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InteroSTOP – help for calming dogs and cats too

I recently attended the ACVIM veterinary conference for internal medicine specialists. This is by far my favorite mainstream medicine conference because there are always many lectures on the new cutting edge medicine being developed.

This conference I was able to attend lectures on using stem cells to regrow and repair damaged and failing kidneys, using modified viruses to target cancer, using proton pump inhibitors to help chemotherapy work in resistant patients, and some of the new cancer drugs that are safer to use and target cancer cells better without as many of the side effects of traditional chemotherapy. It is all very cool stuff and while more study and development needs to be done it is clear to me that medicine is going to be moving and changing in the next 10-20 years.

At any big conference there is always a large exhibition hall with vendors showing off their latest drugs and products, many of them I walk by as they are not things that I actively use in practice. However a new product called InteroSTOP caught my eye this year with its claim to help calm dogs and cats with a synthesized pig pheromone. I have long been a fan of Feliway and DAP that work in the same way but have found less success with DAP. The company that makes InteroSTOP happily gave me a free product to try.

My own dog Alli is very reactive to the UPS trucks that come to our house on a daily basis (both my husband and I have businesses from home). We have done quite a bit of behavior modification but unless we have treats in front of her the whole time the truck is parked she is jumping up and down and barking. I thought this is the perfect place to try this new product.

The InteroSTOP spray combines a loud sound with the pheromone. The sound interupts the behavior and the pheromone calms. The pheromone they use is something released during pig mating. The first time I used the spray Alli jumped a little but stopped barking, she then run to the window and woofed again but not as loud. I sprayed the InteroSTOP a second time and she stopped barking and sat watching the UPS truck calmly. She has never watched a UPS truck calmly. Wow! We have since repeated this and are hoping with time she will associate the UPS truck with the calm she feels from the pheromone.

While this product is synthesized and not completely natural I like that it is based on a natural pheromone and is not a drug. It seems like a wonderful aid in behavior training especially in dogs that can be reactive. The company also sells a collar called Nurturecalm for both dogs and cats which I have not tried but I imagine would also be helpful. I will definitely be recommending InteroSTOP to clients.

(Just in case you are wondering I haven’t gotten anything from the company beyond my one free sample, just am impressed with this product and think it could help others)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 18th, 2013 at 5:15 pm and is filed under general information. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “InteroSTOP – help for calming dogs and cats too”

  1. Mary Schumacher Says:
    June 18th, 2013 at 5:46 pm

    Lena, I will have to try this with Boomer. He is so reactive to strangers. Of course, there would not be the repetitive nature of meeting the same stranger. It would be interesting to see how it affects him!

  2. Lena Says:
    June 19th, 2013 at 8:14 pm

    It seems like it works even on slightly different triggers, we have been using it around UPS but today when the mail person came Alli just did one little woof instead of the hair standing up barking that is normal.