Vetiq Serene Calming Supplement Chews

The awkward thing about a nervous dog is that the trigger is usually on a schedule you already know. The fireworks start the same week every year, the suitcase comes down from the loft the day before you go, and the hour you leave for work has not changed since January. The chew still tends to get bought after the first bad night rather than before it.

VetIQ call these tablet-strength chews and give them a natural roasted meat flavour, which is doing a specific job rather than being a nicety: a calming product the dog spits out on the kitchen floor is not a calming product. VetIQ list the situations they are written for — separation and being left alone, thunderstorms, fireworks, changes at home, and travel — and the behaviours that go with them, which they give as disruptive behaviour, excessive barking and nervousness. They are cleared for dogs and puppies from 12 weeks of age.

• 60 chews per pack
• For dogs and puppies from 12 weeks of age
• Natural roasted meat flavour, given as a chew rather than a tablet
• Intended for fireworks, thunderstorms, travel, separation and changes at home
• VetIQ describe it as their most advanced calming formula
• A supplement, not a medicine

What has not been supplied. VetIQ publish no ingredient list, no analysis and no dosing guidance to us at all, so the tub's own label is the only place you will find how many chews a dog of a given size gets and how far ahead of the event to start giving them. That second number is the one people want and the one nobody plans for. And a calming supplement is not a sedative: a dog that is genuinely panicking — scratching through doors, refusing food, hurting itself — needs a vet and probably a behaviourist, and no chew will stand in for that.

Who it's for: owners of a dog that copes with most things but not one specific thing, and who would rather try a supplement before asking the vet for something stronger.