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EO Away and Wondercide smells are overwhelming to dog

DanielleDL

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Can EO Away and/or Wondercide be diluted so that the smell isn't so strong? Bobby takes off as soon as he smells either (I put it on my hands and rub it into his fur. I don't spray either on him.). If the scents are strong (even if pleasant) to me, I can't imagine what they're doing to his doggie nose.

We also use an Insect Shield bandana and an Easy Defense tag, which luckily have no scent.
 

Dr. Jeff

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Sure, they can be diluted. They may lose some effectiveness (possibly unless energized by Dr. Bengston's Restore water tool).
 

Dr. Jeff

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Great question Danielle. From the way he described it on the HA! webinar, it's a "doohickey" that potentizes drugs, oils, etc. so that the water becomes a vehicle for the information/energy it contains. The base material (in your case an essential oil) is not pharmacologically present in the water.

After mentioning it in this thread, I tried to find more info. about it but was not able. I'll ask if there is any available.

In the meantime tho, you can get more info. in Dr. Bengston's recent webinar (which is archived in your member area).
 

LilF

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Can EO Away and/or Wondercide be diluted so that the smell isn't so strong? Bobby takes off as soon as he smells either (I put it on my hands and rub it into his fur. I don't spray either on him.). If the scents are strong (even if pleasant) to me, I can't imagine what they're doing to his doggie nose.

We also use an Insect Shield bandana and an Easy Defense tag, which luckily have no scent.
I'm picturing your Bobby taking off when he smells the EO. :) I have used the Earth Animal Bug Spray since about 2005 and they changed the formula from a more cedary smell to a minty one. I thought the cedar one was more effective and I had to use less and it smelled better. But not to get off topic too much. All my dogs have been very good for their spray down right before a walk. But yes, I have had the exact thoughts of how bad it might be for their noses. I have had less than about 6 ticks on my dogs in 25 years of having dogs. Cedarcide also makes a tick shield. Ticks do hate cedar. I used to spray the collar and harness they had on and of course the feet. I think Earth Animal also sells an internal powder which I never used but I think that brewers yeast is supposed to repel also. The essential oils are better than the spot ons. Maybe you can get them used to a diluted solution and do a check and comb and then gradually try and get them to accept a more concentrated mixture. I think Dr. Karen Becker also suggests a couple recipes and maybe even a diluted vinegar rinse after a bath. Don't make the mistake I did by using a concentrated vinegar on a dog I had that was itchy. I can still hear him crying after his bath when I stupidly used the vinegar too strong. Those kinds of mistakes continue to hurt the heart long after they are gone :-((
 

DanielleDL

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I'm picturing your Bobby taking off when he smells the EO.
Yeah, he's definitely "I'm outta here!" with the essential oils. He's fine with me putting it on his back legs, tail, and butt, but the closer I get to his head, the quicker he slinks off. I try to use as little as possible, and the Wondercide Cedarwood is the least "sharp" smelling to me, so I try to stick to that until I figure out how to dilute the EO Away without taking away its effectiveness. Yesterday I gave him a licky pad while I did it, which helped keep him put. I would assume I'm NOT roasting his nose buds each time, but my intuition says most of these scents are too harsh for him (because I find them harsh too, even if they're pleasant to me). Again, I don't find the Cedarwood as sharp as some of the others, so I'm starting there. I'm also giving him Bug Off Garlic (which has active yeast in it), so I'm trying to make him generally repellent to pests (it works great on my husband who can't stand Bobby's garlic breath right after eating them. Ha!). And I do wipe him occasionally with diluted vinegar just as a bath wipe, so hopefully that has added protective benefits. I'm just so squeamish about fleas, ticks, and heartworm. Last night I was trying to learn more about fleas in an effort to find them fascinating instead of scary (but I kept running across "fleas are dangerous to your dog! articles, so it didn't work). :D

Thanks again for your input! I'm still a new dog caregiver, so I REALLY appreciate it. :D
 

DanielleDL

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Cedarcide
Just checked out their website. I'm going to try their cedar granules in the yard and their Cedarcide Original on Bobby. It's got a higher cedarwood percentage than Wondercide. So glad I love the smell of cedar! I still want to get Bobby used to the EO Away as well, since it's got Eucalyptus in it. I remember making Eucalyptus leaf flea collars in Girl Scouts as a kid. :D And, yeah, spraying Bobby's harness is an option too. I can spray it and let it air out for a bit, until the smell dissipates somewhat.
 

LilF

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Yeah, he's definitely "I'm outta here!" with the essential oils. He's fine with me putting it on his back legs, tail, and butt, but the closer I get to his head, the quicker he slinks off. I try to use as little as possible, and the Wondercide Cedarwood is the least "sharp" smelling to me, so I try to stick to that until I figure out how to dilute the EO Away without taking away its effectiveness. Yesterday I gave him a licky pad while I did it, which helped keep him put. I would assume I'm NOT roasting his nose buds each time, but my intuition says most of these scents are too harsh for him (because I find them harsh too, even if they're pleasant to me). Again, I don't find the Cedarwood as sharp as some of the others, so I'm starting there. I'm also giving him Bug Off Garlic (which has active yeast in it), so I'm trying to make him generally repellent to pests (it works great on my husband who can't stand Bobby's garlic breath right after eating them. Ha!). And I do wipe him occasionally with diluted vinegar just as a bath wipe, so hopefully that has added protective benefits. I'm just so squeamish about fleas, ticks, and heartworm. Last night I was trying to learn more about fleas in an effort to find them fascinating instead of scary (but I kept running across "fleas are dangerous to your dog! articles, so it didn't work). :D

Thanks again for your input! I'm still a new dog caregiver, so I REALLY appreciate it. :D
I know, when you think of all their nasal receptors compared to ours, it must be overwhelming. If Bobby doesn't like his head sprayed ) I never really sprayed the head but would put some on my hand and kind of rub some under the neck and top of head (but ticks like the ears and head) I have tried to spray the collar or harness, or use a bandana sprayed so I am spraying the dog less. I also wash the paws with the earth animal or earthbath shampoo when we get back. A tick can crawl from the feet to the head in about 20 seconds but try not to think about it and just spray some of the EO on you too!! They are all nasty creatures and I actually prefer winter :)
 

DanielleDL

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@LilF - the Cedarcide Original showed up yesterday and it's not as strong smelling as EO or Wondercide. Haven't tried it yet, but I'm praying that Bobby will be ok with it. I don't spray him directly ever (the PSST sound is too much for him, and there's no way to control overspray), so I always spray my hands and rub. He wears an Insect Shield bandana and an Easy Defense pet tag (not sure if I believe the pet tag will work because there's not much info on their website other than "15 years of research"-- and their customer service isn't getting back to me). And I'm going to start spraying his harness again and giving it a few minutes or so to air out outside. I make sure I double-up around his wrists to try to keep the [buggers] from crawling up his legs. And, yeah, anything I can't use on Bobby, I use on myself (I love them all!) :D
 

DanielleDL

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Update: Cedarcide Original is much better tolerated by Bobby. He ran away as soon as he saw the little spray bottle (probably thinking it was the Wondercide), but stood still while I rubbed it on him, front and back. He still didn't like it, but he tolerated it WAY better (and it's 10% cedarwood oil, vs 5.7% "Cedarwood scent" in Wondercide). It's oiler, which is kinda nice cuz it's easy to glide it all over Bobby without having to spray more into my hands because it doesn't evaporate quickly like Wondercide does.

Not quite sure why so many dog products have scents (obviously for us and not them), let alone strong scents. I remember watching a Wondercide live demo and the marketing reps dog couldn't get away fast enough from the stuff. And she was spraying it directly ON the dog, poor thing.
 

LilF

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Update: Cedarcide Original is much better tolerated by Bobby. He ran away as soon as he saw the little spray bottle (probably thinking it was the Wondercide), but stood still while I rubbed it on him, front and back. He still didn't like it, but he tolerated it WAY better (and it's 10% cedarwood oil, vs 5.7% "Cedarwood scent" in Wondercide). It's oiler, which is kinda nice cuz it's easy to glide it all over Bobby without having to spray more into my hands because it doesn't evaporate quickly like Wondercide does.

Not quite sure why so many dog products have scents (obviously for us and not them), let alone strong scents. I remember watching a Wondercide live demo and the marketing reps dog couldn't get away fast enough from the stuff. And she was spraying it directly ON the dog, poor thing.
Danielle, the thing I did not like about the Wondercide is the sodium lauryl sulfate. I started to use Cedarcide products to mix up (comes in gallon containers that I dilute in a 2 gallon pump sprayer) and spray in front of my garage where the bugs like to go. It is great. Last fall I had stinkbugs and cluster flies around my garage windows so a few times spraying the window frames and poof---gone. I also spray my service door that goes into the garage with it because the stinkbugs like that too. It keeps bugs away pretty good. If you spray an ant hill with their stuff, it takes care of them. It interferes with their pheromones and guess they can't find their way around They are also very helpful on the phone. I have called several times last year. I ordered bags of cedar shavings too. Glad Bobby is accepting the Cedarcide better and good for you for hanging in there and trying other things!!
 

LilF

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@LilF - the Cedarcide Original showed up yesterday and it's not as strong smelling as EO or Wondercide. Haven't tried it yet, but I'm praying that Bobby will be ok with it. I don't spray him directly ever (the PSST sound is too much for him, and there's no way to control overspray), so I always spray my hands and rub. He wears an Insect Shield bandana and an Easy Defense pet tag (not sure if I believe the pet tag will work because there's not much info on their website other than "15 years of research"-- and their customer service isn't getting back to me). And I'm going to start spraying his harness again and giving it a few minutes or so to air out outside. I make sure I double-up around his wrists to try to keep the [buggers] from crawling up his legs. And, yeah, anything I can't use on Bobby, I use on myself (I love them all!) :D
Yes, I have been using what I put on the dogs on myself as well.....it works. I spray my shoes and socks for sure and then the pants and shirt. I remember listening to a vet on the radio years ago and he mentioned they did an experiment spraying a dog with ticks on part of its back and all the ticks moved away from that area. One other thing I do is if I do find a tick and as I said I have found no more than a half dozen over 25 years, I send the tick into a laboratory to get tested for tick borne diseases. To me it is peace of mind to not wonder if my dog contracted tick disease that may not be picked up by a blood test done on the dog. I use www.tickreport.com
They are fast and send a nice report which includes a photo of the tick. I have also asked months later for additional testing as they keep the tick preserved somehow and can test for many diseases. I have never had one test positive for anything. But some diseases like bartonella are transmitted by fleas as well and may even be more of a vector than ticks. Reason I mention Bartonella is because it was recently found to be possibly implicated in the development of hemangiosarcoma, which one of my dogs died from in December. I wanted to know if the tick I found on the dog in October had Bartonella because it does not typically show up in blood from the dog. Nicely done on all that coverage for you and Bobby. And I am also like you with respect to my hackles being raised on the nonresponsive company you describe....
 

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