How Your Pet Can Choose Essential Oils

I’ve never had a big appetite.  And I’ve always been a slow eater.  

My mom learned early on not to fill my plate and let me do it myself so food didn’t go to waste. 

But there was one time, when I ate dinner at a friend's house and the parents filled my plate.  

Too much food. Put there by an adult who didn’t know me. And then I was told about the “clean plate club”.

Translation... eat everything on my plate before I could leave the table.  

I had two choices... shove down more food than I could eat (and didn’t like)  OR... eat slowly, move food around my plate, stall, and sit there longer enough so they’d give up and let me go.

I choose the latter.

Just like having someone else fill my plate with food and expecting me to eat it... people decide which essential oils (EOs) to use on their pets and the pets aren't even given a choice.

I see comments in Facebook groups where pet parents are asking which EOs (or blend) they should use for 'x' condition. 

Or, they're wondering what to do now that they used an EO,  the pet ran away, and now their pet avoids them.

The advice is usually suggestions on how to get the pet comfortable with the EOs.

I’ll be honest.  This advice just doesn’t make sense to me.

Why not just listen to our furry friends?  And respect the fact that they “didn’t like it”.  

What if… instead of forcing EO’s on our fur babies - or avoiding them all together - we take some time and learn what it is they like?

What if we give our furry friends a choice? Allow them to choose what EOs they want to work with. 

Allowing our dogs to self-select EOs is simple.

It just takes patience and practice to observe and interpret their response.

For example, Nala likes EOs in general.  She’s usually curious and checks out what I have out.  From there her reactions vary from walking away to showing me where she’d like some.

To help demo this, I recorded her response to 2 random bottles EOs- Sweet Orange and Cedarwood.  

You can see in the video that Nala smelled both bottles and went back to Cedarwood for more. 

I chose to offer her a bit more by putting a 1/2 drop on my hands.  Then she showed me where she wanted it. 

In contrast, Jake is more selective.  Some days he sniffs and comes in for more, other days he says “No thanks”.

I offered Jake 2 random bottles.  He made it obvious that today was a “no thanks” day.

When offering EOs to your dog for the first time, there's a few things to remember...

✅ Give them space. Hold a closed bottle 12-24 inches away and let them check it out.  Or place it on the floor.

✅ Only offer a 2-4 bottles at a time so you don’t overwhelm their sniffers.

✅ Be patient and observe.  Reactions will vary from obvious to subtle. And every animal is different.

✅ This can be done with cats too.  Only offer EOs that are safe for cats and only 1-2 bottles at a time.  If they like one, consider diffusing safely.  

If they have zero interest they’ll walk away or move their head away like Jake.

If they're interested it'll look more like Nala... Come closer to check it out, licking lips, nose keeps sniffing even from further away.

Some dogs will lick the bottle or lick the EOs off your hands.  (It’s ok for a small amount but don’t let them walk away with the bottle in their mouth).

Now it’s your turn.  Grab a random bottle and offer it to your dog.  “See” what they have to say about essential oils.  

Not sure how to interpret your dogs signs? I'm happy to help. Reach out and l'll help you interpret.