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Using Aromatherapy to Calm Your Frazzled Fido
By Kristen Leigh Bell
Certified Master Aromatherapist

The use of nature's most concentrated botanical substances- essential oils, is an excellent way to calm dogs who are fearful, agitated and hyperactive. The very nature of these substances is such that they work quickly and do not leave the animal in a drugged or listless state, as common tranquilizers such as Valium do. Unlike herbal calming tablets, which take time to digest, aromatherapy essential oils are inhaled and quickly begin their work.

Over the last ten years, I have not found one dog who was not fascinated with the scent of truly natural essential oils. While dogs may shy from synthetic scents and perfumes, they are drawn to essential oils. Perhaps they know that they are of botanical origin, or perhaps they are just so used to the cloying scent of synthetic products that their attraction is one of innate curiosity. Either way, essential oils appear to have a strong affinity with dogs, and they do their work on several levels.

There is much confusion in the United States as to what aromatherapy is and how it can help to calm animals. Aromatherapy for pets does not involve lighting candles or incense on the floor around your pet. It does not involve potpourri, raspberry or pear scented bubble bath, or new age mantras. What is does involve is the use of pure, unadulterated essential oils, which are specifically diluted for use with dogs. That dilution is usually on par with what you would use for a human baby of one year of age or, 25% of the dose you would give to an adult. Of course, there are certain essential oils which we would avoid using on children, and we avoid using those on dogs as well. But for the purpose of calming, those potentially risky, high-ketone or irritating essential oils would never be employed.

When I refer to the fact that essential oils work for dogs on several levels, I am referring to the physical, the spiritual and the emotional. Physically, essential oils are concentrated substances which contain very distinct organic chemical constituents. This is what determines their range of activity on canine or human physiology- or, whether or not an oil is calming or stimulating, irritating or anti-inflammatory, anti-viral or antibacterial.

For the purpose of calming, we look for essential oils which contain high levels of esters, linalol alcohols and other organic chemicals. Some of these oils include lavender, marjoram, green mandarin, petitgrain, neroli, rose, valerian, spikenarde, vanilla, sweet orange, vetiver and ylang ylang. These constituents of these essential oils have sedative effects on the nervous system. Essential oils contain these types of chemicals in differing amounts, and this is also what makes one oil smell different from another while still offering a similar effect. When you topically apply an essential oil blend to the neck and chest of a dog you wish to calm, you are providing a means for the essential oils to evaporate from the fur and be inhaled. Once inhaled, the large nasal cavity of the canine gives plenty of area for the aromatic essential oil molecules to be absorbed into the bloodstream. Not only in the nasal cavity, but also the sinuses, throat and lungs. It is in this way that essential oils act so quickly, exhibiting varying degrees of calming effect.

The second way that essential oils work on animals is >>>

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