How many times have you wondered why your dog is so restless? Maybe he barks too much with no real reason, follows you everywhere, or even becomes aggressive. We won’t tell you to leave it alone and pretend it is all his or her personality. In many, many cases (sometimes we don’t even realize) our pets struggle with anxiety. And who knows, sometimes there is no particular reason, they are just too anxious!
If you very concerned about your pet’s mental health and trying to find a way to relieve his anxiety, then this article is the right place to start.
Why My Dog has Anxiety?
As a humans best companion, dogs or cats, spend a lot of time with us. They depend on us, especially emotionally. Our pets need constant attention, love and care. So anytime something is changing in our lives they can feel it. Medical Reports Today state that “more than 70% of dogs display anxiety, general fearfulness affected 29% of the dogs in the study. Specifically, 17% of dogs showed fear of other dogs, 15% fear of strangers, and 11% fear of novel situations.”
Also, many scientists believe that anxiety-like behaviours can worsen with time as a dog or cat age. Senior animals might develop noise anxiety, fear of crowded places, fear of heights and even fear of walking on some type of surfaces.
In contrast to older pets, young dogs mostly face hyperactivity, aggression, and separation anxiety problems.
For, example moving into a new place can be stressful on the animal, the same as the arrival of a new family member or a friend to the house. Other dogs or cats, especially adopted or rescued animals, could develop anxiety because of past physical or mental abuse.
All these types of anxious behaviours in dogs must be treated because it can significantly affect their memory, learning abilities, perception, and awareness.
Main Symptoms of Anxiety in Pets
Before we dig in to the solution let’s see what are the main anxiety symptoms. How to recognize if your pet is too anxious?
Most obvious symptoms to look for:
- Pacing
- Panting
- Trembling
- Excessive Barking
- Whining
- Fidgeting
- Aggression
- Vomiting
- Loss of Appetite
- Diarrhea
More hidden symptoms might include:
- Anti-social behaviour
- Displacement behaviour
- Difficulty learning
- Being oversensitive
Traditional Options
In many cases, pet parents try to reach for traditional methods of treatment. Before giving your dog any kind of medication it’s better to consider some radical lifestyle changes.
Likely anxiety can be managed with such changes as a proper healthy diet, daily exercising, longer walks, games and training techniques, and time spent with your furry friend. Just changing and adding these will probably be enough to relieve anxious behaviour in younger dogs or puppies. Remember that it may have taken a long time for the anxiety to build up and they may need to learn that they don’t have to be anxious or afraid anymore.
However, if your doggo or kitty was abused by previous owners and simply had a hard life before the simple changes might not be enough. Time, care and probably anti-anxiety meds like Valium, Ativan or benzodiazepines will be recommended by most vets.
Even though it’s a traditional treatment plan, medication is not always the best solution. First, because of all the strong side effects. Second, the dog simply might not respond well to such treatment.
CBD Oil for Anxious Pets Can Help
As we discussed before, every pet has an endocannabinoid system that builds from CB1 and CB2 receptors. These receptors are spread all over the body so the whole system can manage to keep overall health in a balanced mode. CBD as a natural component can interact with the CB1 and CB2 receptors and assist the endocannabinoid system in its important job. That’s why CBD is so helpful when it comes to pain management or mental health balance.
Because we and our pets have CB1 and CB2 receptors in our neuro system, CBD can target anxiety and help control stress, depression, and mood disorders. When CBD enters the body and reaches our brain it naturally increases serotonin levels and boosts signalling between the receptors. As a result, it reduces anxiety and fear and improves the pet’s mood behaviour.
How I Give CBD to My Pet?
So you are planning to introduce CBD oil to your anxious pet and curious exactly how to give them the supplement? The only difference between us and animals is that they might need a smaller dosage. We have this excellent Dosage Calculator to help you find your pet’s perfect dosage according to his weight and size.
Always monitor your dog’s response and adjust the dosage accordingly. Usually, it is recommended to give the oil under the pet’s tongue, but if your doggo is scared or it gets too messy you can always add it to his food. CBD oil doesn’t have any scent to it and no taste (if no other oil is added).
Products Suggestion
Seeing many pets struggling and recovering from anxiety Pawt4Paws highly recommends using CBD as an oil product. It absorbs better and once it builds up in the body it can start the healing process.
In this case of your pet having occasional episodes of anxiety (such as car anxiety or thunderstorm anxiety) than it might be good to feed them CBD treats. Sometimes the small bite is all he needs to feel better at the moment.
Yes, CBD oil for anxious pets might take some time to work its wonders but it is totally worth a try.
Keeping his mental health balanced is an important part of your pet’s health routine. You want him to be happy and enjoy his life!
Check out our store for some CBD options and give your pet a chance to be relieved, relaxed and much more confident in a regular stressful situation.
