some excerpts about the product

Note: Products like DAP, Thunder Shirt, rescue remedy etc.. should never be used in place of protection.
For example if a dog is nervous at the dog park, don't put on a DAP collar and take him to the dog park.
If dog is nervous about visitors, don't put on a Thunder Shirt and force your dog to sit in a visitor's lap.

The Puppy Primer by Patricia B. McConnell
..plug-in pheromone dispenser called D.A.P.° or Comfort Zone. You can't smell it, but your dog's brain perceives it to be the pheromone that is produced by a mother dog when she is nursing her puppies. All you have to do is buy it and plug it in-what could be easier than that?

Love Has No Age Limit: Welcoming an Adopted Dog into Your Home by Karen B. London Ph.D., Ph.D. McConnell Patricia B.
Consider helpful products: There are a variety of products that help dogs with SA, from DAP (dog appeasing pheromone), body wraps, homeopathic remedies and medications from your veterinarian. None of these work for all dogs, but we’ve had good luck with all of them on one dog or another.

Chill Out Fido!: How to Calm Your Dog (Dogwise Training Manual) by Nan Kene Arthur
Use a DAP Dog pheromone diffuser to help calm your dog. This plug-in device emits a scent is much like the pheromone that mother dogs secrete when nursing their puppies. It has a very calming effect.


Scaredy Dog! Understanding & Rehabilitating Your Reactive Dog by Ali Brown
DAP seems to work best for dogs who are fearful of loud noises such as thunderstorms and fireworks.


TREATING SEPARATION ANXIETY IN DOGS by Malena DeMartini-Price
A few studies show that DAP has reduced anxiety in puppies in a statistically significant way. One particular study by Gaultier et al. in 2005 compared 30 separation anxiety dogs given DAP to 27 separation anxiety dogs given Clomicalm, and both improved equally. For the most part, my clients haven’t reported such benefits to me from the use of DAP, but a small percentage did have impressive results. Because DAP has been effective in a handful of cases, I do recommend at least trying the spray version (which is the cheapest). I have a bottle of the spray that I bring to my initial consult...

Dr Karen Overall’s Manual of Clinical Behavioral Medicine
Since the 1990s, pheromonal analogue products (e.g., Feliway, DAP, Adaptil, Felifriend, depending on country) have been available and marketed for the treatment of behavioral concerns. Pheromonal analogue products are not true pheromones, and purported active ingredients and complete chemical structures have not been reported in the peer-reviewed literature. These products have been asserted to work like pheromones, a claim that has been inadequately substantiated. Few controlled studies have been published in the peer-reviewed literature, and most studies that assess the effects of these products have used inadequate designs and controls and insufficient sample sizes (Frank et al., 2010). There is very limited evidence that these products produce any consistent behavioral effects (Frank et al., 2010), even when sufficient data and experimental controls exist to evaluate outcome scientifically. The results for which there may be adequate data for an effect tend to involve non-specific responses associated with mild changes in activity levels