Each day’s email brings a lot of interesting questions and stories about Flower Essences.

Here was feedback and a question from yesterday, “I have a four year old Doberman Pinscher female…who I have been competing in agility for two years. We have had great success using Showcats and Anxiety. I will not trial here without them! Although they have worked wonders for her ring stress ( 99%better than previously ) something is still “missing”. In trial, she doesn’t run as fast as she can and does in practice because she constantly has to take in her surroundings. She used to bark and get her hackles up about the judge and ring crew, which she doesn’t anymore, but she still will wander off course to make sure they meet her approval. She is overly suspicious of people, even for the breed, and bossy with other dogs, not in an aggressive way. I like to say she is full of attitude. Any little hint from me that she id something wrong stresses her immediately. She is extremely sensitive to me and my emotions. I guess what I am looking for is for her to be more carefree, able to enjoy playing with me and focus on me without worrying about her surroundings so much. I need her to know that she is safe with me and she doesn’t always have to be on guard. What are your recommendations? I have considered Run & Play or Fairy Rose for her.”

As I was reading the email I thought of both Run & Play and the Fairy Rose for this dog even before I got to the end of the email where this dog’s caretaker had thought of these herself. This is so typical of conversations about Flower Essences. You know what is calling to you and have excellent insights into what might help you or the animals in your life.

I also suggested Neediness and Golden Armor for this dog.

As I explained, Neediness helps animals find their right relationship with other humans and their right relationship with themselves. It helps them feel anchored in an experience of their own self worth so that they are neither too demanding or too anxious about what other people think of them. I mentioned that I thought an animal that felt special was really dealing with the same issue as an animal that didn’t feel special at all. Animals and for that matter people as well, have worth just because they are, and once they get into a situation of feeling better than or worse than others, they have begun to lose sight of this essential truth. The Flowers in Neediness help us or our animals to know that being ourselves is enough and no feedback from other humans or any other experience can alter our value.

I suggested Golden Armor to help this dog to buffer out this data of what others are thinking about her. It will also help her to buffer out all the extraneous stimulus in the ring, and of course it will help her buffer out the dissonant sound vibrations that exist in and out of the ring in this modern world of ours. To experience the pure joy of doing an agility course, it has to be an experience of just self and the course. For a sensitive, empathic dog like this Doberman, Golden Armor offers supportive information on just being the experience of doing the agility course, free of the burdens of all other intruding vibrations. I think this is when the purest joy occurs, when we have lost ourselves in the experience of what we are doing.

In a subsequent email back and forth we discussed whether Neediness would make a dog more indifferent to her humans. I tried to explain why I thought having this Doberman work with Neediness would only make the relationship more loving. Clinginess and aloofness are really the same response, one of insecurity about the relationship as well as insecurity about one’s own value. When one finds right relationship with self and knows one’s own self worth, then one is free to be one’s essential self. And let’s face it, we are such lucky humans to have the example of dogs whose essential self is so often such pure love and devotion. In most dogs, Neediness helps the pure strands of love to be better known and felt. It only dismantles patterns of behavior obscuring this love not the love itself.

So thank you for every email sharing your experiences and asking your questions. I learn something from every email!