# Bach Flower selection guidance please?



## Riley's Mom (Jun 7, 2007)

Hi,

Being totally new to Bach's Flowers as of about a week ago, I would *really* appreciate some guidance from experienced users on which ones to use so I'm not buying what I don't need and/or not buying what I should because of my inexperience. There's a good chance I'm making this difficult when it really isn't but I haven't figured that out yet.

We have two dogs who are on completely different flower potions (that's what we call them - not meant to be derogitory).

My male has aggression/territorial issues towards other dogs and people that walk by our house and another dog walking by our house is even worse. He goes ballistic at the windows. Poor mail person is terrified as is one of our neighbors because of his displays at the fence and the windows. We also consider him to be very dominant and waayyy overprotects me but this could be us misreading his fear issues. The more I observe and journal, the more I'm leaning towards *all* of his issues as being fear based.

I mixed 2 drops each of *Cherry Plum, Chicory, Holly, Vine & Vervain *for him. I don't have it w/me but I *may also have Beech* in his. 

We first wanted to see if this works to tame his aggression and hot diggety dog, it *seems* like it's really helping him in just a week! Talk about mind boggling! I'm also doing behavior modification training along w/the Flower Power.

Because of my feeling his problems are fear based, I'm thinking I should include Aspen, Larch, Mimulus and/or ??? 

My female is the exact opposite, we (lovingly) call her a wimp dog. She's got some serious separation anxiety issues, she's afraid quite often and so we feel she needs some courage. She doesn't play with balls or things like that no matter how many times we've tried to include her when we play w/my male she will only just watch, which gives me a horrendous case of the guilts to see her sitting there perhaps feeling like an outcast or something. Vet calls her a "spectator sport dog" and seems to think this is no big deal.

Her current potion is two drops each of *Aspen, Heather, and Larch*. 

I had to draw the line somewhere on total initial cost or I'd have ordered a few more. Tried to hit the main issues first and will branch out from there.

So, what suggestions would you have for their different potions? Should I leave them as is for a month or so and then would you add additional or switch over to others or ??? If you switch, do I let them do the "cold turkey" thing for how long a period of time or just switch one day from what they're using to the new mix? Which direction would you go if they were your dogs? It's difficult for me to pick these out because the various sites w/info on each essence seems to describe the results from use somewhat differently. It took me forever to select the 11 essences I purchased. 

Does anyone just use these on a daily basis as in for the rest of one's life? If not, how do you determine it's ok to stop usage?

Thanks for any help you can give/share.


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## Maedchen (May 3, 2003)

Big congrats on your success so far!









It's hard to advice on remedies without knowing the dogs personally. But for your male I would read up on Rock Rose (hysteria, terror) and possibly Red Chestnut (fear & overprotectiveness) and maybe drop the Vervain (hyperactivity). He defen. sounds like he needs Beech if you don't give it already, but doesn't sound as bad that he really needs Cherry Plum, IMO.

For your female I would look into Agrimony (inner peace), stay on the Aspen & Larch, but re-asses the need for Heather. I would look into Cerato (lack of confidence/selfassurance), and if she seems depressed add Mustard.
Was any of the dogs, esp. your female a rescue? Then I would consider Star of Bethlehem- just for a couple days- to address the past trauma.

I would continue giving the remedies (since it works) several times a day for like another week and then slowly cut back to only giving it once every other day, once a week etc, unless you notice symptoms returning. The remedies re-tune the bodys energetic vibrations, but the body can be thrown off anytime again through certain circumstances where you'd have to start medicating again.

I would not mix and give more than 4 remedies at a time. In most cases, if you carefully repertorize the case, the remedies can be narrowed down to 3-4, to those symptoms which are most striking/ prevalent. If any issues are not getting resolved within a certain time, you can re-evalute the remedies and cut out certain ones and add others.


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## Riley's Mom (Jun 7, 2007)

Hi Maedchen,

Yes, I figured it would be difficult to know for sure w/o having seen or know the dogs. Not expecting miracles here, just suggestions and reasons why/why not for one or another. This is really amazing the difference in him. I don't really see a difference in her other than she's calmed down a bit - she can be a bit wired sometimes but that's slowing down. Although that may be contributed at least partly to the fact she's approaching age 2 now. Since all the info I read/got says not to expect any results for about a month, I'm just being patient at this point.

Ok, since I'm really trying to understand all this very well, would you mind telling me why you say it doesn't sound like he needs Cherry Plum? What's with CP that you don't feel he needs this one? My info says it works on rage which is what I consider his outbursts at the window & doors to be. No? I'll definitely look into the Rock Rose and the Red Chestnut, too. It's really something that all this time we thought he was aggressive for some reason, but fear never ever entered our minds. The more I watch him and see his reactions and learn from the boards and other places, it's really really looking like that's the down deep problem. So, we need to build up his confidence which is my next round since now I'm getting him calmed down with what he's been taking.

Agrimony is on my list for the next purchase for her







Hmmm, maybe my male could use that one, too. Makes me think the "inner peace" thing would work on fears, your thoughts?

Cerato sounds good, thanks.

I wouldn't consider either one depressed. They're calmer now though









My male was a rescue but he's been w/us over 2 years, do you think after this long Star of Beth would be helpful? What you said about the trauma thing - interesting - because we were really wrong in the way we introduced the two of them when we brought Nissa home and he was all over her - very dominant. Scared her pretty good, but that was almost 2 years ago, might it still help her? She's not a rescue, got her at 3mos old and he was 13 mos at the time. 

I looked, Beech is not in his mixture but I can fix that by mixing a new batch and adding it minus the Cherry Plum and Vervain but first I need to order the others.


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