CBD Worked Better Than Antidepressants to Calm My Dog’s Anxiety

We’ve been using CBD for our dogs, on and off, for about three years. There’s Axel, who just turned six, and Otter, who’s about to turn four. Axel’s the reason we decided to try CBD (cannabidiol). We adopted him when he was about a year old. For the first two or three months, everything was fine, but when he started jumping up on the table and snitching food, we decided to get a dog trainer…which ended up revealing more problems.

The first incident happened when the trainer walked into our apartment without knocking—Axel went at him without warning. He jumped up and actually bit the trainer. It wasn’t a bad bite or anything, but he ripped his jacket. At first, we were shocked because it had never happened before. He was always so sweet. We were sort of in denial, figuring it was an isolated event because the trainer had come into the house unannounced. We thought we could handle it. But as time went on, we realized it wasn’t an isolated incident. It happened more and more after that. He would nip, growl, and shake when he was around strangers. One time, a guy walked past us and Axel lunged at him. It became a lot harder to deal with than we’d initially anticipated, and it caused us a lot of anxiety and strain. Even though we understood that there are many reasons for anxiety in dogs, we actually had conversations about what our threshold would be—at what point would this be too dangerous?

ⓘ

We began looking for solutions

We ended up taking Axel to a behavioral specialist. We tried to do click training, and we tried to exercise him as much as possible, taking him out on bike rides and long walks. It didn’t help. We finally turned to our vet. Because Alex had a mixture of anxiety and a protective instinct, the vet prescribed the antidepressant Prozac (fluoxetine). (This SSRI has been FDA approved for anxiety in dogs. As in people, it increases the levels of the “feel-good” neurotransmitter serotonin.) We started him on 20 mg, but since we didn’t see any results, we went up to 30 mg. The dog was on a higher dose of Prozac than I was! Since we didn’t feel it was really helping much, we ended up taking him off it when we moved to a house out of the city. What was the point of continuing if it wasn’t doing anything?

Learn how CBD may help calm your pet’s anxiety, manage pain, and more with expert advice inside our all-new book, The Essential Guide to CBD.

We decided to try something new

There was less stimulation for Axel once we moved. We have a big back yard now. We don’t have a lot of neighbors, and people aren’t walking in front of the house all the time, which made him crazy. Still, he’s always at attention, his ears are always up, and he’s always watching what’s going on. A friend of mine in New York told me about a store near her that sold CBD products for animals. I stopped in, and they explained some of their products and how to use them. (Unlike marijuana, CBD won’t get you high, and similar to Prozac, it affects the body’s serotonin system; the body also has unique CBD receptors that work on anxiety. Though made from one variety of cannabis plant, CBD mostly lacks the psychoactive component THC. Still, there are some things you should know about CBD before trying it.)

CBD to the rescue

That’s when we started with CBD treats. We selected the treats because they offered quicker results. They were more as-needed, rather than having to build up in the system like the oil. We used them sparingly because it was more difficult for us to get them back then. The effect was subtle at first, but then I noticed they were really working. Unfortunately, it was too difficult to drive back and forth to get the treats in New York, so we stopped getting them. Then, about a year ago, I went to a local pet expo, and there was a vendor from Your CBD Store, the largest hemp retailer in the United States. They had treats and oils for dogs, and I bought some of each. (It’s important to do your research since veterinarians aren’t legally allowed to recommend CBD for pets, as there have been no formal studies.)