One of the things I get asked most about for animal aromatherapy is calming dogs whether it's anxious dogs, reactive dogs, dogs with canine cognitive disorder, it's all about calming. There are so many different essential oils that can be used to support the emotional health of our dogs and what is used largely depends on what the situation is that's going on.
I think it's also important to note that 50% of dogs don't like lavender as so often I hear people say they tried some lavender. It doesn't work therefore essential oils don't work but it just means that they tried something that actually the dog doesn’t like. I often speak about purity and this is so important when working with animals as they are so much more sensitive than us humans. So take lavender as an example if you were using one that might say do not use in children or babies or children under 3 then that's not a pure lavender and not safe to use as lavender is safe to use in these groups. In addition to that you are not going to be getting the benefits of what we know lavender can do but that said in my canine calming kit which is one of my best sellers I don't actually have lavender in it. I have Balance Blend, Copaiba and Vetiver because they are so good on so many different levels and generally the dogs all like them. However, I'm not a purist with self-selection I do think sometimes we need to advocate for our dogs and so they have anyway if I feel they will benefit.
Now when I do plans I will say something like apply two to three times a day or before a situation depending on what it is, maybe separation anxiety. So I always advise using them first when the dog is calm so they also develop that odour memory not just the therapeutic benefits. So when when you inhale any oil you obviously can associate that with something positive so we can imagine the smell of baked bread makes us feel warm and cosy the smell of vomit makes us feel unwell and when you're working as a doctor you know we are all very good with our noses we can get in a room and say I reckon that lady's got a UTI etc so we can associate these things and it's the same for our dogs so we can build positive associations with an oil for example.
I will use a blend for my dog Maz on his bed at night and then I'll use that same blend in my van because he doesn't like travelling but he has the positive association of being in bed at night with the smell of that blend and then when it is put in the van he has that memory of being all relaxed and sleepy. But in addition to odour memory you also have the therapeutic effects so that as we inhale the molecules get taken up by the blood vessels that run at the side of the nose and these are so tiny many can actually cross the blood brain barrier so then they get taken into the systemic circulation and go straight into the limbic system where we process emotions even if the dog hasn't chosen the oil they are still going to get the benefit and so when my dog doesn't like Balance the benefits of it out weigh not using it.
So when I first make a plan for someone there will be a dilution and a frequency and it may be that we need to increase the frequency of application or maybe that we need to increase the dilution it may be that we need to change the oils that have gone in there.
So for example it may start off Balance and then add Vetiver, maybe that was the mix or maybe also needed copaiba diffusing or applied topically. There are no hard or fast rules but I always give people several options and it's all about weighing it up and trying out to see what frequency and dilution works.
I pretty much always start with Balance as it sets the body ready to receive. It's not an exact science and does take input on the side of the owner as there isn't a one-size-fits-all. I have two dogs that have quite a lot of anxiety and one of my dogs needs are completely different to what the others need are but the similarities are that they both have copaiba in the food because it's just so awesome but as far as all that is applied topically it's different. So we look at the results and tweak them maybe in a few weeks after all the different variations of the dilutions have been tried. We revisit and think OK how can we tweak this, do we need to add in a different oil what's happening and looking back and seeing the overall results.
It is hard sometimes because there can be such a gradual change that you think that hasn't been a change and it's only when you actually stop that you realise that there has actually been some benefit. Gauging it in some way is super useful for my dog Seren. It was easy as I wanted to decrease her spinning and maintain a steady hand target. You have to be consistent if you want to change a behaviour so you need to remember to put the oils on your dog or if you're travelling around make up several rollers so that you've always got them handy. I have a rack in the kitchen so that it's super easy for me to to grab and just put the oils on, it's all about habit-forming I put the oils on the dogs as soon as I've had breakfast at the diffuser goes on as soon as we all get downstairs so there's a lot of different ways that using essential oils can support your pet for their emotions.