Rachel Knott My Animal Matters

Rachel Knott My Animal Matters Animal Communication & Zoopharmacognosy Practitioner, Teacher & Mentor
Co-Host of the Unruly by Nature Podcast
Founder of My Animal Matters
(2)

Rachel Knott
Applied Zoopharmacognosy
Optimising the health and well-being of your animal
Supplier of high quality natural remedies for animals

There is SO much information out there about essential oils and dogs a lot of it conflicting, and some of it quite scary...
22/04/2026

There is SO much information out there about essential oils and dogs a lot of it conflicting, and some of it quite scary and off-putting.

I've been working with dogs and zoopharmacognosy (aka self-selection) for 14 years, and I've also been teaching it. So I've seen first hand, not just with my own clients but with my students too, just how overwhelming it can feel to know where to begin, who to listen to, and what's actually safe.

Has it put you off exploring them?
I'd love to hear your experience, whether you already use them, have tried and given up, or have always been curious but never quite felt confident enough to start.

21/04/2026

Darcy is my hero.
She found a disused haystack, cow poo, sheep poo, all of it and she ran straight for it. No hesitation or apology. Just pure joy.

But here’s what 23 years of listening to animals has taught me.
She is never performing or putting on a front. She knows exactly what lights her up and she follows it with her whole body.

We love our dogs because they are completely, unapologetically themselves.
And then we spend our whole time trying to change and control them.
Maybe they’re not here to ‘fit into our world’. Maybe they’re here to remind us what it felt like before we started performing in ours.

What has your dog shown you lately that you almost missed?

15/04/2026

Have you ever said goodbye and then questioned everything afterwards?
“Was it too early… too late?”
“Did I get it wrong?”
I so hear you and feel you! I sat in that space for a long long time when I said goodbye to my first dog Sophie. She was the catalyst for me wanting to truly connect with animals beyond what we’ve been told is possible.
What I’ve come to really deeply understand through this work as an animal intuitive is that we are never separate from them in the way we think.
Our bodies are always perceiving and responding to them. We get pulls to change something or to walk a different way or to buy a different type of bed. It’s happening all the time. We just think it’s us alone making those choices.
But we’re a constantly evolving mini ecosystem, a shared energy field, where we’re communicating all the time. It’s just our mind thinks it’s us that’s come up with everything. Not true. And also a little bit ‘human’ to think we’re running the show alone.
So when it comes to those bigger decisions at end of life, we question ourselves. Second guess.
I’m offering that those decisions you did not make alone.

14/04/2026

I won’t sugarcoat it as we’ve got to be honest. It’s HARD when our animal best friends leave their physical body.
And it’s different for everyone.
But what I will say to you as a dog mum of many in spirit and an animal communicator, it’s not the end. It feels like it but it isn’t.
They are still with you. Their love, the connection, their energy continues. And it’s accessible. It’s just maybe you’ve forgotten the quiet language of whispers, of the soul.
I became an animal communicator because of the pain I felt from the death of my first dog. I deeply empathise with your pain and I’m simply here to say, they are with you and I can help you sense and experience what they want to to know, so you can continue to move through this life together. Just in a different way.

31/03/2026

I don’t imagine that our dogs feel good all the time. As we don’t. They may feel sick, wobbly, get headaches, pain or tension.
And unless we are HIGHLY attuned to the subtle shifts in their movement and changes in their body and facial expressions, often we only notice something is ‘off’ when it gets super loud.
And that’s ok. We’re human and doing our best.
The cool bit is there are tools we can access.
Because our dogs have this innate natural ability to detect the chemical properties within plants AND their body is drawn to what they need, we can bring plant medicine to them so they can self medicate.
Essential oils is one way to do this.
I go really really gently as their sense of smell is super powerful.
As an animal communicator animals will often bring through different aromatics they need in a session. But even before I started to sense this way, reading the visual feedback cues our dogs give when offered different aromatics is a brilliant way to give them these choices.
For possible nauseousness, I’d offer peppermint, ginger, lemon, orange sweet and maybe fennel.
Not all at once and definitely not in a diffuser. Choice is ESSENTIAL. As when they’ve had enough, they need to be able to indicate they’ve had enough and remove themselves from the volatile molecules.
So gently offering one at a time and observing what their feedback is the best way to explore the healing.
Your dogs will always be honest and give you honest feedback.

My new website is live! 👏After over 20 years working with people and their animal companions, I’m so excited to now have...
22/03/2026

My new website is live! 👏

After over 20 years working with people and their animal companions, I’m so excited to now have two dedicated spaces for what I offer:

My Animal Matters – all of my botanical products
NEW website – animal communication, zoopharmacognosy sessions, 1-2-1 support, mentorships & our podcast

Everything now has the space it deserves, making it easier for you (and your animals) to find exactly what you need.

This has been a real labour of love, and I’m so grateful to Melissa Critchley at Wildcurrant Marketing for bringing it all to life so beautifully.

I’d love you to take a look and let me know what you think 💛
(Link in the comments 👇)

16/03/2026

Maybe you’ve seen dogs using communication buttons online?
Pressing buttons for “outside”, “play”, or “food”.
It’s gorgeous and fascinating to watch animals express their needs in that way. 🥰
But animals have been communicating long before buttons existed.
In practices like applied zoopharmacognosy, where animals are offered plant constituents such as herbs and essential oils and allowed to explore them freely, their responses give us insight about how they’re feeling and how we can support them.
They might deeply inhale an aroma, lick a small amount of a specific herb or request topical application to an area of discomfort, or simply move away, indicating a “this one is not for me”
A dog labelled ‘anxious’ may only show interest in plant extracts that soothe the gut. Or one ‘reactive’ dog may choose very grounding extracts while another selects extracts to ease inflammation and pain.

In this video, lovely Jasper is inhaling peppermint essential oil.
Peppermint is often chosen by animals to ease headaches, nausea and to help respiration.
Just like pressing a button, their behaviour, their responses are a doorway to new information about their physical and emotional needs. Their innate way of telling us something. 🌱
Instead of deciding everything for them, we allow their intelligence to guide us.
To lead us to what they need.
It’s not random which grasses they nibble
It’s not random when they dig up and try to nibble certain plants.
Their body knows what they need. We just need to create the opportunity for them to show us.

Many of the questions people bring to me begin with a behaviour that feels challenging. “My dog won’t stop barking.”
“My...
13/03/2026

Many of the questions people bring to me begin with a behaviour that feels challenging.
“My dog won’t stop barking.”
“My cat has started hiding.”
“My horse suddenly refuses to move.”
And the first instinct most of us have is to try and fix it.
Train it.
Manage it.
Correct it.
But behaviour is often just the surface of something deeper……
Animals are living lives beside us, not simply responding to us. They feel their environment, their body, their relationships and the emotional field around them.
What we see as behaviour is an expression of that inner experience.
A signal that something in their world feels uncomfortable, confusing, exciting, overwhelming, or important.
Animal communication opens a different kind of space.
Instead of asking “how do we stop this behaviour?”, we begin to ask:
“What might my animal be trying to share?”
Sometimes the very behaviour we want to change becomes the doorway into a deeper understanding of their world.

There are protocols in equine zoopharmacognosy but honestly, it’s the connection that happens when we slow down, soften,...
15/01/2026

There are protocols in equine zoopharmacognosy but honestly, it’s the connection that happens when we slow down, soften, work with the aromatic plants together and let the horses guide the experience.
That’s where the magic and infinite possibilities come alive.

One of the most common questions I’m asked is how essential oils can help dogs if they’re only inhaling them.We’re very ...
03/01/2026

One of the most common questions I’m asked is how essential oils can help dogs if they’re only inhaling them.

We’re very used to the idea that something has to be applied to the body to have an effect. That largely comes from human aromatherapy, where topical use is common. But for dogs, scent is already central to how they experience and understand the world.

Dogs gather information through smell constantly. Because scent is closely linked to emotion, memory, and physiology, inhalation can influence how a dog feels very quickly. This is why aromatics are often supportive for anxiety, sound sensitivity, stress, and also during physical discomfort such as pain, tension, digestive upset, or inflammation.

What matters most, though, is how essential oils are offered.

This work is about giving dogs choice and agency. Offering scent, watching how they respond, and learning to recognise when they’re saying yes, no, or enough. From there, we build knowledge of individual aromatics based on what your dog actually seeks.

Some dogs engage through inhalation only. Others will clearly ask for topical application by leaning in, presenting part of their body, or rolling after contact. These behaviours are communication, and learning to read them is a skill.

If you’d like to learn how to work with essential oils safely, confidently, and in a way that allows your dog to guide the process, I offer 1–1 sessions to support this.

You can find details via the link in the comments along with my new blog🐾🌿

From the bottom of my heart, sending you a lot of love ❤️ from me to you and yours this Christmas.Thankyou for supportin...
24/12/2025

From the bottom of my heart, sending you a lot of love ❤️ from me to you and yours this Christmas.
Thankyou for supporting our new podcast ‘Unruly by Nature’ (we’re having fun and expanding each time and know our listeners are too).
Episode 9 is out on all platforms now.

Wishing you a fun, restful, day with lots of presence, nourishment and inner peace.

Rachel ###x

14/12/2025

Follow those pulls. The things you’re drawn to do together with your dog that you both really enjoy. You never know when those tools are going to be needed!
You don’t have to go all in, even just some fun basics can set your relationship up for greater communication and collaboration so if things get sticky, you’re confident you can work it out TOGETHER

Address

Brighton And Hove
BN27BT

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 6pm
Tuesday 10am - 6:30pm
Wednesday 10am - 6:30pm
Thursday 10am - 6:30pm
Friday 10am - 6:30pm

Telephone

+447743402300

Website

https://unrulybynaturepodcast.buzzsprout.com/#, https://youtube.com/@rachelknott

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Rachel Windsor-Knott Dip. IAZ Botanical Self-Healing in Animals Optimising the health and well-being of your animal Supplier of high quality natural remedies for animals