My sassy AF beagle, Roxy, is going to be 10 years old soon, and has, historically, given us a run for our damn money!
Roxy has lived with our super sweet, soon to be 12 year old Golden mix, Lilly, from the day she left her mom and litter-mates.
My son had originally named the puppy we were going to be bringing home, Cupcake; he and our friend's niece named every pup in the litter a snack food name. LOL Well, fast forward to the day we brought Cupcake home; the tiny little nugget pup was rowdy, bossy, sassy, and didn't take NO kinda shit. We pretty much instantly knew we needed to find a name a bit more fitting. So, after a few days of brainstorming, we settled on Roxy.
Life was pretty good for a few years, and then - all hell broke loose!
Roxy began to randomly attack Lilly.
For example...
Lilly, Roxy, myself, and my, at the time, ~7 year old son, were all snuggled up on the couch: Lilly on one end of the HUGE couch, Dylan and I in the middle, and Roxy on the other end. It was a wonderful evening of snuggs.
Then, Lilly got off the couch to get a drink, a toy, or something equally innocuous, and as she tried to get back up onto the couch, Roxy leapt over me, over Dylan, and started a fight with Lilly. My kid was right in the midst of these two lunatics, snapping,biting, and snarling at each other.
I threw Dylan out of the way, and broke up the fight; both girls struggling against my hold.
That was it, I was fed.the.fuck.up!
There was no rhyme or reason to any of the incidents.
*We took Roxy to the vet to get examined to make sure there wasn't a physical/medical reason for her lashing out.
- She was in perfect health.
*We tried tightening the reigns, and revoking certain "freedoms" Roxy had.
- It didn't work. I know, I know, don't laugh, it made sense to me at the time. OY
*We took away all the toys.
- Made no difference.
*I reached out to a dog trainer I knew.
- Praise Jesus, Pass the Butter - things started to look up.
The forward steps we made, were baby steps, but at least we were making some progress, right?!
A couple years later, totally unrelated to Roxy, we began using essential oils. We got ourselves a set of 11 oils, and a diffuser. Roxy would still occasionally have a fit for herself, or as we called it, Furious Roxy would come out, but they were far less frequent.
My son Dylan LOVED making up different combos for us to diffuse. Yes, sometimes this meant there were 11 different oils pumping outta the diffuser, all.at.the.same.time. #idonotrecommendthis LOL
Dylan's favorite was a blend called Peace & Calming - he diffused it erryday!
Well, after about a month or two, we realized that there had been precisely ZERO Furious Roxy sightings.
We also noticed that when Roxy sat on our laps, instead of her usual sort of quiver, sort of tremble, she was completely calm.
I tried to think of a way that Roxy could get benefits of the oils all the time, not just when we diffused it.
So, I did an experiment - I put a couple drops of Peace & Calming on the underside of her collar, and put it back on her.
HOLY BALLS you guys...
In the six years that it has been since we implemented the use of essential oils into our home, there have been less than five Furious Roxy sightings. WHOOP WHOOP!!
Now, please note, that in this time, I have also learned a CRAP TON about dog behavior, force-free training, behavior modification, etc, and have put my skills to use for ALL of my dogs.
BUT -
Peace & Calming soothed our savage beast, errrr. I mean our Furious Roxy!
Roxy is the reason I have like 80teen bottles of Peace & Calming hoarded. #notkidding
I am thankful for each of my pups, and for various things. To my Roxy, I am thankful that her brain loved essential oils, because as a result, I went all in - and have now been able to find ways to resolve my OWN fits of fury.
Need a jump start at getting your emotions in check?
Peep my guide of 3 ways to Spring Clean your Emotions, here.
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