Why I Recommend Young Living for Dog Moms Who Want a Healthier Home

Why do I recommend Young Living to dog moms who want a healthier, lower-tox home?

Because for me, Young Living has never been just an essential oil company. Essential oils may have been my introduction, but what has kept me with Young Living is much bigger: essential oils, supplements, nutritional products, household cleaners, laundry products, personal care, skin care, oral care, animal products and an enormous body of education all living under one wellness umbrella.

That fits the way I think about health. I don't believe wellness begins when someone gets sick. Health is influenced by the choices we make every day about what we eat, what we put on our bodies, what we breathe, what we clean our homes with and what our dogs are exposed to right alongside us.

The funny part is that I absolutely did not start out as the person who was going to tell everyone how wonderful Young Living was.

I Was Not an Easy Young Living Convert

My introduction to Young Living was one of those old-fashioned Tupperware-style parties where somebody you know invites you, there's a free gift involved if enough people order, and you start feeling increasingly obligated to buy something because you don't want to be the person who ruins it for everybody else.

That was me.

The Grave Robbers Were Not Helping the Sales Pitch

The woman giving the presentation was a brand-new distributor, and at some point she started telling us the story associated with the essential-oil blend often called a “Robber's Blend.” She talked about grave robbers during the plague and the story that they used aromatic herbs or oils on themselves while robbing the dead.

I was sitting there thinking she had completely lost her mind.

Seriously. It sounded like snake oil to me.

I wasn't sitting in that room thinking, “This is going to change my life.” I was thinking, “Good grief, what do I need to buy so my family member gets her free gift?”

So I bought the starter kit.

And then I put it in a closet.

For more than a year.

I didn't know anything about essential oils, and owning a box of them did not magically teach me how to use them. NingXia Red was another thing I wanted nothing to do with. Some mysterious red wellness drink full of wolfberries? At the time it sounded like some kind of voodoo juice.

Fast-forward to today and there is NingXia Red stocked in my pantry because I genuinely love it as an antioxidant-rich wellness drink. When a dog mom calls me completely frazzled because her dog is sick and she has stopped taking care of herself in the process, there are days I wish I could reach through the phone and hand her a glass.

Obviously, something changed between the starter kit collecting dust in my closet and where I am today.

What Changed First Wasn't the Oils. It Was My House.

When I purchased that starter kit, I was also placed into educational groups. That turned out to matter far more than the sale itself because I finally had people teaching me what the products were, why they used them and how they incorporated them into everyday life.

My first major change wasn't becoming an essential-oil expert. It was cleaning.

I started looking at all the conventional cleaning products in my house and decided to make a clean break. I got rid of them and switched to Thieves Household Cleaner as my primary household cleaner.

That made sense to me immediately, especially with dogs in the house and my kennel building. Dogs aren't just somewhere in our homes. They're down on the floors. They're on the rugs. They're sleeping on blankets and furniture. They're walking through whatever residue we've left behind and then licking their feet. Household products are part of their environment whether we think about it that way or not.

Then I decided to try going natural with flea and tick spray. And it worked. Very well. So I began introducing essential oils to my kennel building for calming the dogs in that space. It worked. Very well.

Then came an experience involving dogs in my training program that pushed my interest much further. I was already beginning to look differently at the environment around my dogs, but that experience helped connect the dots between what I was learning about essential oils, household exposures and the animals I was working with.

Read: When Training Isn't Enough — The Dogs That Changed How I Practice →

From there, I didn't just keep using the products. I kept learning.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Young Living Is About Much More Than Essential Oils

If you've only encountered Young Living through someone talking about Lavender, Peppermint or a diffuser, you've probably missed a very large part of the company. Young Living has developed an extensive range of products for everyday wellness and household use, and that larger commitment to health is one of the primary reasons it has remained part of my own life for so many years.

Essential Oils

Single oils, proprietary blends and Vitality dietary essential oils remain at the heart of Young Living. Because I work professionally with aromatherapy, plant identity, sourcing, growing practices, distillation, chemistry, purity and appropriate use all matter tremendously to me.

Home & Cleaning

The Thieves line provides alternatives for many of the products used throughout the home, including concentrated household cleaner, laundry and other everyday products. This was actually one of the first areas where Young Living changed the way I thought about wellness.

Nutrition & Supplements

Young Living also offers nutritional and wellness products, including NingXia Red, supplements and targeted nutritional support. I don't believe every person needs every supplement a company makes, but I appreciate having a broad wellness catalog within a company whose overall approach to health aligns with mine.

Personal Care

Skin care, hair care, oral care, body products and other personal-care options make it possible to gradually reconsider the products we use every day without feeling like healthier living requires replacing the entire house overnight.

Animal Products

Young Living has also developed products specifically for animals. That doesn't mean every essential oil or wellness product belongs on every dog, but I appreciate that animals have long been part of the larger wellness conversation.

Education

This may be one of the company's greatest assets. Young Living has decades of education surrounding the plants, farms, distillation, individual oils and products, along with educators who learned directly from Gary Young and continue sharing that knowledge today.

Why This Matters in a Home With Dogs

Dogs live remarkably close to their environment. They walk barefoot across the floors we clean, lie on rugs and furniture, sleep on freshly washed bedding, lick their paws and spend hours breathing the air inside our homes. Whatever we're using around the house becomes part of their environment too.

That doesn't mean we need to become terrified of everything under the kitchen sink. I am not interested in fear-based wellness. It does mean I think it is reasonable to look at the cumulative environment we're creating and ask where we can make better choices.

For many dog moms, that happens gradually. Maybe you replace a household cleaner. Maybe you become more thoughtful about artificial fragrance. Maybe you change a laundry product, begin learning about essential oils or start reading labels instead of automatically buying the same thing you've purchased for twenty years.

One healthier choice tends to make us more aware of the next one.

You do not have to throw everything in your house away on Tuesday and emerge Wednesday morning living in a hemp tent making your own toothpaste. Use something up, learn about your alternatives and make a better swap when it makes sense. Healthier living should actually fit into your life.

Why I Believe Young Living Is a Better Product

My preference for Young Living isn't simply brand loyalty. After years of studying aromatherapy, I have become more particular about essential oils, not less, and that education has strengthened my preference for Young Living.

Quality in an essential oil begins long before someone fills a little bottle and puts a label on it. The botanical species matters. The soil and growing conditions matter. The part of the plant being distilled matters. Harvest timing matters. Distillation matters. Storage matters. Testing matters. How the oil is handled after distillation matters.

Young Living's Seed to Seal® commitment is built around sourcing, science and standards, but what matters to me is that this philosophy grew from a company deeply rooted in plants, farming and distillation rather than from a company that simply decided essential oils would make a profitable product category.

Gary Young spent years working with plants, developing farms, studying distillation and traveling to learn more about aromatic plants and their production. That knowledge became part of Young Living's foundation, and I still see its influence in the company and its educational community today.

Some of my favorite Young Living education comes from people who learned directly from Gary, worked beside him and heard the stories and lessons behind the oils firsthand. Many of those educators continue teaching and sharing that knowledge.

That educational lineage matters to me. There is a difference between reading a marketing description of an oil and learning from people who can explain the plant, the farm, the distillation process, the history behind a blend and the lessons accumulated through years of actually working with these products.

My professional aromatherapy education has exposed me to essential oils far beyond one company's catalog. I didn't remain with Young Living because I didn't know anything else existed. Quite the opposite. The more I learned about essential oils, chemistry, sourcing, distillation and appropriate use, the more I appreciated what Young Living had been doing from the beginning.

I personally believe it results in a better product.

For me, the integrity shows up throughout the chain: in the plants, the farms, the sourcing, the distillation, the testing, the education surrounding the oils and ultimately what is inside the bottle.

That's why I am comfortable using Young Living in my own home, using the oils with my own dogs when appropriate and recommending them to the dog moms I work with.

Why I Love Raindrop Technique® — Including for Dogs

Raindrop Technique is another reason Young Living became much more to me than a collection of bottles. It brings aromatherapy together with intentional touch and bodywork, and I love the experience of using the oils in a purposeful sequence instead of thinking about each oil only as an isolated product.

I loved Raindrop enough that I went on to become certified in Raindrop Technique for Animals, and working with dogs deepened my appreciation for it even more.

Dogs communicate so much through their bodies. We see it in posture, tension, movement, breathing, avoidance, softness and the way they respond to touch. Aromatherapy gives me one language. Gentle bodywork and intentional touch give me another. When they're brought together thoughtfully, I find Raindrop work can be a beautiful way to support relaxation, comfort, connection and overall well-being.

There is also something about Raindrop that is difficult to capture by simply describing the individual oils. It is the ritual of it. The aroma, the touch, the time spent slowing everything down and paying attention to the body create an experience rather than simply an application.

Raindrop for a dog is not simply the human Raindrop protocol performed on a smaller body. Animal work needs to be adapted to the individual dog. Oil selection, dilution, amount, placement, duration, health history and the dog's own response all matter. With animals, more is definitely not automatically better, and I always want the dog to have a voice in the process.

That is one of the reasons my aromatherapy education matters so much to me. I don't want a dog mom to see a human Raindrop recipe online and assume she should simply duplicate it on her dog. I want her to understand the oils, understand her dog and learn how aromatherapy can be adjusted appropriately for animals.

Raindrop is one of the places where everything I love about Young Living comes together for me: high-quality essential oils, the history behind their use, education passed from experienced practitioners, intentional application and the opportunity to use these tools in a much more thoughtful way.

The Education May Be the Most Underrated Part

I know firsthand that buying an essential oil starter kit does not mean you'll have the slightest idea what to do with it. Mine sat in a closet for more than a year.

What changed everything was education.

Young Living has an enormous educational community. There is company education, farm education, product education, classes and groups, but there is also knowledge that has been passed forward since the early days of Young Living by people who were actually there.

You can learn about the plant itself, why growing and harvesting conditions matter, how distillation affects an oil, how products were developed, how different oils have traditionally been used and practical ways to incorporate them into everyday life.

Then there are all of the independent educational communities. Some focus on children. Some focus on women's wellness. Some focus on household products, fitness, cooking or general natural living.

Interestingly, quite a few people in my own Young Living educational circles aren't my Young Living customers at all. They came through other educators and other groups, and they may already have wonderful people helping them with women's health, kids or household use. But those groups often don't talk much about dogs.

So they come to me when the question becomes, “Okay, but what about my dog?”

I love that.

They don't need to become my customer for me to appreciate that they're trying to learn. They already recognize the value of the products. They simply want better education about how those products fit into life with animals.

That is where my professional education in animal aromatherapy and holistic canine wellness becomes important. I don't approach essential oils with dogs as a list of internet recipes. The individual dog matters. Age matters. Health history matters. Medications matter. The specific essential oil matters. Concentration and method of use matter.

The bottle is only part of the value. Learning how to use what is in the bottle thoughtfully and appropriately is the bigger piece.

And Yes, I'm Surprised More Dog Moms Haven't Tried Essential Oils

If I'm being completely candid, I am sometimes surprised that I haven't convinced more dog moms to explore essential oils.

Not because I think every dog needs oils rubbed all over him or because essential oils replace veterinary care, nutrition or everything else I use in holistic wellness. They don't.

I'm surprised because once you understand how versatile these products can be, they become another practical tool in the toolbox. I use essential oils in my own life and with my dogs intentionally, and my professional aromatherapy education has only expanded the ways I understand them.

Sometimes I think the MLM baggage gets in the way before people ever make it to the actual product and education. Other times people bought oils years ago, used them twice, had no idea what they were doing and put them in a cabinet—which, considering my own starter kit lived in a closet for over a year, I can hardly judge.

That's one reason I want dog moms to have access to better education instead of simply another shopping link.

Young Living's Commitment to Health Fits Mine

Young Living has stayed relevant in my own life because its focus reaches far beyond aromatherapy. The company has continued developing products that allow families to think differently about what comes into their homes and what they use every day.

That mirrors a philosophy I talk about constantly with dog parents: health isn't created by one miracle supplement, one perfect diet or one essential oil. It is influenced by the bigger picture.

Food matters. Environment matters. Stress matters. Movement matters. Sleep matters. Household exposures matter. The things we put on and around our bodies matter. The same is true for our dogs.

I don't expect every Young Living product to be right for every person, and I don't recommend buying something simply because the logo matches everything else in the cabinet. I still evaluate products individually. What I appreciate is having access to a company whose catalog makes it easier for someone who wants to make healthier choices to actually start making them.

The Value Is Bigger Than the Price of One Bottle

One of the criticisms people make about Young Living is price, and I understand how someone arrives there if the entire comparison is the retail cost of one bottle of Lavender against another bottle somewhere else.

That's not how I evaluate the value.

I look at the products I'm already purchasing, the ability to consolidate household and wellness purchases, available customer pricing, Loyalty Order benefits, points, promotions, free products and the education and community surrounding those purchases.

And yes, I like the freebies.

I am not spiritually evolved enough to pretend otherwise. If I am already buying products I use and somebody wants to put another product in my box as part of a promotion, I am perfectly capable of saying, “Well, thank you very much.”

The key is using those programs intelligently. Spending money on products you don't need because you're desperate to qualify for a free bottle isn't saving money. That's expensive shopping wearing a party hat.

But earning points, promotional products or other benefits on things you were already going to purchase can create very real value over time.

Now We Can Talk About the MLM Elephant

Yes, Young Living uses a network-marketing model, and I understand why that makes some people skeptical. The industry has certainly earned some of its reputation through aggressive recruiting, exaggerated income claims and people who suddenly start treating every friendship like a business prospect.

That is not how I operate, and it isn't what I expect from someone who shops through me.

You can simply shop and learn. You can purchase products you like, use the educational resources, participate in groups, take advantage of customer benefits that make sense for you and never build a Young Living business.

If you are a mom, dog mom or wellness professional who becomes passionate about the products and would like to explore the income opportunity, that option is there too. Building income isn't automatic and it isn't required. If it interests you, call me. I'm happy to have a real conversation about how it works and whether it makes sense for you.

Why I Continue to Encourage Young Living

I encourage Young Living because I have seen what can happen when someone stops thinking about health as one enormous project and begins making smaller, more intentional choices.

An essential oil can create curiosity about aromatherapy. Replacing a household cleaner can lead someone to start reading labels. Trying a nutritional product can open a conversation about food and supplements. Changing a laundry or personal-care product can make someone think differently about the everyday environment she is creating for herself, her family and her dogs.

Young Living makes that process accessible because so many wellness categories live in one place, backed by decades of history, education, quality standards, customer programs and a community of people who continue sharing what they have learned.

And I say all of that as the woman who once sat at a home party thinking the grave-robber story sounded like snake oil, bought a starter kit out of obligation, shoved it into a closet for more than a year and thought NingXia Red sounded like voodoo juice.

So no, I wasn't exactly an easy sell.

I became a believer in the products because I started using them, then learning about them, and eventually studying aromatherapy professionally. The more I learned, the more intentional I became about what I used and why.

Products first. Health first. Education always. Business only if you want it.

That's why, after all these years and all of my additional education, I still use, trust and recommend Young Living.

Young Living for Dog Moms: Frequently Asked Questions

Why do you use Young Living instead of another essential oil brand?

After years of professional aromatherapy education and hands-on experience, I personally believe Young Living produces a better product. I value its history in farming and distillation, the Seed to Seal® commitment, the depth of education surrounding the oils and the knowledge that continues to be passed forward by people who learned and worked directly with Gary Young. My aromatherapy education has made me more selective about essential oils, and it has strengthened rather than weakened my decision to continue using Young Living.

What makes Young Living essential oils different?

For me, the difference begins long before an oil reaches the bottle. Botanical identity, growing conditions, harvest timing, distillation, storage and testing all influence the finished product. I also value Young Living's history in farming and distillation and the depth of education that has developed around the company over decades.

Is Young Living only an essential oil company?

No. Essential oils may be what Young Living is best known for, but the company also offers supplements, nutritional products, household cleaners, laundry products, personal care, skin care, hair care, oral care and animal-care products. That broader approach to wellness is one of the biggest reasons I continue to use and recommend the company.

Why does household product choice matter when you have dogs?

Dogs live in close contact with their household environment. They walk across floors, sleep on bedding and rugs, lick their paws and breathe the same indoor air we do. I don't believe dog parents need to become afraid of every conventional product, but reducing unnecessary household exposures where practical can be part of creating a more intentional home environment.

Can Young Living help me create a lower-tox home for my dog and family?

Young Living offers alternatives across household cleaning, personal care, essential oils and wellness products that can make it easier to replace products gradually. I prefer sensible changes instead of making people feel that everything in their home suddenly needs to be thrown away.

Are Young Living essential oils safe for dogs?

There is no responsible yes-or-no answer that applies to every essential oil and every dog. Appropriate use depends on the specific oil, concentration, method of use, the dog's age and health, medications and the reason the oil is being considered. My professional education in animal aromatherapy is one reason I emphasize individualized, thoughtful use rather than generic internet recipes.

Can Raindrop Technique® be used with dogs?

Yes, Raindrop principles can be adapted for dogs, but animal work should not simply duplicate the human protocol on a smaller body. I am certified in Raindrop Technique for Animals, and I adjust oil selection, dilution, amount, placement and duration for the individual dog. I particularly value the combination of aromatherapy, intentional touch and bodywork as a way to support relaxation, comfort, connection and overall well-being.

Why is education so important when using essential oils with dogs?

Buying an essential oil doesn't automatically teach someone how to use it appropriately. Dogs vary in age, health, medications, sensitivities and individual needs. The specific oil, its chemistry, concentration and method of use all matter. One of the things I value about Young Living is the educational community surrounding the products, and I add my professional animal-aromatherapy and holistic canine-health education to that conversation.

Do I need to buy Young Living from you to learn about using the oils with my dog?

No. Many people in my educational groups already have Young Living accounts through other educators. Some belong to wonderful communities focused on women, children, household wellness or other areas but don't have anyone teaching them specifically about dogs. I'm happy that they want to learn how to use these products more thoughtfully around their animals. Education matters to me whether or not I was the person who originally enrolled you.

Is Young Living worth the price?

For me, yes, because I don't evaluate Young Living solely by comparing the price of one bottle against another. I consider quality, sourcing, education, the range of products available, customer pricing and loyalty benefits, promotions and free products. The overall value is very different when you're purchasing products you actually use and learning how to use them well.

Do I have to sell Young Living if I sign up?

No. You can simply shop and learn. You can purchase products you like, participate in educational resources and use the customer benefits that make sense for you without building a Young Living business.

Is Young Living an MLM?

Young Living uses a network-marketing or direct-sales model. That does not mean you are required to sell products or build a team. I judge the company primarily by the quality of the products, the education, the health-focused product selection and the value it provides me as a customer.

Can I earn income with Young Living?

Young Living has an optional Brand Partner business opportunity, but building a business is not required to shop or learn. If the income side interests you, call me and I'm happy to talk with you about how it works and whether it makes sense for what you want to do.

Want to Explore Young Living?

If you're a dog mom interested in essential oils, healthier household products, nutritional wellness or simply creating a more intentional home for yourself and your dogs, you can start exactly where I did—although hopefully your starter kit won't spend a year living in a closet.

You can shop, learn, use the educational resources and decide what fits your life. There is no requirement to build a business.

Shop Young Living With Dana

Essential oils and wellness products should be selected and used appropriately for the individual animal. Information on this page is educational and is not a substitute for veterinary care.