According to a new study, dogs who receive daily doses of CBD see “significant reductions” in stress and anxiety related to car travel. The 20 dogs involved in the study, published in the Journal of Animal Science, all exhibited signs of stress and anxiety when riding in a car—but the canines treated with CBD two hours before taking the trip showed meaningful improvements over a 24-week review period.
Specific measures of stress, such as whining and levels of the hormone cortisol in the blood, “were significantly influenced by CBD administration,” the study says, “indicating daily dosing at 4mg/kg may have a mild anxiolytic effect on dogs when traveling in a car.”
The placebo group’s stress levels also decreased by the end of the study, suggesting that the dogs became habituated to driving. However, the CBD cohort, on average, had lower post-test cortisol from the onset of the treatment that was sustained. Because cortisol was still present in the blood, the authors said the non-intoxicating cannabinoid didn’t seem to eliminate stress, so they posited that CBD is “best used in combination with other interventions, such as behavioral modification therapy, to alleviate canine stress fully.”
