Can CBD help your Dog with Pain and Anxiety?

The holiday season is officially over, and for some dog owners, that means they can finally breathe a sigh of relief. This time of year can be very stressful for our pets. There are holiday parties which either means you’re out of the house for even longer, or there’s a LOT of new faces in your family room. Out-of-town guests may disrupt the happy equilibrium of everyone in their own bed or travel to far-off places which are stressful for all involved.

And to top it off, there are decorations, gifts, rich foods, extra noises, music and maybe even fireworks.

The holidays are just… a lot for Rover.

Dogs who are stressed out don’t act normally and things can stop being fun fast.

They jump up, bark, bite, chew, whine and more.

If you had this experience over the past month and want to avoid it in the future, Andrea (one of our certified cannabis coaches) from the Four Green Dogs Academy is here to help.

She has some tips on giving your dog CBD so everyone can relax.

What Conditions Might CBD Help?

If you’re looking for hard-and-fast scientific studies, you’re going to have to wait a bit longer. Although some trials are currently in progress, we don’t have research-based conclusions yet.

However, we do have thousands of success stories from pet parents who report everything from a slight improvement in behaviour to near-miraculous recoveries for sick pups.

Luckily, along with holiday stress, CBD may prove to be helpful with:

• Anxiety, including separation anxiety
• Pain including from inflammatory conditions
• Behaviour issues like whining and barking
• Seizure conditions
• Nausea
• More 

Can I Give My Dog The Same CBD I Take?

This depends on two factors, the dose of your product and the other ingredients in the product. Although CBD comes in many different forms (flower, oil, cartridges, edibles etc.) we only recommend giving your dog CBD oil or an edible treat made specifically for dogs (both of which you can totally DIY!). 

1. Dosing – most CBD oils come in 1oz bottles but they can vary widely in concentration depending on the brand. As you can imagine, this makes a big difference when dosing your dog. When trying to figure out how much CBD is in each drop, just take the total amount of CBD in your 1oz bottle and divide by 600, which is how many drops in the bottle. We making dosing so easy for you in our online class, Cannabis for Canines.
2. Additional ingredients: This is where the real cause for concern lies. Many foods and additives that are safe for humans can be harmful or even fatal for dogs. In fact, the only cases where a dog has died after consuming cannabis has been when the product contained other ingredients poisonous to dogs. Avoid foods that contain:
3. 1. Chocolate
   2. Macadamia nuts
   3. Raisins
   4. Xylitol (a sweetener)

What about THC?

Dogs are much more sensitive to this psychotropic molecule than humans, and even small overdoses can cause some very uncomfortable symptoms for your dog and maybe even a trip to the vet. That’s not to say that THC isn’t beneficial. Some dogs do very well on higher doses of THC and it’s the only thing that helps their pain. We discuss how to give your dog higher doses of THC safely in our online course.

But my CBD oil has THC!

If your CBD product is derived from hemp, it may contain up to 0.3% THC but this small amount isn’t cause for concern. Most dogs will experience no negative side effects from this tiny percentage. In fact, it likely helps activate the ‘entourage effect’ which is when THC and CBD work in concert to help the other compound work better and longer.  

How To Give Your Dog CBD

If you’re going to use CBD-infused oils, you have a couple of options

1. Drop it right into his or her mouth and ensure they swallow. 
2. If your dog eats their whole meal at once, you can drop it on their food (not a good idea for grazers).

Or, make them a delicious, CBD infused dog treat. We’ve got a great recipe to get you started below! Regardless of how you give it to them, your dog will start to feel better (if the dose is right) within 30 minutes to 2 hours and the effect should last 6-8 hours.

Grain-free CBD Dog Cookies

• 1 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 4  eggs
• 1/2 cup infused coconut oil
• 1 cup + 2 tbsp applesauce, sweet potato puree or pumpkin puree

1. Preheat oven to 325 F  (165 degrees C).
2. In a mixing bowl combine all ingredients and form dough into a ball
3. Roll out dough in between two sheets of parchment paper
4. Gently use your desired cookie cutters to cut and lift cookies into the ideal shape
5. Transfer to a lined baking sheet
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until cookies are hard
7. Let cool completely before serving
8. Store in a sealed container for up to a month.

We hope this quick tutorial has given you the impetus to try CBD with your dog. Maybe it can help ease some of the stress and strain. We’d love to hear your experiences. Why not tell us in the comments below how CBD and/or THC has impacted your dog’s life.

This is a guest post by one of our Cannabis Coaching Institute graduates, Andrea Meharg

If you’re still curious about using cannabis with your dog, you should check out Andrea’s latest online class, Cannabis for Canines. It will teach you everything you need to know to safely give your dog cannabis. 

When she was doing her Cannabis Coach certification at the Cannabis Coaching Institute, Andrea met three other coaches and realized they share a passion for helping dogs feel better with this amazing plant.

They created this course so you can have a shortcut through all the noise and feel good about the choices you’re making for your dog. 

By the end of the online class, you’ll know all about how cannabis works and how the dog body processes it. You’ll be up-to-date on the latest research and we’ll give you tips and tricks for talking to your vet. We’ll talk about different product types and how to choose a good one and you get in-depth training on dosing your dog. In the final module, you’ll learn how to make cannabis-infused treats that your pooch will love. All this PLUS a live Q and A call with the coaches so you can get all your canna-canine questions answered.

They’ve put together a smashing good deal for Wake and Bake readers.

Get the course, valued at $149 for only $75 here.

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