Troubleshooting Anxiety | Shorts

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.

Hello everyone. How are you? I am recording this on March 29th. It is a beautiful day out. Loving, loving spring. I don't know about you, but everything is coming up. Everything's in flower making a lot of flower essences here. Just love flower essences. They are just beautiful and a great way. Like they're a great tool in your toolbox. A lot of people overlook them, but if you've been listening to me for a while, you know that I talk about the emotional component of a dog is so important. Sometimes it's more important than anything else. So don't overlook the flower essences of the world. If you follow me on social media, you'll see every now and then I'll have Flower Essence Fridays. You'll learn a little bit about a different flower essence. I won't be doing those for a while. I am taking off to Europe and I will keep you posted on that and I'll be back. I'm not gonna be gone for long. And keep. I can't wait to see spring in the UK and Ireland. It's, it's beautiful time. So we are talking today. This is one of our short episodes and we are talking today about anxiety. It is a Q and A from Laura Humphreys. Thank you, Laura for writing into the podcast. I so much appreciate it. Laura says 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 reasons for this. I regularly offer herbs and essential oils on a self selection basis. But I am wondering if I am making the wrong selections based on his Energetics. I am also doing your Energetics course. Okay, Laura, I wish you would have told us what his energetics are, but I'm still going to go over that in the podcast. So one of the things, the first thing, basically what I do with a dog that is anxious and restless and having a hard time paying attention for training. I know I was that kid. You know, kids and dogs can be the same. Like, you know, you're not open to coaching or open to training because your mind is on something else or you just can't physically pay attention because you're too ramped up. I would check the Diet first. So how much carbs are we giving? I would definitely bring down the carb. If your dog is on kibble, I would work towards a minimally processed diet. Fresh food, feeding low carb. Get some of the sugars out of the diet, especially for dogs. They're not obligate carnivores like cats, but they are carnivores. And so I would do that first. Second, I would look at the kidney. So anytime I have a dog that is on a good diet but is acting really fearful and reactive, like reactivity is really high, I start supporting the kidneys. So, you know, this time of year we have a lot of restlessness going because we are in spring in the United States, in the Northern Hemisphere. And even if you are in a place that has pretty even climate, we still are in spring. It is how the earth rotates. Okay. I would work with herbs like blessed thistle, milk thistle, leaf and flower. You could do leaf, flower and root. You could do some milk thistle and nettle flower essences. I love nettle bud phytoembryonic therapy. That one's in my store under phytoembryonic therapy. I love nettle bud tincture or nettle seed. Sorry, Nettle seed tincture. Those are phenomenal. It's helping the kidney or nettle leaf and infusion support the kidneys. There is a product out there called Pet well Being Kidney Gold. That's also a product that you could do. It's a glycerin. I would give that and see if there's the reactivity or the behavior calms down in about six to eight weeks or the suggestions I just mentioned. You can also do glandular therapy and feed kidney. The kidneys are very regulatory of fear, and we learned that through traditional Chinese medicine. But I have worked with it time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time again in my clinic. So that's the first thing I do. And then I also look at, you know, our behavior or the person's behavior working with the dog. Are you on edge? Is that what you're expecting? Is that what you're worrying about? The different types of behavior? You know, is that what you're concerned about? We want to look at that. Because if you're expecting behavior, you're giving off that emotional vibe. So just check yourself, you know, try to do some deep breathing when you're with your dog. I know that a long time ago, when I was just. God, I was. I think I was younger than 25. I had this rottweiler named Idgy. And she was a handful. She was more dog than I could ever be responsible for, for sure. And I had a behaviorist hand my keister to me on a platter. She walked in, and Idji was not who Idgy was. With me. Like, I was like, who is that dog? Oh, my God. You know, she was restless, she was agitated. She was hyper. When she was with me, when she was with the trainer, she was calm. She was just sitting there, like, being really good. Like, I'm like, oh, my God, what is happening? And the trainer just said, you know, this is all you. This has nothing to do with your dog. I was like, oh, my God. Started crying.

Yeah, I was.

I had a flare for the dramatics back then, and, yeah, started crying and just let my ego go and listened. And sure enough, it was me. I was expecting that behavior. Once she did something, once she aggressed towards me, and once she. And she was small, once she did certain behaviors, then I just started to expect them. And kind of like, I was afraid she was gonna show those behaviors in public around people. So I literally would cross the street when people came. And, you know, I was just giving off the vibration of fear, the vibration of restlessness. I was restless, I was stressed out, I was fearful. And in turn, she was the same. And this, again, was so long ago, but I learned so much from this woman. She was a what I would call a badass trainer. Like, completely positive, but very firm, lots of boundaries. And I learned a ton from her. So we want to always look at our behavior. Maybe we need a little rescue remedy, or maybe we need a little flower essence to calm us down. Marshmallow. Root is lovely at softening edges. Marshmallow. I'm sorry, not root, but marshmallow. Flower essence, lovely at softening edges. If you ever see the white flowers of marshmallow, they are just so gorgeous and beautiful. They give us confidence. I definitely needed confidence back then. So, you know, when you're looking at anxiety, we want to look at that, too, and we want to see what our behaviors are. You know, you said my dog is very challenging behaviorally. Are you? It's a question. And I come, you know, that comes from love. But a lot of times when I've had issues with my animals, after I worked with that trainer, I think her name was Karen. Don't quote me on that, because it was a long time ago. But I'll never forget what she looked like. I mean, she was tall, and she had the most perfect posture. I have ever seen. And she was quite intimidating. But then as I got to know her, everything softened. So, you know, a lot of times a dog with challenging behavior can. We can also have traits of that, you know, a lot of us have challenging behavior. I have challenging behavior for sure. You know, sometimes they're not my best moments. I definitely am working towards softening, softening. You know, I'm an Aries. I have to soften, like just soften everything. For those of you that like astrology, I have a Virgo rising and a Libra moon and that is a trio, I'll tell you that. So I have to soften that Virgo all the time. And for those that you that don't believe in astrology, just let go. Let go. No worries. You don't even. I could even rewind it. There, it's done. So anyways, look at yourself. Make sure. I love that you are doing self selection with essential oils. That's definitely the way to use them in my opinion. I would look at the energetics and the energetics of the herb. You know, the energetics course is great because it has herbs after every lesson. It has the herbs for that to work with that energetic. If you're giving herbs that are opposite of your dog's energetics, then that can definitely lead to behavior issues, reactivity, sep inks, it can make it worse. Restlessness. Now one of the things that I would definitely do is like some of the things that I told you. But also I would try giving herbs for your dog's energetic and see the difference it makes. Just do one or two and then look at your supplements and see if you're giving, you know, a large amount of things that are going to aggravate that energetic, going to aggravate your dog as an individual. Okay. And take those out. But do one thing at a time. Don't add when you're taking out at the same time. You'll never know what's working. So it's the long game. Do it nice and slowly. And if you need advice, write back on the podcast. Okay. I hope that helped. I wanna thank my sponsor of this short which is Green Juju. We love green juju. Green juju.com are coming out or have come out with a frozen fermented mushroom probiotic. So look for that in your holistic store or ask for it Green juju. I also carry green juju in my store. I carry the freeze dried items. They have a wonderful food lineup. You can use it as a topper or a food. They also have a lineup of treats so check that out. Wonderful, wonderful company. Use all organic produce. Very mindful and I get inspired by them every day.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Dogs Are Individuals. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in your podcast app. And don't forget, sharing is caring. So if you love Dogs Are Individuals Podcast, share it with your friends and family who love dogs. This will help me so much. And remember, member as a listener, I appreciate you much. Thanks to Resonant Media, my podcast production team. This podcast is produced by Drake Peterson and edited by Mike Fry. Any questions? Email the show, go to k9herbalist.com Click podcast contact in the menu and then fill out that form and I'll answer any questions here online. Okay, so thank you so much for listening to this episode of Dogs Are Individuals Podcast and I'm going to talk to you in our next episode. 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, veterinarian 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 herbs 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 production.