Guided Relaxation for Dogs – A Fragrant Journey to Calm

Are you looking for an effective way to calm your dog down in stressful situations and help them relax? Then conditioned relaxation is just what you need! Here, you’ll learn exactly what it is and how you can use this training method effectively with our Relax Buddy!

What is conditioned relaxation for dogs?

Conditioned relaxation is an effective training method that helps dogs reduce stress and alleviate anxiety. 

In conditioned relaxation, a signal, object, or scent is associated with a relaxed state and can be deliberately triggered when needed. Once conditioned relaxation has been reliably established—you’ll learn how this works later in this post—you can use it to counteract potential triggers.

When can conditioned relaxation help your dog? Examples and applications

Conditioned relaxation through scent can be used in various situations and for various issues. It can help dogs with separation anxiety, noise phobias, travel anxiety, or other stressful situations. It can also serve as a tool for general relaxation and calmness in everyday life. In many everyday situations, it’s a great help to have a tool that can quickly help your dog “cool down.”

Often, even small triggers are enough to raise a dog’s arousal level, leading to overexcitement (such as fear, stress, nervousness, or exuberant joy, etc.). 

Typical situations or triggers include, for example:

• when their owner comes home
• Visits from friends or strangers
• the trip to the vet
• the sight of a bird in the field
• the favorite toy 
• Car rides 
• other dogs 
• the sight of the neighbor's cat
• Dining out
• storms
  
• New Year's 
• etc.

This is where guided relaxation can be a great help. Relaxation means lowering your arousal level. Arousal and relaxation are both processes in the brain that occur and are regulated in opposite ways. 

The goal of conditioned relaxation is to help the dog better cope with anxiety or stress. By associating relaxation with positive experiences and rewards, the dog is motivated to seek out and maintain this relaxed state.

How does guided relaxation work?

Arousal and relaxation are functions of the brain. A structure in the brainstem plays a particularly important role in conditioned relaxation: the reticular formation (part of the brainstem) is a complex network of neurons. It processes information from many different areas of the brain and mediates various functions, such as the regulation of activity and attention.

Part of the reticular formation can be viewed as a “switch” between two different states:

1. There is a "thinking state" in which the animal consciously searches for possible solutions and
   
2. the “reflexive state.” This is characterized by a series of automatic reactions that can only be influenced to a limited extent by conscious will and can be stopped by external factors, such as the 4 F’s: Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fiddle.
   

So it’s important for us to keep a dog in a “thinking state” as often and for as long as possible. However, the brain is wired to switch from the “thinking state” to the “reflexive state” as arousal levels rise.

Our goal is to prevent the switch from flipping and our dog from entering a reflexive state, or to flip the switch ourselves to end the reflexive state. 

The hormone oxytocin—better known as the “bonding hormone”—helps us with this. Among other things, oxytocin is responsible for social bonds and relaxation. When the stress hormone cortisol rises, oxytocin levels drop, and vice versa. We make use of this interaction in conditioned relaxation. The learned, calming scent stimulates the release of oxytocin in the brain—from the outside, so to speak.

Conditioned relaxation in dogs through scent

Dogs have an exceptionally keen sense of smell that far surpasses our own. Scents can trigger a strong emotional response by directly affecting their senses and behavior. Certain scents have calming properties and can help dogs relax and reduce stress.

In scent-based conditioned relaxation, the dog is trained to associate certain scents with relaxation and calm. This is achieved by linking the scent to positive experiences and rewards. The process involves steps such as introducing the scent when the dog is already relaxed, gradually building a positive association between the scent and relaxation, and gradually generalizing the relaxation response to the scent in various situations.

How do I associate scent with relaxation for my dog? Building conditioned relaxation in 3 steps

The link between a scent and relaxation is established through the process of conditioning. Conditioning means that we learn by associating certain things with one another. You can think of the process like a battery: you have to charge it first before you can use it.

Use the nacani Relax Buddy for this purpose. It’s a small scented stick (not much bigger than a standard lipstick) that contains a blend of high-quality essential oils with soothing hemp and lavender.

1. Place the Relax Buddy next to your relaxed dog

Place your Relax Buddy, which contains the soothing scent, next to your dog when he’s just lying down to sleep or is already asleep. After about 30 minutes, you can remove the Relax Buddy (it can always stay in longer 😉 ). When he’s waking up—or even a little before that—please remove the Relax Buddy again.

2. Repeat this process regularly

Repeat this process regularly. Ideally, do this 2–3 times a day for about 4–6 weeks. As soon as your dog wakes up, remove the Relax Buddy; if necessary, air out the room briefly. This ensures that the scent is associated only with relaxation.

It’s important to be consistent but never pushy as you guide your dog through the conditioning process. Please use this scent only for relaxation work and for nothing else. Every dog is different, so it may take some time for your dog to associate the scent with relaxation.

3. Use the Relax Buddy even in stressful situations

Once your dog reliably associates the scent with relaxation, you can also use it in stressful situations. To do this, hold the scent stick in front of your nervous dog’s nose, just as you did during training.

And don’t worry: Your dog won’t fall asleep right away when you use the Relax Buddy, but you’ll notice a significant physical and mental relaxation, making it easier for you to help your dog cope with the stressful situation. 

How long does the Relax Buddy last, and how do I refill it?

The nacani Relax Buddy lasts about 7–14 days. After that, you can easily refresh it by applying 3 drops of the refill oil to the felt roll. To access the felt roll, pull the scent section out of the case and then unscrew the bottom part of the Relax Buddy. 

Does guided relaxation work for horses, too?

Conditioned relaxation works for all mammals, including horses. With horses, however, it’s a bit harder to catch them exactly when they’re dozing off, since you’re usually not always there.

That is why we recommend focusing on touch + scent = relaxation. 

Your horse should really enjoy being touched so that it can relax quickly. As soon as your horse is relaxed from the touch, lift the Relax Buddy toward its nose. If your horse loses its state of relaxation, remove the Relax Buddy again.

Only once you’ve consistently established this routine—ideally 2–3 times a day for 4–6 weeks—can you stop the physical contact and offer just the scent.

Typical situations or triggers in horses include, for example:

• New Year's
• Visit to the vet
• Loading onto the trailer and driving the trailer
• Change of Stable / Change of Location
• new member of the herd
• young, spirited / skittish horses
• farrier
• Tournaments
• A view of water, tractors, and pedestrians 
• and much more

Photos from our Relax Buddy Community