Treating Anxious and Restless Dogs

Hi, this is Rita Hogan and welcome to the Dogs Are Individuals podcast. I'm a clinical canine herbalist and I've been practicing for over 20 years. This podcast is all about your dog.

Through an herbal lens.

So let's get to it and dive right in.

Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. We are going to be talking about restlessness today. Someone wrote into the podcast. I love it when people write into the pod and tell us all of their lovely wantings of information from an herbalist whose life has gone to the dogs, as always. So this podcast, if you're loving it, if you're new, welcome. If you've heard the podcast before, welcome back. And know that I'd be gone if if I didn't have my sponsors. And one of my sponsors was so, oh my God. Just ingenious and wonderful at the Feed Reel conference last weekend, which I'm going to go over in the next week's episode. Don't miss that. It's a short and so it's going to be usually under 13 minutes and just packed full of fun. But today. Thank you, thank you, thank you to Amy Renz at Goodness Gracious Dog Food. Lightly gently cooked dog food. It's@goodness gracioustreats.com I had the privilege and honor of working on some recipes for them recently. They're new, like kind of medicinal recipes. Love that. Check it out. Give them some love. If you have any questions for Goodness Gracious, send them into the podcast. I'll answer them. I'll get the answers from Amy Rentz. And yeah, she is just really out there in the world doing wonderful things, speaking and formulating and providing good care for all of our little pups, cats and dogs. So check them out. Goodness gracious treats.com okay, so we have a question that was written into the podcast and it is from Laura Humphries in the uk. Cross the pond. Go Laura. Hi Rita. I wish I could say this in an English accent but I suck at that. But hi. I would love to hear more about how we can use herbs to help with behavioral issues such as reactivity, separation anxiety and restlessness. My dog is very challenging behaviorally. The vet has not found any physiological reason for this. I regularly offer herbs and essential oils on self selection basis but I'm wondering if I'm making the wrong selections based on his energetics. I'm also doing your energetics course. Thanks Laura. Well, I'm here to answer these questions Laura. For sure. So dogs with behavioral and reactivity. One of the first things I do for Any type of behavioral issue is I support the kidneys. And nettles are one of my first go tos. If I don't know a lot about the dog, they're pretty neutral in energetics. Those of you that don't know what energetics are, check out my energetics course on canineherbalism.com pretty neutral and energetics. And so they can be used. I like to use them as a tea. Just brew it until it's green. You know, like a tablespoon to 4 to 6 ounces of water. You can even do 8 ounces of water. And then feed in a bowl. Put it over the food, about a quarter inch of a size appropriate, bowl size appropriate for your dog's face and you should be fine. Infusions are very gentle and it's a great way to support the kidneys. The kidneys really help with reactivity. They help with fear. Now if you've got some aggression going on, you wanna support the liver, but in general you always wanna support the liver. And I'll go over some herbs today. And most herbs, a lot of them support the kidney and the liver. Okay, so that's number one. Number two, you really want to make sure that your dog and yourself, okay, because we need to love ourselves in order to love our dogs, in my opinion. So don't feed your dog any water that has chlorine or fluoride in it. And most little tabletop filters with the like pitcher filters don't do that. So make sure that you're asking questions. When you purchase these types of filters, make sure that chlorine and fluoride are getting out of there because they're called halogens and they can bring up histamine levels exponentially. Like they can increase it by like 70 to 80%. And histamine high histamine causes high anxiety, restlessness, challenging behavior, reactivity. So we want to make sure that those things are taken out of your dog's daily life for sure. And you guys don't be drinking fluoride and chlorine. Those are bad. They attack the thyroid. They mess up with the endocrine system you need. They only fluoride is an essential trace mineral, but the word is trace. And it's in a lot of things. And you don't want to be drinking it, okay? Contrary to popular belief. So it's a neurotoxin and you definitely don't want it. And chlorine is just awful. And I recently, yesterday, and I don't know why I didn't know this but yesterday I learned about baby carrots. Don't be giving baby carrots to your dogs.

Okay?

Baby carrots are, I would say, processed food because they're basically the parts of the carrots that people don't want. And, and they're ground up and pressed into carrots and then they're soaked in chlorine for. To make them have, like, bright orange color. Nasty. That is nasty. And yeah, won't ever. I don't eat baby carrots, but I know a lot of people that feed baby carrots to their dogs. And yeah, don't do that. Stop buying baby carrots. Chlorine. Baby carrots could increase your dog's histamine levels, which could increase reactivity, sep, angst and restlessness. So we don't want to do that. We do not want to do that. And a lot of times now this type of conversation can be a little confronting, but it has to be said. So we're going to do it. And just give yourself a big hug before you listen because don't go down the rabbit hole of, oh, my God, what am I doing to my dog. Education is power. So let's just do it together, okay? So when you have an anxious, restless dog or a reactive dog, you need to look at your own anxiety. You need to look at your own restlessness. You need to look at your own reactivity. Because our dogs are our mirrors. They take on all of our emotions. We, we cannot hide it from them either because we smell like cortisol and adrenaline when we're in fight or flight, when we are anxious, when we're moving around, or when we're super anxious and we give our dogs a hug because we don't want to feel that anxiety. And they make us feel better, but we're really transferring that anxiety to them. So check yourself before you go on touching your dog. When you feel super anxious, take your dog and go for a walk. The anxiety has to get out of you some way, shape or form. Same with your dog. And exercise, walking, breathing exercises. You could even do a little yoga with your dog, a little Chi Gong. Dogs love that because they love to feel calm. Dogs love to feel calm. And when you're worried, they're worried. They're worried about you again, they can smell it. So check yourself and make improvements to your lifestyle in order to make improvements for your dog. I can't tell you the amount of clients that I have that their dog has some form of something that they have. You know, like a dog that a person that has vertigo, right? And Then their dog gets vertigo. Coincident, I'm not sure. Or a person that has high anxiety and their dogs have high anxiety and reactivity. You know, a person who's reactive to noises or sudden touching when they don't know what's coming at them, their dogs are just as reactive. A person that doesn't like loud noises, their dogs do. You don't like loud noises. So just take a look. A gentle, loving hug. Look at yourself and see if you have any commonalities in anything your dog is suffering from and making those changes to your vibration in general, you know, and how you're living your life and how, how you are exposing yourself to different types of stressors. You know, our cells are listening. Our cells are listening to us all the time. Our subconscious is constantly aware of what we're saying about ourselves. So watch your language. You know, like, oh, I'm gutted. Or oh, you know, that's breaking my heart. Oh, it's stressing me out. You know, your body is going to give you what you say it, you know, it's like a program. So you're running these programs and you can change the program anytime. You can change it anytime. Just retract what you say and say it over again because it's habit. These are just like little cliches in our, in our languages that we've gotten used to saying, you know, a lot of it, I tell people all the time, don't say it breaks your heart, you know, or I'm sorry that your dog died, you know, say, you know, my heart is with you. My heart is with you. I'm feeling kind thoughts for you. Just turn it around. And again, these are all habits that we have that means hashtag, no guilt, no shame. Okay, put that away. No one wants that. And your dogs certainly don't want that for you. All right, so let's get back to fear, restlessness, fright, reactivity. So what do people normally do for this? Right? So a lot of people will turn to pharmaceuticals. And the two most prescribed pharmaceuticals for any of these types of issues is Prozac and Trazodone. And I remember the first time that I heard someone put their dog on Prozac. I was like, oh my God. And now it's pretty commonplace. Okay, I'm not a big fan. As you know, I'm an herbalist. I'm just not a big fan. Now I'm not anti pharmaceutical because lots of pharmaceuticals can be a bridge to help calm everything down and to give some relief while you figure something out or get some herbs or different types of things in the system. So don't get me wrong, I'm not anti pharmaceutical, but they are not without side effects. Cause remember pharmaceuticals, They're a hammer. They push the body real hard. And Prozac, which is also called Luoxadine, F L U O X E T I N E is, you know, for anxiety, it's for aggression, it's for ocd, it's for restlessness. But it has side effects and some common side effects. And a lot of people don't know their pharmaceutical side effects. They think, well, their doctor would tell them, no, no, not really. So we've got GI upset, okay? Vomiting, diarrhea. It can be lethargy, loss of appetite, and then it can cause the same things that you are trying to help with. It can cause increased anxiety, it can cause increased restlessness, it can cause agitation, it can cause liver damage. So you want to look at that. And then Prozac can interact with other medications and it can interact with different types of pain relievers. I've never heard of a dog on two antidepressants, but it can interact with other antidepressants. It can interact with some herbal supplements and herbal remedies. And it can. And when I say interaction, that can lead to, you know, increased side effects or it can also lead to decreased effectiveness. All right? And don't just stop your dog on Prozac, because that can lead to withdrawal symptoms. And that includes the changes in behavior, the anxiety, the restlessness, irritability, reactivity. So when you stop Prozac, you wanna do it very slowly, like you do with steroids. And then you have this thing called serotonin syndrome, which, you know, it's a rare syndrome, but it can happen. I have a friend who has serotonin syndrome. And it's when excessive serotonin builds up in the body, and we don't want that. So those symptoms include being agitated, aggressive, seizures, rapid heart rate and tremors. So you don't want serotonin building up in the system.

Okay?

And then I think that's pretty much it for Prozac. But then we have our lovely Trazodone.

Okay?

Trazodone's for anxiety, it's for restlessness, it's behavioral issues. It's a sedative. Prozac is not a sedative. Trazodone is a sedative. And it can cause lethargy, it can cause vomiting, diarrhea, the usual drowsiness, changes in appetite, changes in behavior. It can tax the liver. It can cause agitation, aggression, and I think I mentioned restlessness, all of that stuff that we're talking about right now. So you wanna be careful of that. You wanna keep a journal. If you're using Trazodone, I highly recommend that you work to get your dog off Trazodone. But as an herbalist, I cannot tell you to quit. But I would not give it to my dog unless I absolutely had to. It can interact with all of the things that Prozac can interact with. You don't want to give it with other sedatives. It can cause serotonin syndrome. It does have withdrawal symptoms, so same as Prozac.

Okay.

Just keep that in mind when you're dealing with these types of symptoms. Sedatives. Another delightful sedative for restlessness, anxiety, and all of the things we've been talking about is ACE Promazine. I am not a fan. This one I never use for dogs. Do not like is a tranquilizer and it is a sedative. It's often given to dogs, like for vet visits and car rides and travel and thunderstorms. It's definitely a pre anesthetic, and it's usually given before anesthesia is given. And I just have a really hard time with this one because it has been known to cause dogs to kind of not be able to react but also feel the fears. So. And I'm not. Am I 100% on that? No. But one of my. Actually, a couple of my vet friends told me that they've had some really bad experiences with it and with people that have taken it, that feel that they have not been able to react but still feel all the fear, kind of like body lock syndrome. And I just would never want my dog to feel that. So. Not a fan of acepromazine. I'd rather someone use Trazodone or Prozac for sure, instead of ace. They also call it ace, but it's for all of the stuff. And it definitely can affect the blood pressure. It can lower blood pressure. It can mess with coordination. It causes lethargy. Like I said, it's a sedative. It can cause, like, some serious side effects, like affecting the lungs and depressing the lung function. There are some breeds that are sensitive to it, like boxers and greyhounds. And it has a risk of seizures. So definitely don't use it with any dogs that have a history of epilepsy. So it has a larger range of do not use, like, don't use it with dogs with cardiac issues with neurological disorders like Seizures or liver disease. You don't want to use it in really old dogs or young dogs. You notice see the common trend. I mean this is a powerful medicine and you just, you don't wanna use it without some deep thought and looking at your dog and to see if there's any other options which we are about to talk about right now. So one of the things that I love and that I've talked about before with any type of fear based like reactivity is the go to by Adored Beast. I carry that in my store. It's aconite in arnica and it is arnica 200C and aconite 200C you spray it in the mouth. I've used it for my dog seizures. Figgy Nubbins has some fear based seizures. She got her eye taken out by a bulldog and she has been every now and then she gets a fear based seizure. Sometimes she works herself into a tizzy over cars and the go to calms her right down. So it is absolutely wonderful for that. For fear based. Fear based. And then I love the Relax formula. It's an essential oil formula that you use on the chest and ears. It's external, I sell that in my store. I actually formulated that for a trainer in like 2007. It works magnificently. You just put a few drops on the inside of the ear flaps and then rub the rest on the the the chest, not under the neck but on the chest. And it helps with so many things with reactivity and it can help dogs be able to calm down so that you can actually train them of course, please train them in a positive way. And so those are good and they the go to and relax can be used in conjunction with one another. And then you can add a third layer which is Rescue Remedy which is a blend of flower essences. And I think that flower essences deal with that emotional component. And here's the scoop. And I've said this before, there is always, always, always, always an emotional component to every single imbalance and disease. And that is important to understand and that's why Flower essences work so well. Rescue Remedy is a blend of Rock Rose, Impatience, Clematis, Star of Bethlehem and Cherry Plum. I love Rock Rose. It helps bring down panic and fright and impatience. Helps with like, well being impatient. Right. Not having enough like ability to just kind of like sit there and and experience something. It helps with irritation, it helps with aggression. Star of Bethlehem is good for like kind of feeling shocked by something. The OMGs of the world and Cherry Plum really helps calm things down. Now you can add aspen flower essence for the fear of the unknown, which is a big deal. And if you sit and ruminate over your dog's health all the time, I would start taking aspen flower essence. It can really help you with that for sure. But you can mix rescue remedy, the relax formula and the go to all together in a lovely trifecta of calm. So that's a couple of things you can do. Now let's talk about some herbal action. So all of these herbs that I'm going to talk about really help with the nervous system and helps calm things down. Number one is chamomile. Chamomile, the matricaria chamomilia. It is the one that you want for this purpose. If you look up chamomile on Google, it may say that chamomile is toxic to dogs. It is not. Okay. N o tea. Yes. Some dogs could have a reaction to chamomile and that's okay, but I mean, we don't want them to have it. It's not going to be like a major reaction. They might start sneezing or something like that. Chamomile is in the esterace family. I hatch it most Latin names, just so you know. And it's in that family. And some dogs can be really sensitive to that family. I haven't met a lot of them, but I've heard it through the grapevine. Okay, so chamomile is lovely. It is a lovely herb for calming and it's nice and cooling. It's soothing. It helps bring down anxiety, it helps promote relaxation. It's a really great choice for restless dogs.

Okay.

And you can make a tea out of it. You can make a tea just like the nettles. Same thing. Like a tablespoon to 4 to 6 to 8 ounces of water, depending on how like, strong you want to make it. Let it cool quarter of an inch over the food. And you can also put those herbs on the food if your dog will eat them. So you can just make a tea. That's a good way to start out.

Okay.

Then we have valerian root. Now, valerian root smells. I like to use a glycerate of valerian root. Just know it smells like bad socks. It really helps with hyperactivity, anxiety. But it can have a paradoxical effect, which means it can cause anxiety or excessive humping or excessive everything. And if that happens, then it's just not appropriate for your dog. Don't use it again. It's not life threatening. It'll wear off, give it a few hours, life will get back to normal. But it can have that effect. It's not normal, but I've seen it happen.

Okay.

And just get a glycerin. You can get a glycerin from Hawaii farm and you can use it for thunderstorms, hyperactivity, anxiety. It definitely has a sedative effect that is not going to be terrible for your dog. And I definitely would try it out. I like to try these herbs out before anything happens. That way you know how they affect your dog. Then we have lavender. Okay. You can make a tea out of lavender and put it on your dog's food. You can use it as a self selected essential oil. You can use it as a dried herb. A lot of people will use it as an infused oil. So like you can infuse fish oil with it and you can put lavender in fish oil and infuse it and have a lavender scented fishy oil that will help calm your dogs down. So. Oh, and one thing, back to the Relax, the essential oil blend that I created for the trainer in North Carolina about, yeah, 2007, I think that was. And you can use it as a self selected essential oil too and have your dog just breathe it as well. Okay. Just inhale it. I just want mention that passion flower. Passion flower is such a beautiful flower for one thing, great flower essence. But you can use passion flower as a glycerate, as a tincture. You can use it in dried herb form. You can make a tea out of it. Same thing as the nettles and the chamomile for your population and see if that really helps. I love passion flower for dogs that have a hard time sleeping through the night, that have any type of liver in balance. It helps relax your dog, it helps reduce anxiety. It's definitely very calming to the nervous system. That's what we want to do. And then there's lovely sunny lemon balm. Love the smell of lemon balm. It's in the member. It's a mint family member. And it's calming, it helps reduce anxiety. It's great for hyperthyroid in cats. It's definitely calming. You can use it in dogs. You can make a tea out of it. You can use it as a glycerate. Hawaii farm carries the glycerin. I'm going to start carrying some glycerites next year, but this year we're still not doing that, but working to gain some inventory for those of you that shop at my store. But right now you can get it at Hawaii Farm. That's H A W A I I P H A R M. I believe you can Google it. Skullcap. Skullcap is one of my faves, especially for problems that have occurred after the rabies vaccine. It's part of my rabies protocol. It is definitely calming. It helps bring down sympathetic excess, basically fight or flight in the nervous system. It is good for restless dogs. It can be used as a tincture. I use it mainly as a tincture. I don't make a tea out of it unless, well, it can get a little hypnotic as a tea. So I would use it as a glycerin or a dried herb or a tincture.

Okay.

When you're doing a dried herb, I would do basically a quarter of a teaspoon for, I would say a 20 pound dog. So you can do the math from there. And then we have ashwagandha. Ashwagandha is warming. It is great for the nervous system. It helps your dogs deal with stress. It helps them not be so reactive. It can keep calming and definitely help build resiliency, which is very important for anxious dogs to help build some resiliency in their nervous system. Powdered form is fine here. It also can be used in liquid form. I know that Myco dog has some mushroom tinctures with ashwagandha in it. You can definitely use that now. Speaking of mushrooms, so some mushrooms that are helpful are lion's mane. Lion's mane is good. I like tremella as well for, for the nervous system. Blending those two is wonderful. Reishi mushroom. It's a little slightly warming, but you can use that for the nervous system. It's very good for the nervous system. Those are three mushrooms right off the bat here. Then we have some phytoembryonics. You can find those in my store under phytoembryonics. And one of the phytoembryonics I like to use is rhodiola. It is an adaptogen. It's cooling, it's endangered in its normal mature plant form. But the phytoembryonic allows the plant to finish its life cycle and reproduce. So it's very sustainable and I love that one. It basically one drop per every, I would say £10. And it works fantastic twice a day and it's more cooling. So it's gonna be for the dogs that are more warm, then we have herbs like Holy basil, which is awesome. Sanctum. It's an adaptogen. It helps relieve stress, it helps build resiliency. It's Warming, slightly warming. It's less warming, I believe, than regular basil. And then it definitely helps reduce anxiety and it helps clear the mind. Less brain fog. It helps balance cortisol levels and you know, it will support the overall well being of your dog and yourself. If you want to give it a try, I like to use it as a tea. Same thing as the nettle and the chamomile. Same dosages, quarter inch, you know, over the food. You can use the steeped leaves if you want, but holy basil is lovely. And then we have like gotu kola, which is centellia A S I a T I c a so gotu kola is really great for connectivity in the body. It's a nerve nerving, It's a nerve tonic and it helps with cognition, it reduces anxiety, it helps promote like less brain fog in your dog and yourself. It helps support the nervous system. It works really well with lion's mane mushroom. Great for circulation and you need healthy circulation for any type of anxiety.

Okay.

Healthy circulation. And you can mix these herbs with those flower essences and the go to. You don't want to give, don't give more than two to three of the herbs that I'm talking about at a time.

Okay.

Start them individually one at a time. I wouldn't start them more than one every 10 days and then you can mix them together.

Okay.

I'm just thinking about anything else that I could talk about in general. I don't want to give too much. Oh. One plant is called linden. It's tilia tomentosa and there's other forms of it as well, but it's referred to as linden flower. Linden is wonderful for gaba and it definitely can be a alternative to Xanax. And I don't never heard of people giving their dog Xanax, but people take Xanax. It's good for gaba and it's calming, it's a sedative, it's gentle, it can help reboot the nervous system and it can help relax it and get rid of reactivity. It's great with lion's mane. It is like valerian root where it can have a paradoxical effect, especially if your dog has poor gut health.

Okay.

But it relieves tension and that's very important.

Okay.

You can use it as a tea. I really like to use the phytoembryonic therapy form of it. Again, one drop for every like 10 to 20 pounds. Just give it a try. Absolutely lovely Linden flower. All right. And then last but not least, you can Use hawthorn, hawthorn leaf and flower. It's nice and cooling. Or if your dog is more warm or more cool, you can use the berry. It really helps calm the entire cardiac system. It helps calm the nervous system. And I would use hawthorn during the summer or if your dog has any type of cardiac kind of imbalance there. But that should get you started on working with some natural means for restless anxiety and reactivity.

Okay.

And thank you for writing in. I appreciate it. I do want to say thank you, thank you, thank you to my sponsor, Real Mushrooms. I got the pleasure of meeting Lee Carroll, who is on their, I believe, their board of directors. He's like their chief mycologist and, well, mushroom nerd. Definitely mushroom nerd. I got to spend some time with him over the last month and what a delightful man. Now, I've known his work from before. I recommend him all the time. I took his beta mushroom course and he is just a phenomenal brain. And just being in his presence, I think is an honor as far as I'm concerned. It makes me very nervous, but I try to just chant my mantra. My mantra is I belong. I belong in my head. I just, whenever I get nervous around my colleagues or my mentors, I chant it in my head and it helps calm me right down. But Lee Carroll, just a privilege to be in his presence. He is such a, like a medical brain. He's a medical herbalist, which I am not a medical herbalist and I am a clinical herbalist. I am a traditional herbalist. I am an herbalist open to what science can offer. But he is definitely a very scientific herbalist. And I love that because it complements what I do and it complements my brain activity. If you can pick up what I'm putting down, okay. And in general, like, if I were to become ill, Lee Carroll is one of the first calls that I would make. That's how much I highly regard that man. Amazing. Good for you. Real mushrooms for getting him to come on board with you. He lives in Australia and if you ever get the opportunity to listen to him speak or be around him, I definitely would take take it.

Okay.

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The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for veterinary care. This podcast doesn't constitute a provider patient relationship. As always, talk to your doctor, veterinary or healthcare provider first before starting anything new and that includes herbs. I'm not a doctor and I don't treat disease or prescribe anything. I'm a traditional herbalist providing herbal support education only. Regarding any products I may suggest the statements made regarding these products have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The efficacy of these products has not been confirmed by FDA approved research. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. All information presented here on the podcast is not meant as a substitute or alternative to information from your vet. Please consult your veterinary professional about potential interactions or other possible complications before using any product.