Saved by Smell! Our Country Getaway with the Dogs, Free of Ticks, Fleas and Losing Cookies in the Car

Jasper & Sophie playing in the front yard

I love a good smell. Don’t you? I’m not a big perfume wearer, but give me a gorgeous musk or a prepared aromatherapy scent, and I’m in heaven. But, a product that discourages ticks and fleas from making a meal (or several) of our dogs that smells divine? Not that I’d found. Most flea and tick products smell clinical, at best, dangerous at worst. So, you can understand why I’m over the moon that I’ve discovered Earth Heart’s Buzz Guard. Oh, Lord, does it smell good! And for us…it worked like a charm. I’m not being dramatic when I say, we were saved by smell on our recent country getaway.

You heard we took a trip to Catskill, New York, with Sophie and Jasper. We found this lovely house on three acres of land tucked far away from a road and had a week-long respite from New York city. Ahhhh….. 🙂 While absolutely beautiful, upstate New York is prime flea and tick territory, and we were really concerned for Sophie and Jasper’s safety. We’ve all heard nightmare stories of untreated lyme disease and the long-lasting ill effects it can have on humans or our dogs. And now, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever is another concern, transmitted to a dog from an infected American Dog Tick or the Lone Star Tick in just 2-5 hours! We knew we needed to protect them and we wanted them to have fun, too. What’s the sense of bringing your dogs where there’s land to run and play, if they can’t enjoy it!

I hadn’t yet tried Buzz Guard, but I’d bought all four of the remedies Earth Heart offers, and had already had success with Earth Heart’s Canine Calm for Sophie’s anxiety (which also smells beautiful). So we packed it and hoped for the best. When I say I hoped for the best, that’s an exaggeration. I know the woman behind Earth Heart and its beautiful products. Vicki Rae Thorne is a master herbalist for humans and dogs, and she knows what she’s doing.

I also grabbed Earth Heart’s Travel Calm, a spray for easing nausea in dogs, great for road trips. It contains the same ingredients as Canine Calm (bergamot, tangerine, lavender, geranium, ylang ylang and marjoram), but Vicki added ginger to the mix, a known herb for people and pets for stomach upset. It was a two hour drive, and Jasper has car sickness. On our last ride a few days earlier, he’d lost his cookies three times one way and twice coming home. Not fun.

The four Earth Heart preparations

As Vicki had instructed, I gave Jasper a dose of Travel Calm 30 minutes before leaving. You apply these preparations by spraying some on your hands and rubbing it onto the dog’s ears, a sensitive area with lots of tiny veins that allow the essential oils to go directly into the bloodstream. Once we got into the car, my husband had the job of re-applying Travel Calm to Jasper’s ears every 10 minutes, also as instructed; this to give Jas an intermittent boost of the oils because we felt he needed that. While essential oils in their undiluted form are very powerful and one has to be knowledgable and careful when using them, we could do this with Jasper, because these preparations are so diluted that they are perfectly safe for the dog.

For the first time, Jasper didn’t throw up in the car. He was still a bit uncomfortable and anxious, but that eventually eased into a sense of wonder about the lush greenery whizzing by as he hung his head out of the window. We continued to use Travel Calm for every car ride during that week away, and there were many both short and long. Jasper never got sick. We were so grateful for this. Worrying about vomiting into a rental car was just one added stress we didn’t need. So, thank you for that, Vicki. 🙂

On a beautiful hike

When we arrived, we were so delighted by the expanse of property around the house! A big front yard was the perfect place for the dogs to run and play. So, after getting settled in, I grabbed the Buzz Guard for its first official test run. What gives it it’s great scent? Luscious oils of fir needle, rose geranium, rosewood, basil leaf, myrrh and the one two punch of citronella. As a team, they also act a powerful natural flea and tick remedy (as in fleas and ticks hate the smell).  Would it do the trick in a grassy country field, surrounded by woods with deer?  It did! Sophie and Jasper ran through the grasses, tall and short, through thickets and brush. We went hiking in the woods, visited the lakes. Buzz Guard had every opportunity to show it’s stuff. And for us, it passed muster with flying colors!

The dogs on a hike by the stone whale

Dad, with Jasper & Sophie by the lake in Catskill, NY

Mom, with Jasper & Sophie on our hike in Catskill, NY

This makes me extra happy, because I generally gravitate toward the natural option, when it comes to food and products. Sometimes, with certain products, that they’re natural or environmentally conscious is great, but they don’t work very well. This time, the Earth Heart products did what they were intended to do. I wouldn’t go on a trip where fleas and ticks are a potential problem without Buzz Guard, nor take a road trip with Jasper, without his Travel Calm. We are now life-long fans.

You can learn more about Vicki and her story, as well as the Earth Heart products through an interview I did with her for Bark and Swagger. She’s quite the amazing person.

Have you had an experience with fleas and/or ticks you’d like to share? Is there a natural product you love? Tell me in the Comments below. 

(Disclosure: affiliate links)