Travelling with dogs can be difficult if your dog is anxious in a vehicle but this is something that can be addressed using essential oils.
Firstly, you need to establish if your dog is anxious because they feel sick or are they anxious because the vehicle or the travel stresses them out. This is important so we can get to the root of the problem. Have they had multiple journeys in the past for rehoming for example? I used to have a dog that would literally poo herself everytime we got in a vehicle as she had been rehomed 5 times before 12 weeks of age so travel was a signal to a new and unfamiliar home. Once my gorgeous Treacle realised she was going nowhere and travel meant fun walks she became a happy traveller.
Now with regards to feeling sick, you may not appreciate the difference between that and anxiety for other reasons, if your dog doesn't vomit that doesn’t mean motion sickness is not an issue. Let me tell you that motion sickness can be very anxiety producing! I am someone who gets very motion sick. I actually can't remember the last time I threw up in a vehicle, probably when I was a child but I literally can't remember I can remember feeling sick on journeys but I never threw up and it could be the same for your dog. But journeys make me anxious and there is nothing worse than being in a vehicle desperate for it to stop so the world stops spinning even a 10 min taxi drive from my work to my home can cause that with me. So unless you've actually eliminated car sickness as a reason for that anxiety don't rule it out. You can eliminate that as a possible cause and use an antiemetic(anti-sickness) medication you get from your vet which I do recommend or you can try some essential oils that are really good for nausea too I particularly like ZenGest which always works a treat for me. ZenGest Blend dogs over 10kg can have a drop in food under 10kg use the toothpick method.
Now my 2 legged dog Maz hates being in a vehicle and I've tried medication for him as well as ZenGest to see if nausea was the issue I added to his food and I also diffused it but it actually made no difference and so I have concluded that actually the issue is real anxiety about being in a vehicle. I don't know the reason why as he's not had any bad experiences in vehicles since I have had him so I can only assume it's from his past life in Afghanistan or when he was in transit from Afghanistan to the UK. But with a multi-faceted approach I can now get him calm so he is not stressed for however long our journey is.
So what I do with him is this - first of all he has essential oils applied to his bed at night so that he gets used to them which creates an odour memory for him - a positive association with the travel. I like a blend with Balance and also Serenity I will then apply these oils to his bedding in the vehicle I might wash his bedding in the vehicle with those oils in the rinse cycle, I also diffuse in the vehicle Balance and /or Serenity to set the olfactory scene. Once I put him in the vehicle I like to spend a few minutes doing a little bit of self-selection with him to see what he needs on that particular day and it's really worth spending those few minutes of time and applying oils to get him calm it makes a massive difference and you can see me doing that in this video and after a few minutes he starts to settle and it really is quite amazing.
Maz particularly likes Balance and this is really one of my favourites it's one of my most used blends to use with the dogs and humans and it's really good for soothing. I also like serenity for these kind of situations as well as for building that odour memory. Both of these blends you can actually diffuse just be careful they don’t send you off to sleep! I have diffusers in my campervan that run off USB or are rechargeable and I used this approach when I was on a ferry and they had to be left in the vehicle. I actually filmed them as I wanted to know how they coped and they were absolutely fine, despite the bangs of the cargo doors etc and echo they all just snoozed.
You can also apply them topically as well as to the bedding, Balance comes pre diluted but Serenity you will need to dilute and I usually put 4 drops in a 10 ml bottle and fill it up with fractionated coconut oil if you've got a dog smaller than 10 kg then you'll need to do just maybe one or two drops because it'll be too strong for them and then you can do some gentle massage on them and also I like to apply to their chest and just spend some time soothing them. A few extra minutes of time will make a massive difference.
More about this in my live video
Let me know how you get on - if you would like a one to one consultation drop me a message or see my store for more info,
Information given is this blog is as a guide only and no liability is assumed on behalf of the author. Readers are recommended to seek the advice of a vet for their individual pet.