Study: Long-term use of CBD supplements lowers aggression in dogs
A study published Friday says dogs given supplements containing hemp-derived cannabidiol, or CBD, over a period of years were reported by their owners to be less aggressive. File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo
Dogs given food supplements containing hemp-derived cannabidiol, or CBD, over a span of several years show reduced levels of aggression, according to a veterinary study published Friday.
The data collected from nearly 50,000 dog owners also reveal a higher prevalence of canine CBD use in states with more progressive cannabis legalization, suggesting that owners who approve of CBD use for themselves transfer those values to their pets as members of their human families.
The study, published in the journal Frontiers of Veterinary Science, was authored by researchers from Arizona State University, the University of Tennessee and members of the Dog Aging Project Consortium, an open U.S. science project dedicated to understanding the biological and environmental factors that influence canine aging and finding ways to prevent debilitating decline.
CBD, a natural compound from the hemp plant that does not produce a “high,” has exploded in use for canines in the United States even though it is not specifically approved for dogs by the Food and Drug Administration. According to one prominent market research firm, the pet CBD market is expected to reach $1.7 billion by 2030.
Many pet owners swear by CBD’s perceived ability to relieve arthritic pain, fight cancer and treat seizures in dogs — similar to many of the claimed medical benefits for CBD in humans. Previous research about its effects on dogs suggests its use is safe and is associated with significant improvement in pain relief and quality of life.
CBD’s usefulness in calming anxious, aggressive dogs — a key claim made by many CBD product makers — has remained anecdotal, with no controlled studies yet demonstrating it to be particularly effective in that way.
However, researchers now claim their deep dive into the mountains of information collected by the Dog Aging Project links CBD use over time with reduced aggressive behavior.
Scientists looked at data entered about 47,355 dogs between 2019 and 2023, in which owners reported how often they gave their dogs CBD or hemp supplements. They determined that after prolonged use, dogs receiving supplements were reported to have below-average aggression levels compared with dogs with no CBD use.
This “could point to a direct effect,” the authors wrote.
But at the same time, they found that related behaviors, such as agitation or anxiety, did not produce similar correlation with CBD use. Study co-author Dr. Julie Albright, an associate professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Tennessee, said it’s not immediately apparent why that is.
“Most canine aggression is related to underlying stress or anxiety, the ‘fight or flight response,’ and it is not entirely clear why only aggression and not other types of anxious or agitated behaviors seemed to be improved with CBD treatment in this study,” she told UPI.
“We could find that CBD preferentially affects neural circuits related to the ‘fight’ versus ‘flight’ of the threat or stress response pathway. The survey study design did not allow for detailed responses about the CBD use from the dog owners.”
One of the study’s drawbacks is that researchers didn’t have any information about which CBD products were used or how much the dogs were dosed, and there was also an incomplete picture about larger behavioral treatment plans.
“For example,” Albright said, “the risk that aggressive dogs pose may have prompted their owners to implement many therapeutic techniques, such as professional behavior modification and strong avoidance of triggers, compared to owners of dogs displaying fear without aggression.
“This multimodal treatment approach may have contributed to better outcomes for aggressive dogs compared to the other types of non-aggressive behavior problems.”
However, she also noted that other prospective clinical studies have demonstrated that CBD can be effective in reducing behaviors that signal fear and anxiety in dogs experiencing distress in certain situations, such as car rides or environments with loud noises.
“Now that we have this data, it is important to dig deeper with additional prospective studies,” she added.
Meanwhile, the paper also found that dogs that received CBD were more likely to live in states in which medical cannabis is legalized for humans, highlighting the “humanization” of pets and how owners make decisions about CBD use.
This demonstrates how “we humans view medical cannabis and cannabidiol as beneficial to humans and dogs alike,” said co-author Maxwell C. K. Leung, an assistant professor of pharmacology and toxicology and cannabis researcher at Arizona State University.
“Medical cannabis is used for a number of human health conditions, such as osteoarthritis and epilepsy,” he said. “Dogs also have similar health conditions, and we give CBD to our animals for the same reasons. I think this is an example of how we treat our companion animals as members of our family.”
The study’s results don’t come as a surprise to Bill Bookout, president and chairman of the National Animal Supplement Council, a trade association that represents manufacturers and suppliers of health and nutritional supplements for dogs, cats and horses.
He told UPI it lines up with related research on CBD sponsored by his group indicating hemp-derived cannabinoids are well-tolerated in healthy dogs at recommended dosage levels.
“I think one of the primary reasons that CBD is used is for dogs is for behavioral issues, whether it’s separation anxiety or fear-based aggression or something similar, so it’s certainly not a stretch for me to believe that CBD could be beneficial for any cognitive issues or for calming purposes, ultimately resulting in the perception that the dogs are less aggressive after a couple years,” he said.
The fact that sales of CBD supplements continue to grow is a good indication they’re working for pet owners, Bookout added, pointing out that pet supplements are a “fast-follow” industry in which advances in human health are quickly followed by adapted uses for animals.
“But since there’s really no ‘placebo effect’ with animals, users will judge these products as either ‘they work’ or ‘they don’t,’ and typically, 99% of the time, if an animal doesn’t respond to the product as the owner expects them to, they’re not going to buy it again.
“‘Calming’ is a big category for these types of products so that’s why I say, just based on the number of companies that have calming products with CBD …. if people did not see the changes that they expected in the animals, we wouldn’t see sales of those products categorically develop, maintain and even increase as they have,” he said.
Another veterinarian who has researched the connections between dog behavior and CBD said the study’s conclusions are “interesting” but also issued a note of caution.
Dr. Joseph Wakshlag, a professor at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, told UPI its results “should be taken with a grain of salt. as it’s not direct treatment comparisons and there is little prospective randomized controlled clinical evidence that this is truly an outcome of CBD administration.”
But, he added, “evidence is accumulating that CBD products can have some behavioral modifying or stress relieving properties and is surely an exciting area of investigation.”