Calmz Anxiety Relief System

Marcus:  This was not my fault!  Jan messed up, not me.

Jan:
For once, Marcus is not exaggerating, and he's too embarrassed to do the review, so I will.

I leaped at the chance to try a product called Calmz anxiety relief system on Mr. Hyper, a.k.a. Marcus.  He is the most energetic, loudest screeching dog I've ever met.  If I pick up a sock, he goes ballistic and races around the house leaping at cats, moving furniture and screeching in a cat's face, "I'm going for a walk, I'm going for a walk!"  He is grabbing leashes and chewing and ... and ... and.  I'm exhausted just listening to him.

Merci tries to hide at walk time.  She's going deaf and blind, so when he leaps into her face screeching at her, he scares the daylights out of the poor old lady. 

Calmz is "acoustic and vibrational therapy".  It's intended for an anxious dog. Marcus has a lot of anxiety.   He was adopted out in the Walmart parking lot at the age of perhaps three weeks.  He wasn't even eating solid food yet.  He lived with a man who beat him for going potty in the house but neglected to take him outside to go, especially at night.  Two weeks after adoption, in wet and freezing December weather, the guy's mother threw Marcus outside in an alley to get rid of him.

He is terrified of being alone. 

He has been attacked on our walks so he is highly nervous in new situations, especially if there is a loose dog running around.   I was so hoping the Calmz would help calm him in the house and on our walks.  

These are the items that come in the box: a vest, batteries and the Calmz acoustic vibrator.  It uses 3 AAA batteries.

Marcus started off wearing just the vest.  He wears a harness so a vest was no problem; however, I quickly learned the vest and the harness with two leashes did not fit well together, so any "calming" would have to be done at home and not on our walks. 

Marcus was proud of his vest.

This was taken prior to adding the Calmz acoustic vibrator.  I found inserting the batteries a bit hard because I had to remove and return a tiny screw.  My fingers do not work well with tiny objects. 

This is after the device was inserted into the opening for it.  The device has 8 vibration settings from low intensity to high intensity. Some repeat in cycles.

The vest was a nice fit - at first.  But he is a contortionist and soon stretched it out of shape.  He did not mind the vibrations, only turned his head side to side at first as if he was listening.  I wanted to see if the Calmz would help him calm down around the house.  It did help him the night we had a thunderstorm and he became very upset.  I put the vest and vibrator on him and he went to sleep at my feet.

The batteries died.  I have grown old and forgetful.  I forgot to buy new batteries on shopping trips, then I forgot to change the batteries, and then I kept forgetting to put the vest on him first thing in the morning to see if it would calm him before our walks. 

And then the unthinkable happened.

The vest was sitting on a chair about two weeks ago and the Calmz anxiety relief system became a casualty of a two male feline territorial pee war.   The vest was washed and dried - twice.  I tested the Calmz.  It was dead.  I put in fresh batteries.  Still dead, but it began to grow hot in my hand.  I managed to get that tiny screw off, grabbed the hot batteries in a towel, ran out the door and threw them outside the dog pen. 

I apologize to the Calmz people for the "death" of the product before Marcus finished testing it.  It did work well on the thunderstorm stress.  If I were not so forgetful,  I might have found the right time and setting to use on Marcus, and it could well have helped him.

Or not.  I read a survey I was supposed to take when finished and it specified that one qualification for this review is there are to be no more than two dogs in the household.  There are two older dogs in this home.   There were three until Sam died early this year.

Check out the webpage for the Calmz anxiety relief system for a video and information on what it is intended to accomplish. This just might meet your needs for your anxious dog.

The Calmz anxiety relief system was provided to us in order to give an honest review.  We received no monetary compensation.

Amber Crown Collars

Cyndi:  Rusty, those are mine and Buddy's new necklace collars.  Why are you photobombing them?

Rusty:  Photobombing?  I'm just keeping them company while Jan takes a picture.

Cyndi:  The little one in the front is mine.  The darker one doubled over in the back is Buddy's.  His neck is a lot larger than mine.

Rusty:  Marcus, what are you doing down there?  You aren't supposed to be in this post.

Marcus:  But my fans will be unhappy if you don't include me.

Rusty:  Oh, okay, but you owe me big time!

Buddy:  The collar in front with the brown stones is my new authentic raw Baltic Amber Crown pet necklace.  It's supposed to repel fleas and ticks for up to one year without toxic chemicals.  Jan tried to get a shot of the actual stones but it was nap time and I wasn't cooperative.

Cyndi:  I have never worn a collar or necklace before and it took some getting used to.  The stones are small and they disappeared into my fur.  The necklace is supposed to release terpenes to naturally repel ticks and fleas.  Plus, parasites are prevented from clinging by static electricity from the friction against fur.

Buddy:  The first photos of the necklaces were taken on 5/17.  According to Amber Crown, "It usually takes up to three weeks of wearing to reach maximum repellent effectiveness."

Cyndi:  It would need to be replaced at the end of the year or when the stones become polished against the fur.  This and the remaining photos were taken on 6/21.  Sadly, you can see how much Buddy's "industrial strength nylon thread" has stretched.  There were wide gaps between stones.

Buddy:  Jan was very careful with my harness on walks.  The only thing she can figure is this happened from me scratching my neck.  She checked my face and there were fleas crawling all over it, something that was not supposed to happen while wearing this collar, so she didn't bother checking the rest of me.  If there were that many fleas so near the collar ...

Cyndi:  She let her contact know there was a problem and there didn't seem to be any concern.  But it bothered Jan so much she went on Facebook and messaged the company.  Seven days later she had an email address for them.  (Actually, one came with the collars, but a kitty who shall remain anonymous - unless he keeps bugging me - hid the individual boxes under furniture and they were only found last night behind some storage.)

Buddy:  She emailed the company her findings and concerns two weeks ago but has not received a response.  Tonight she noticed a graphic that claimed "up to 4 times larger Baltic amber pieces" on their campaign website, so she took a good look at the two collars.  The stones of each are different colors but they are most certainly not of much different, if any, size.

Cyndi:  I am a petite female kitty.  Buddy is a hound dog, several times my size.

Buddy:  They must have sent me one of the older models, not one of the upgraded "bigger, stronger" collars because it did not do anything for me.

Cyndi: On the other paw, Jan is very pleased with my necklace.  She chose me and Buddy for the review because we were both having a problem and she so wanted to for us to repel fleas and ticks naturally.  My coat has grown back silky and flyaway and all the scabs have healed - except, for some reason, the ones around my neck.  Jan thinks either the collar itches a bit or I prefer to go naked.  I'm not saying.

Buddy:  Jan would have liked for Amber Crown.com to respond to the problems with my collar so she could understand why mine failed and Cyndi's is a success.

Repeat:  Cyndi's cat necklace is a success.  The failure is with Buddy's dog collar.

We were given one cat and one dog collar for this review.  We received no other compensation.  Any opinions expressed are from our personal experience with the product. 

Pet Door for Lonely Pony

RUSTY:  We don't have cable TV, so we only get one major channel, one oldies station, and GA PBS (Public Broadcasting Station).

MICAH:  Jan does catch some TV programs online, but -

CYNDI:  Catch?  What does she do, chase them?

MICAH:  Virtually, yes.  She has to chase them before they disappear.  Now I've lost my train of thought.

MERCI:  I would guess you were going to say we don't see the same commercials online as viewers do on cable.

PERCY:  For instance, it was brought to our attention that we missed the new Amazon Prime TV commercial.  Have you seen it, the one with the miniature horse ignored by the bigger horses in the pasture?  It's short.  And cute.  Take a peek at the lonely pony with his own pet door.


If the video doesn't play, click here.

MICAH:  If Amazon has everything and Amazon Prime has one day shipping, can we order a miniature horse for the Funny Farm?

RUSTY:  I hope you're joking.  Jan keeps losing the poop bags, remember?

MARCUS:  The pet door Amazon Prime chose to use in the commercial was a Petsafe Freedom Aluminum Pet Door. I want one.  I could go in and out to my heart's content.  I could bring my muddy soccer ball inside and Jan couldn't stop me!  Oh, the freedom.

BUDDY:   It says on the box the door should install on an interior or exterior wood, metal, storm, or PVC door. It comes in four sizes and it's supposed to be easy to install.

CYNDI:  You know nothing is easy to install when Jan is doing the installation!  I think she reads instructions upside down. 

BUDDY:  To continue, it has a flexible soft flap with UV sun protection and a solid aluminum frame with a closing panel intended for heavy use in a multiple pet home.

TAYLOR:  We're a multiple pet home and Marcus would sure give a pet door a workout.  

MERCI:  Unfortunately, Taylor, Marcus is merely dreaming.  We can't install a pet door; we don't own this house. 

TAYLOR:  Oh, so that's why the package was addressed to the Upson Humane Society.  It isn't for us.

RUSTY:  No, since we can't use it and Jan is a member of the UHS, we requested a Petsafe Freedom Aluminum pet door be donated to them.  They can give it to someone with a need or Operation Straw might come across a home for it. 

PERCY:  That's great.  Some lucky furry will get a pet door.  Don't tell Marcus, though.

Petsafe can be found on Facebook and on Twitter.


A pet door was donated to the local Humane Society, but we were not compensated for this review, and any opinions expressed are solely ours.