Have you considered CBD to help treat dog aggression? Aggressive behavior in a dog may be scary and difficult to deal with. Discovering the root cause and dealing with the behavior with training is important but also getting support from natural supplements like CBD may be helpful depending on the source of the aggressive behavior.
Many people and pets have found CBD for dog aggression useful with certain types of dogs.
What Causes Dog Aggression?
To say that a dog is “aggressive” can mean a whole host of things. According to the ASPCA, aggression encompasses a range of behaviors that usually begins with warnings and can culminate in an attack.
Why Do Dogs Show Aggression?
Dog aggression can happen for any number of reasons. Often, the cause of the aggression is unknown, but a few common ones include anxiety, boredom, social exclusion, fear, and lack of exercise. Other causes could be stress, parasites, or inflammation.
To properly understand why dog aggression occurs, we need to understand how each individual dog thinks. A dog, just like a person, feels fear when it’s being threatened. When an individual feels fear, they often withdraw from the source of threat and look for an escape route.
According to renowned dog trainer Cesar Malone, for many fear-aggressive dogs, aggression is a result of a lack of adequate dog exercise. When a dog is fearful or has anxiety and the fearfulness results in aggression the dog may look to the side, look away, and sometimes even try to bite if they feel that they may be trapped. Other dogs may try to hide behind a friend or dog, or they will try to flatten their ears back to avoid an unpleasant situation.
Cesar also discusses Red Zone Dogs and dog on dog aggression. With dog on dog aggression, your dogs are asking you to step up as the pack leader. Cesar says that you need to earn your dogs’ trust, loyalty, and respect before the dogs will look to you as their leader and you do this by giving them rules, boundaries, and limitations.
Once your dogs see you as their pack leader, the dog on dog aggression will stop as they stop fighting for dominance because you will be their calm-assertive pack leader.
Whereas Red Zone dogs are usually frustrated dogs. Similar to the dog on dog aggression, to control a powerful breed, you need to master the position of pack leader. The sheer size and strength of a pit bull, Mastiff, Cane Corso, Rottweiler, or any other large dog can quickly transform a frustrated and dominant animal into a serious threat. You must gain control of the situation and dog behavior before it escalates.
What Are the Signs of Aggression in Dogs?
You may have seen certain signs of aggression in dogs before.
The signs of a dog that shows aggression to people usually exhibits of the following behaviors together or in a sequence:
- Becoming very still and rigid
- Guttural bark that sounds threatening
- Lunging forward or charging at the person with no contact
- Mouthing, as though to move or control the person, without applying significant pressure
- Growl
- Baring teeth
- Snarl (a combination of growling and showing teeth)
- Snap
- Quick nip that leaves no mark
- Quick bite that tears the skin
- Bite with enough pressure to cause a bruise
- Bite that causes puncture wounds
- Repeated bites in rapid succession
- Bite and shake
How Can CBD help With Dog Aggression?
If you have a dog with aggression problems, you are not alone. Fortunately, there are many ways to help your pet.
Behavior training is a must but many people also choose to consider natural treatment options to support their dog and manage the aggression and help prevent further aggression-related problems.
Using CBD for dog aggression is one way to support your dog. The CBD, a compound found in the hemp and cannabis plant has Benefits of CBD for Dogs..
Research related to CBD and aggression is growing. A 2019 scientific study found that CBD did indeed have positive effects in treating aggressive behavior in dogs after researchers provided 24 dogs in shelters with CBD.
The researchers indicated that the results were promising but also that more research on CBD related to reducing aggressiveness in dogs needed to be done.
Another Peer reviewed study in Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry looked at CBD treatments for aggression in mice. In the study the researchers found that CBD may be therapeutically useful to treat aggressive behaviors that are usually associated with psychiatric disorders.
The findings of these research studies makes great sense if we consider that CBD induces a calming effect in both dogs and people by interacting with the CB1 and CB2 receptors. A study in 2019 has found that CBD treats a variety of anxiety disorders, including social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Given that anxiety and fear are the primary causes of canine aggression, using CBD for dog aggression as a support for aggressive dogs along with behavior therapy makes good sense and may be worth experimenting with, especially with products like Calm CBD Dog Hemp spray, a powerful calming hemp spray for dogs with added calming terpenes.
Conclusion
In the end, every dog is unique and may be sensitive to a different type of treatment options and therapies. Be sure to consult your veterinarian or holistic vet to see what is best for your dog. CBD may be useful for dog aggression and a very valuable treatment along with behavior adjustments and training.
Products like Calm CBD Hemp Spray are supported by research to reduce anxiety and help your dog. Calm is packed with water soluble, fast absorbing CBD and calming terpenes to help your dog relax and manage environmental stressors which may be a trigger for aggressive behavior.
