With our dog on holiday
There are generally three possibilities
- taking the dog with you
- leaving the dog at home and getting someone to look after it
- leaving the dog with friends, animal sitters or in a pet’s guest house
Whichever option we choose, the animal will experience it as stressful. Not every animal will be able to deal easily with the new situation. This is then seen as a change in behaviour: even when we begin packing our bags, our pet starts to become nervous. My dog starts running after me and refuses to let me out of its sight. Others hide somewhere and refuse to even look at us.
So to help the animal relax and better cope with the change, we can provide some energetic support. We particularly recommend theLichtWesen essence Resolving Trauma, which can be used in any stressful situation to have a harmonising effect on the energy flow and ensure a supply of soothing, transformational energy. It is also a good idea to take this essence with you when you are travelling with your pet. For this we offer the 10ml bottle, which can be refilled as needed.
Here are a few ideas and thoughts relating to the issue of animals and holidays
Taking our pet with us
It is generally possible to take our dog with us, but not cats. There are hotels and holiday apartments which welcome dogs. And some have even specialised in this.
If we do take our dog on holiday with us, we definitely need to take the regular dog food that it is used to, and when we are there we should not leave them alone. There are ‘stress yawns’ which act as an indicator of how stressed the dog is. Car journeys, high temperatures and unfamiliar situations can all be stressful. Dogs even suffer from jetlag. Our dogs will react accordingly: they do not settle down, they are excited, and perhaps they do not eat. Some whine or howl, some become aggressive, others suffer from diarrhoea. Even after we return home from the journey, symptoms can continue, such as being tired, lacking in energy or sleeping more than usual.
For animals being taken on a journey, we recommend both the tincture spray LichtWesen Resolving Trauma and the essenceWell-Being, which can cleanse the energy system and harmonise the energy flow, allowing the animal to make better use of the energy available. They need this to cope with the new impressions and unfamiliar routines. This additional energy allows the animal to ‘find itself again’ and remain stable, even when it is in a different surroundings and having to interact with different animals and people.
Leaving the dogs at home and in the care of friends
If there is no possibility to take our pet with us, we can often find friends or neighbours to look after them and leave them at home. However, dogs will become bored and anxious if they are left alone for longer than usual. They often end up doing ‘something stupid’. So for dogs it is ideal if the friend can take our dog back to their house or apartment. The animal knows and likes the human – or at least, it is much better if this is the case, otherwise it could become difficult.
Holiday with an animal sitter or in a ‘pet hotel’
There are private and professional animal sitters who take in unknown animals. Animal sitters and ‘pet hotels’ generally specialise in one species of animal – they are suitable for either cats or dogs. They are experts in the needs of these animals. Recommendations for professional guardians such as these can be found in appropriate internet forums where other pet owners have shared their experiences. We should then directly contact the animal sitter ourselves.
However, not every animal can easily cope with being looked after by an unknown person in an unfamiliar setting. For dogs it is often crucial how strong their relation to ‘their human’ is – some can be quite fixated on that one human and do not let themselves be looked after by someone else. So it is definitely advisable to test this out well in advance of a planned holiday. Take your pet to the planned sitter or pet hotel for 1-2 days and see how they react to the carers and surroundings. This allows your pet to get use to the unknown location and people, and gain an experience that ‘their human’ has not disappeared forever and will return to collect them and take them home.
Both professional animal sitters and friends taking care of your pet will benefit from the essence I’m the boss which will help them gain recognition as the new ‘head of the pack’.
Even when the human taking care of them is a familiar person, the animal can resent being left alone by ‘their human’. They might feel rejected and start to behave strangely. Many dogs suffer a form of ‘separation anxiety’. They can then start to behave in a very clingy way, refusing to be left alone for even a brief moment.
So it is helpful if the animal sitter can apply the essences Resolving Trauma and Well-Being. You should then continue to apply these for about one week after you return, or until the pet starts to relax again.
I always take my dog with me on journeys. But when we return he is tired for several days, lacking in energy and sleeping much more than normal. Here I have had good experiences with the essenceRegeneration. Applying this essence helped my dog to become ‘normal’ more quickly. Sometimes he even begins to play around like a young puppy, which is rare for him because of his age.
