Best CBD for Dogs

CBD isn’t just beneficial for people — it can also help your dog. Because dogs have an endocannabinoid system (like most animals), they are receptive to the effects of cannabis.1 Dogs also live with many of the same health issues as humans, including anxiety and chronic pain, so it’s an easy, logical jump to guess that CBD may help dogs in the same ways.

Finding the right CBD product for your dog can be a challenge, though. The market is filled with thousands of options online, including CBD oils, treats, balms, and more. You might’ve noticed that your local pet shop also sells several different kinds of CBD for your pets. But many products are of low quality or simply contain too little CBD. We compared dozens of brands to find the best options for you based on your dog’s needs.

If you don’t have time to read the whole guide, check out our summary of recommendations below.

We get it: your dogs are your life. (Our dogs come first, too.) Whether you’re a certified dog mom or someone just learning the ins and outs of your first rascally puppy, there are a few things you want to guarantee when you’re deciding on a CBD product to give them:

• Product safety
• It’s an appropriate formula that will address everything they need for their age, size, and health or behavioral concerns
• You won’t have to pay hand over fist for the product
• It’s easy to give them (and easy to order)

We consider these essential factors in the order listed above — it’s most important to guarantee their safety, which dovetails with the product’s formulation. Cost is still important, but less so than your dog’s safety; convenience plays a role, but an inexpensive, effective, and inconvenient product will ultimately be better than a convenient product that doesn’t help your pup and wastes your money.

Lazarus Naturals’ CBD oil won our pick for the safest CBD for dogs because of how much precise information it shares in each certificate of analysis and because it uses home-grown, USDA-certified organic hemp with easy-to-understand dosing. The same oil from Lazarus Naturals also has the best value per serving; you can spend $20 on a 600mg bottle of CBD (that’s $0.03 per milligram, which is almost seven times less expensive than average for our list). However, Innovet has the best formulation in its CBD chews — a seven-item roster with short, grain-free ingredient lists, malleable CBD doses, and specialized formulas for every major concern CBD can assist. And Innovet’s product is the most convenient to order and give to your dog. After all, what’s easier than handing your dog a treat that tastes like steak and cheese?

Safety

Winner: Lazarus Naturals

For a CBD product to be safe for your dog, it needs to be easy to dose. And companies with clear testing protocols and easy-to-see results are going to be your safest options.

A startlingly large percentage of CBD companies don’t actually give as much CBD per dose as the package claims, so a certificate of analysis (testing results from a third party) with cannabinoid content breakdown is the bare minimum. Ideally, these companies should also have the National Animal Supplement Council (NASC) Seal of Quality Assurance, the best way to guarantee the company takes manufacturing safety seriously.

While Lazarus Naturals doesn’t have the NASC certification (as it’s primarily a human CBD manufacturer), it does have the most transparent certificate of analysis. Three of the seven companies on our list don’t list potential contaminant testing in full (missing things like residual solvents and pesticides), and a fourth doesn’t share certificates of analysis prior to purchase at all.

Lazarus Naturals uses the same home-grown, USDA-certified organic hemp in its dog CBD products as it does in its human products. And our testers found that the CBD oil is concentrated enough that you can give a small dog a few drops effectively, side-stepping difficult measurements; that said, Lazarus Naturals is one of the only companies that actually has measurement labels on the dropper, so dogs of all sizes can enjoy accurate dosing of well-tested CBD.

Formulation

Winners: Innovet

This category is a little tricky to decipher when discussing CBD for dogs. You can find soft treats with additional joint-supporting ingredients for elderly dogs with arthritis, potent oils for dogs who can’t sleep at night, and hundreds of other permutations for every canine catastrophe in between. However, there are a few things that we look for in a good formula: zero THC (which is toxic for dogs), multiple potency options with easy dosing methods, and something your dog will find appetizing. After all, it’s not worth purchasing a CBD product if you have to wrestle with your dog to try and get it in their mouth (making their anxiety worse).

If Innovet doesn’t have a CBD dog treat with a formula that helps your dog, they may not benefit from CBD at all. The company has seven different types of treats — some hard and bone-shaped, some soft. Some are specialized for concerns like mobility support or digestive issues. All of them are appropriately dosed and easy to cut or break. They’re made from full-spectrum CBD but tested with 0% THC in multiple certificates of analysis, and they have appetizing flavors like steak and cheese. They resemble traditional dog treats much more than CBD oil, and while it may lose a little bit of efficacy and take slightly longer to kick in than oil, you’re more likely to succeed in your quest to help your dog calm down because you can give them the entire dose easily in one sitting.

As a plus, these CBD chews are made from USDA-certified organic hemp and have limited grain-free ingredient lists. Innovet also provides a table that clarifies exactly how much of each treat to give your dog, depending on their size. However, you can’t buy these treats in South Carolina due to local laws.

Cost

Winner: Lazarus Naturals

Lazarus Naturals has fantastic deals on its high-potency, high-quality human CBD. But unlike some CBD brands, its quality doesn’t stop when the company makes pet CBD. Where the average pet CBD product is four or five times more expensive than human CBD (about 20 cents per milligram of CBD versus 5-7 cents), Lazarus Naturals keeps the price of its CBD Oil Pet Tincture in the same price range as its human CBD tinctures (about $0.03 per milligram of CBD). You’ll find that same $0.03 per milligram in our top pick, Innovet’s CBD oil, but only at its largest bottle size, which means shelling out $200 up-front. You can buy one small 600mg bottle from Lazarus Naturals for $20 — one-tenth of the price — with the same value.

It’s one of only two companies on our list that offers an assistance program, with a whopping 60% discount for veterans, low-income households, and people with long-term disabilities. The cost of shipping is average, but it also has a 90-day return window, which is three times longer than average.

Convenience

Winner: Innovet

Some dogs will eat anything you put in front of them (including things you don’t mean for them to eat or even things you put away). Others are much pickier. A convenient CBD product for your dog is easy to dose and one that they’re more than likely going to eat. However, ease of ordering is also important to us in a convenience score. Is a product difficult to buy? Does the company have a subscription program so you don’t have to remember to reorder it when the bag or bottle gets low? Also, if your orders often get backed up in slow shipping times, it can be just as inconvenient as a treat your dog rejects.

Innovet’s CBD dog treats are small biscuits shaped like traditional dog bones and flavored with steak and cheddar cheese. Obviously, these went over very well with our dog tester, Zeppelin. Each chew contains 5mg CBD, and they’re easy to break in half for a low dose. They’re also small enough that you can give a larger dog multiple small bones to help them calm down without ruining their dinner. Innovet also offers a thorough chart on the product page, helping to decipher dosing based on your dog’s weight, though it doesn’t register a half bone as an option for small dogs. There are 25 chews in each bag, so it could be easy for larger dogs to run out quickly, but Innovet’s subscription program means you don’t have to remember to reorder every month. Considering CBD oil requires mixing oil into their food, depositing it in their mouth, or rubbing it on their gums, the ability to snap a treat in half, hand it off, and see the same (if not better) calming effects is incredibly convenient. And without extra ingredients, these treats work for dogs experiencing all kinds of problems that CBD can help solve.

CBD has only been federally legal in the U.S. since 2018, meaning there have only been a few years where it’s been possible for us all to become acquainted with the substance — and for online retailers to build national reputations.

We’ve spent hundreds of hours researching and testing various CBD products, from full-spectrum oils to isolate gummies with herbal additions. We’ve read over 150 studies investigating how CBD works; for this specific review, we additionally read more than 50 studies investigating how human and canine physiology varies when it comes to CBD. And our team members got help from our canine buddies to test CBD options from top companies, including Innovet, Honest Paws, CBDfx, Lazarus Naturals, and others.

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions about staying healthy and living healthier lifestyles. Like all health-related content on this website, this review was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy. To keep things up to date, we monitor the CBD landscape and update this page as information changes.

We’ve put together a chart to help you quickly compare the most important factors between our top picks. Below, you’ll find fast facts comparing these oils, balms, and treats.

Note: Balms don’t have traditional serving sizes since the amount you need will vary depending on the size of the area where you’re applying it.

And because we investigate a few products from the same companies, here’s a quick breakdown of company-specific policies that are important to keep in mind.

Cannabidiol (CBD) is one of two major cannabinoids found in cannabis plants. Unlike the other major cannabinoid (THC), CBD does not get you high. Instead, it generally calms anxiety, improves sleep quality, and relieves pain by quieting nociceptors (the receptors responsible for telling your brain you’re in pain). There are two kinds of cannabinoid receptors: CB1, which is mostly found in the brain and is responsible for the psychoactive high of THC, and CB2, which is found throughout the body (with higher concentrations in immune tissue and the digestive system). CBD was even approved by the FDA for human use in 2018 as a prescription for certain kinds of treatment-resistant epilepsy.

You can find CBD sold in many forms:

• Oil or tincture
• Capsule or softgel
• Treat (like dog biscuits)
• Topical cream
• Roll-on oil
• Balm

While you won’t be able to get your dog to hold an oil under their tongue for a minute to take it sublingually as a human can, you can still use different forms of CBD for varying effects. In fact, each of these methods has its own benefits and drawbacks:

Topical CBD generally works best for dogs with arthritis, itchy spots, or muscle pain. Researchers aren’t sure if topical CBD, which sinks through the skin and quiets nociceptors in that location, makes it into the bloodstream for systemic circulation. Oral CBD — through treats, oils, or capsules — is much more likely to help a dog who can’t sleep, is struggling with separation anxiety, or is pacing in the backseat of your car.

Within each kind of product, you’ll find three types of CBD:

• Isolate (pure CBD)
• Full-spectrum (CBD plus all of the cannabinoids, terpenes, and other natural ingredients found in hemp, including THC)
• Broad-spectrum (the same cannabinoids as full-spectrum but without THC)

In humans, full-spectrum CBD products are believed to be the most effective because of the entourage effect, the way that minor cannabinoids, THC, and CBD work together. However, THC is toxic for dogs (and other pets), so a good CBD product for your dog will avoid THC altogether. If you choose to use a full-spectrum CBD product, be mindful of how much you give your dog in one sitting. Keep a close eye out for the following symptoms of THC toxicity:

• Vomiting
• Lethargy
• Diarrhea
• Exaggerated response to stimuli
• Disorientation (which may look like hyperactivity and being more vocal than usual)
• Lack of appetite
• Ataxia (loss of muscle control, looking wobbly or uncoordinated)
• Seizures

For more information about CBD in general, check out our starter guide to CBD.

Yes, CBD is safe for healthy adult dogs. Researchers have been seriously investigating CBD for dogs since the 1980s and have found only a few mild side effects. A recent 12-week study found that giving dogs oral CBD twice a day didn’t produce any side effects.2 And a similar 2021 study using high doses of up to 12mg per kilogram of body weight only found a few mild side effects, like excess salivation and some increased liver enzymes.3

However, THC is toxic for dogs because they have more CB1 receptors in their brains than humans.4 A 2020 study that tested the effects of CBD-rich extracts in dogs found that high doses (10mg CBD alongside 0.5mg THC/kg of body weight) caused side effects, such as hyperesthesia (increased sensitivity of the senses, like sight or touch), swaying, and abnormal movements. These effects were attributable to THC rather than CBD.5

With this in mind, it’s especially important to ensure the CBD you get for your pet is made from hemp, not cannabis. Hemp is grown with less than 0.3% THC, so it’s much less likely to have enough to hurt your pet. If you use a full-spectrum CBD product for your dog, be especially mindful of how much you’re giving your dog. It’s always a good idea to “start low and go slow,” or initially give your dog a very low dose and see how they react before increasing the dose until you find what works for you both.

Liver enzymes and CBD

It’s important to note that CBD interferes with a family of liver enzymes called cytochrome P450. These liver enzymes metabolize almost half of all prescription medications. You might notice that some medications say you shouldn’t eat grapefruit while you’re taking them. This is because grapefruit is well-known for interfering with cytochrome P450. Dogs also have cytochrome P450 enzymes; although the specific enzymes of the highest importance are slightly different between the two species, the general concept still stands.6 And while grapefruits are generally toxic to dogs and aren’t a great representative like in humans, you still shouldn’t give your dog CBD if they take any of the following medications:

• Blood thinners
• Antidepressants
• Proton pump inhibitors
• Sedatives
• Anticonvulsants
• Immunosuppressants
• Anti-infectives
• Statins

This is a non-exhaustive list; talk to your veterinarian to make sure that CBD won’t interfere with your dog’s prescription regimen.

Like all animals (except for insects), dogs have cannabinoid receptors that are very similar to humans. They have more CB1 receptors in their brains than we do, but CBD doesn’t directly interact with cannabinoid receptors. Instead, CBD acts as an intermediary in different processes throughout the body, helping us (and them) find balance. These include:

• Opioid receptors and endorphins
• Serotonin (5HT-1a) receptors
• Pain receptors, also known as nociceptors
• Ion gates and channels that control when neurotransmitters fire

CB1 receptors are most common in the brain but can be found scattered throughout the body, including in the skin, lungs, and muscles; CB2 receptors stay much closer to the immune system and corresponding organs, such as the spleen.

Generally speaking, there isn’t as much research on CBD’s benefits for dogs as there is on humans and lab animals. The endocannabinoid system is one of the biggest systems in mammal bodies, and while it hasn’t been explored much, what we do know is promising.

A 2019 survey of 2,130 American veterinarians reported that 82.2% approved or strongly approved the medical use of CBD and hemp products for dogs.17 CBD was most commonly discussed by vets or pet owners for helping with pain, anxiety, seizures, storm or fireworks-related phobias, and gastrointestinal conditions. Vets may be hesitant to bring CBD up first, but don’t hesitate to bring it up with yours if you’re curious about helping your dog.

All in all, it’s clear that CBD has many of the same potential benefits for dogs as for humans. But research is still in its early stages, and more evidence is needed.

Many dogs can experience positive benefits from adding CBD to their daily routines, but there are three major concerns that CBD helps with most: anxiety, pain (especially joint pain), and inflammation.

If your dog gets very scared in specific situations, such as during thunderstorms, fireworks, and other loud situations — or if they hate car rides — giving them CBD 30-60 minutes before the event will likely help calm them and get them through a hard time. These dogs likely won’t need CBD daily. But if they’re perpetually anxious and jumpy, a daily dose of CBD may help them unlearn fearful patterns. (Speak with your vet first if this is the case, as a medication like gabapentin may be a better option.)

Senior dogs — especially those with arthritis or stiff joints — can benefit from CBD, as can breeds that are more prone to joint problems, like Labradors, German Shepherds, Golden Retrievers, and Dachshunds. CBD is no cure or treatment for arthritis or achy bones, but it works similarly to painkillers without the risks of NSAID overuse. Some CBD formulas include ingredients like glucosamine and omega-3s that can slow the progression of joint deterioration, which are ideal for dogs with joint problems.

Dogs with itchy skin can also get a lot out of CBD products. If you’ve ruled out serious medical problems but your dog keeps itching in one particular spot, giving them CBD can lower the local inflammation that might be bothering them, which will help them stop itching and give the spot time to heal. Some studies even suggest that CBD itself can help repair the skin. This is great for dogs with seasonal allergies and those whose anxious tic is itching in a particular area. Both oral CBD and topical CBD applied directly to the area will help (as long as there’s no broken skin).

Best overall (oil), most potent (oil), and best dog treats

Innovet is our top pick for both major forms of CBD for dogs (oils and treats). This company sells a range of pet care products beyond CBD, but oils and treats are where the company really shines. Both CBD Oil for Dogs and CBD Dog Treats are full product lines; CBD Oil has six different strengths, and CBD Dog Treats have seven different formulas for various concerns that CBD can address.

One thing that stood out to our testers is Innovet’s dosage chart. On every CBD product’s webpage (sandwiched between two parts of a very large FAQ section), the company lays out exactly how much of each treat or oil you should give your dog, based on their weight and if you want to give them an average or strong dose (as well as the absolute upper limit, for safety’s sake). The charts aren’t perfect — they round a half-chew down to zero, for example — but they save a lot of time for people who aren’t fantastic at math.

Innovet also offers free shipping and a 15% discount for those who join the subscription program. You can have a new bottle delivered at the following intervals:

• 30 days
• 45 days
• 60 days
• 90 days

While 15% isn’t the biggest savings deal (the average for CBD products is closer to 20-30%), Innovet’s prices are naturally on the lower end. You can also earn free shipping if you purchase at least $30 of products; almost every product breaches this threshold. And while the company doesn’t have a discount program to make its products more affordable for populations who might not otherwise access CBD, its affordability and high potencies make it a much more reasonable grasp than most competitors.

Innovet also clearly and directly points you to its certificate of analysis in the menu where you specify what you want to order on each product page. The certificate opens in a pop-up, and only a small sliver shows at a time, so it’s difficult to read (like many things on the website). Unfortunately, Innovet only shows the first page of the certificate, which breaks down cannabinoid content. There’s no information available about potential contaminants. This is disappointing to us, as we’d expect more safety information from an organization that makes otherwise great CBD products.

CBD Oil

Our top pick for the best CBD for dogs is undeniably Innovet’s CBD Oil for Dogs. While it’s not the only CBD oil for dogs made from USDA organic hemp (Lazarus Naturals and Honest Paws are as well), it’s a straightforward, no-nonsense oil. It comes in one bottle size — 30mL — and six different potencies. Like Honest Paws CBD oil, this oil is broken down into different strengths depending on your dog’s weight. However, Innovet offers a few more sizes.

Here’s how much CBD you’ll get per serving and what you’ll pay for each:

While the strongest tincture is very strong and not appropriate for a lot of dogs, it does have an extremely low price of three cents per milligram of CBD.

CBD Dog Treats

Dog treats are a popular alternative to CBD oil because they’re easy to use and contain other beneficial ingredients. We particularly liked Innovet’s CBD dog treats because of their innovative, multi-ingredient formulas. However, one stood out to us — the Standard Hard Chews — as the best option for most dogs. These chews look, smell, and feel exactly like a small, bone-shaped dog biscuit. Though they come in only one flavor — steak and cheese — it’s a crowd-pleasing flavor and provides 2.5mg of CBD per chew.

Each bag contains 25 treats, or 125mg of total CBD. Among Innovet’s catalog, this is actually the smallest number of chews per bag and is on the small side compared to other companies’ dog chew lines (such as Lazarus Naturals, which offers 30 per bag, and Charlotte’s Web, which lets you pick between 30 and 60).

These chews are also a little more expensive than both Lazarus Naturals and Charlotte’s Web’s treats. One bag costs $23.95 one time or $20.36 with a subscription.

While we like Innovet’s Standard Hard Chews the best for most dogs, the company has an impressive range of other treats with specialized formulas:

Our experience with Innovet

Our primary tester for dog CBD is a small (14lb) dog named Zeppelin. Zeppelin is young and spry but tends to be anxious and hyperactive. He was lucky enough to try both the oil and treats from Innovet, and these were his (and his owner’s) favorites.

Giving Zeppelin some of Innovet’s CBD oil was surprisingly easy. We wish that the dropper had labels like Lazarus; we feel that the labeled dropper is more broadly user-friendly than droppers without any label, though this oil is concentrated enough that Zeppelin only needed a few drops to see an effect.

We expected Innovet’s CBD oil to be more potent than the treats, as CBD oils work best in humans with sublingual absorption. However, we noticed that Zeppelin responded just as well, if not better, to the treats. Not only did he seriously relax on them, but they were considerably easier to give than administering an oil by hand or mixing it into his food. His owner plans to reorder Innovet’s treats and try one of the Advanced formulas in the future.

Best for relaxation

If your furry companion is suffering from a specific issue, such as fireworks anxiety or joint problems, they might be better suited for a specially formulated CBD oil. The CBD oils from Honest Paws come in three varieties:

• Well: Standard full-spectrum CBD oil
• Mobility: CBD oil with anti-inflammatory turmeric extract to support joint health
• Calm: CBD oil with the relaxing herb chamomile to promote calm and help with anxiety

We found Honest Paws’ Calm formula to be one of the highest-quality calming oils for dogs. It includes a very small amount of chamomile, which is a powerful sedative and depressant for dogs, alongside CBD made from organic hemp.

While stronger herbal anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) ingredients like lemon balm and passionflower exist, they can be dangerous for dogs. Even chamomile can be toxic in high doses. Honest Paws balances calming properties with your dog's health by adding 100mcg (0.01mg) of chamomile to each 1mL serving. However, chamomile interacts poorly with some medications:

• Blood thinners
• Sedatives
• NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications like ibuprofen)

If your dog takes any of those medications, you should stay away from Honest Paws’ Calm oil drops.

The dropper has measurement lines labeled up to 1mL, which is the full dose suggested on the bottle. However, when our dog tester was given what the bottle describes as a serving for a dog his size, his owner reported that it felt like a little too much. He was much more heavily sedated by this CBD oil than any other oil. Don’t be afraid to start conservatively when first giving your dog this CBD oil; it does pack a punch, but that makes it incredibly effective for dogs with serious anxiety issues.

You can purchase a bottle once or subscribe to Honest Paw’s subscription program, which saves 15% and sends you a new bottle every 30 days. This isn’t the biggest discount; most subscription savings are 20-30%.

Honest Paws offers its Calm CBD Oil Drops in four bottle sizes:

This CBD oil is definitely on the expensive side, costing $0.10-$0.32 per milligram of CBD. The Large and Extra Strength bottles are much closer to a reasonable price, but the Small and Medium bottles are more expensive than other CBD oils for your dog. However, shipping is free for orders over $48; if you order one Small bottle once, you’ll pay $2.99, which is the lowest shipping fee on our list.

Honest Paws uses USDA-certified organic hemp and has NASC certification for its products. You can check out the certificates of analysis, but they aren’t linked in plain sight on the top of the page; instead, maneuver to the bottom of any page on Honest Paw’s website to check out the certificates of analysis. Unfortunately, they don’t note any information about residual solvents or pesticides. Since the hemp oil is certified USDA organic, it’s extremely likely that they do not contain pesticides, but we’d still like to see information about residual solvents.

Best budget option (oil) and best for digestive health (chews)

When it comes to getting the best bang for your buck, we recommend Lazarus Naturals. This CBD company consistently shows up on our best CBD guides because it has perfected the balance of low prices and high-quality CBD. It’s an employee-owned B-corporation that grows its own USDA-certified organic hemp and then sells CBD at ridiculously low prices. While it mostly makes CBD for humans, the company does have a few pet products that still hold up as well as the CBD you consume. Lazarus Naturals also has very thorough 15-page certificates of analysis linked on each product page, where you can learn about each batch’s:

• Cannabinoid breakdown
• Heavy metals
• Pesticides
• Residual solvents
• Microbial contaminants
• Chain of custody (who had the sample when)

While these certificates can be difficult to parse, the first page provides a handy summary so you don’t have to get lost comparing E. coli and mold analysis methods if you don’t want to.

Lazarus Naturals offers free shipping on orders over $50 (a $5 fee if you don’t meet that threshold) and provides a 60% discount through an assistance program for veterans, low-income households, and people with disabilities. It also has a return window three times longer than average, so you can try any CBD product for up to 90 days before returning it if it doesn’t work for your dog. However, the company doesn’t offer a subscription program, so you’ll have to remember to reorder your CBD.

Pet CBD Oil Tincture

Lazarus Naturals’ full-spectrum CBD pet tincture comes in two flavors: classic (unflavored) and wild salmon, which also has wild salmon and wild pollock oil to give your dog a little boost in omega-3 content for their joints.

Our testers noted that Lazarus Naturals’ droppers for this CBD oil were identical to the droppers used in the company’s human CBD products, with clear labels for dosing. Despite Lazarus Naturals using less CBD than in said high-potency, full-spectrum CBD oil, the formula is still very strong. A small dog like Zeppelin only took a few drops, not enough to need the measuring lines. However, larger dogs definitely benefit from the accurate dosing that clearly labeled droppers provide.

A 30mL (600mg) bottle costs $20, and a 120mL (2,400mg) bottle costs $60. This means that you only pay 2-3 cents per milligram of CBD, which is one of the lowest prices we found for pet CBD (or human CBD, for that matter). And considering it uses USDA-certified organic hemp grown by the employees, we think it’s an exceptionally good deal.

Pumpkin Digestive Health CBD Dog Chews

CBD doesn’t have much to do with the digestive system, but it still can lower inflammation, which affects every part of the body. Your dog can develop IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) just like a human can, and an inflamed bowel is one that’s more likely to have accidents in the house; likewise, gastritis, or sudden or repeated vomiting caused by stomach inflammation, can happen in dogs, too. Lazarus Naturals made a unique CBD chew to help dogs struggling with digestive health.

Every treat contains 10mg of full-spectrum CBD and several additional organic ingredients for your dog’s digestive health:

• Pumpkin powder
• Garbanzo bean flour (non-organic)
• Salmon oil (non-organic)
• Virgin coconut oil
• Molasses (non-organic)
• Inulin (from Jerusalem artichokes)
• Probiotic blend (Bacillus coagulans and Bacillus subtilis)
• Curcumin

This is a hefty ingredient list. It has prebiotics, which are fibers that can’t be digested but that feed our gut microbiome, where bacteria thrive and keep our bodies in homeostasis. Bacillus coagulans is a particularly good probiotic for dogs with diarrhea, as it seems to have anti-inflammatory effects.19 Likewise, Bacillus subtilis reduces gas formation and can help reduce unpleasant odors coming out of your dog.20 Salmon oil and coconut oil both have healthy omega-3 fatty acids, which reduce inflammation, as does curcumin from turmeric. And pumpkin is an easy go-to for soothing an upset stomach in most dogs.

These round chews — which have a hand-scoring line down the middle like a pill for easy halving — have recently doubled their CBD content without shifting their price. One bag of 30 chews costs $20, which is $0.67 per chew or $0.07 per mg CBD. Considering the potency and great formula of these chews, this is one of the best deals we’ve seen.

Best for senior dogs

Brady’s Senior Formula CBD Oil from Austin & Kat is designed to meet the needs of older dogs. This is the best CBD oil for dogs who are at least six years old, especially those who are beginning to show signs of aging — a foggy memory or dazed look, cloudy eyes, poor immunity, and poor circulation.

Each bottle of oil contains 450mg of broad-spectrum CBD, as well as several other ingredients:

• Reishi mushroom
• Holy basil extract
• Ginkgo biloba
• Bilberry
• Hawthorn berry
• New Zealand green-lipped mussel
• Turmeric rhizome
• Hempseed oil

Specifically, this breaks down as 60.9mg of omega-3 fatty acids, 15mg CBD, and 52.1mg of a proprietary blend of the above non-hempseed ingredients in every mL serving. Proprietary blends are generally used when a company doesn’t want to share its exact formula with competitors, but there’s a downside for the customer: it keeps you in the dark about what exactly it is you (or your dog) consumes.

A few of these added ingredients immediately make sense — green-lipped mussel and hempseed oil are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, and turmeric is a well-backed anti-inflammatory ingredient. But the first five ingredients are potent nootropics we wouldn’t necessarily expect to see in a pet formula. Nootropics are supplements (or ingredients) that boost certain aspects of your cognition, such as emotional control, motivation, and focus. In particular, ginkgo biloba has strong research backing its ability to improve short-term memory, as well as anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Hawthorn berry, bilberry, holy basil extract, and reishi mushroom all have some research supporting their abilities to improve memory and focus, but not as much as ginkgo. And none of these ingredients have been clinically tested in dogs. However, based on what we know about dog cognition, there’s no reason to believe that these ingredients wouldn’t work for dogs the same way they work for us.

If your dog isn’t a fan of the oil, Austin & Kat also offers its senior formula in chew form for elderly dogs that still have their teeth.

To view the certificates of analysis, you need to enter your email. It’s unclear why this is (other than the fact that it’s a PDF in Dropbox), but more alarming is that it only measures cannabinoid content. There’s no indication of testing for things like heavy metals, bacteria, mold, residue from the extraction process, or other contaminants. Considering how seriously Austin & Kat takes pet care, including testing its hemp oil before it goes off to the manufacturing facility, this raises some serious questions for us.

One bottle costs $64.95, or you can join Austin & Kat’s subscription program to receive a 15% discount ($55.21) and a new bottle every 30 days. You’ll automatically unlock free shipping, as both a one-time order and subscription purchase are over the $50 free shipping threshold.

Best topical and best for skin health

You might not immediately think of a topical CBD product for your dog, but it should be on your list if your dog has particularly stiff joints or a spot where they won’t stop itching. Topical CBD can be a good option for relieving localized inflammation in the paws, nose, skin, or joints. While it won’t go as far as to calm their nerves (researchers aren’t sure that CBD can cross into the bloodstream effectively from a topical application), it can definitely relieve inflammation where applied.

Each Nose to Toes balm stick contains 250mg of broad-spectrum CBD, as well as several other skin-soothing ingredients:

• Sunflower seed oil
• Beeswax
• Shea butter
• Cocoa seed butter (organic)
• Coconut oil (organic)
• Mixed tocopherol
• Rosemary leaf extract (organic)

We appreciate that the balm contains several different oils and butters rich with healthy polyunsaturated linolenic, alpha-linolenic, and gamma-linolenic fatty acids. These are great for your dog’s skin and fur on top of CBD’s anti-inflammatory properties. Most importantly, these ingredients are all safe for your pet to ingest, and the product is THC-free. Because even though the balm is unscented and unflavored, some dogs may not be able to resist the urge to lick, and we like knowing that we aren’t putting our furry friends in danger in case they do.

We did question if the CBD used in the Nose to Toes Dog Balm came from organic hemp. While the company states that the hemp is non-GMO and from the U.S., the website does not explicitly say if it is organic (unlike some of our other favorite brands, like Innovet, Honest Paws, and Lazarus Naturals). However, Paw CBD provides an excellent and thorough certificate of analysis, and we were happy to note the lack of pesticides, residual solvents, heavy metals, microbes, and mycotoxins in the Nose to Toes Dog Balm. You can look up the certificate for your specific batch on the website, as well.

One stick contains 0.5oz of Paw CBD Nose to Toes Dog Balm at $24.99. And while it’s difficult to say exactly how much balm goes into one application, we can break down the CBD cost to $0.10 per milligram. Paw CBD has a subscription program that gives you 25% off each order (upgraded to 30% for your first order). You can choose the frequency of deliveries, with options of every two weeks, one month, or two months. Another nice perk is that the company offers free shipping on all orders in the U.S., regardless of whether you use the subscribe and save program.

Paw CBD also offers a 60-day money-back guarantee with all orders, which is generous among the products that made our top picks. The company will honor a refund for any reason and will send you a shipping label if you need to return an item.

There are several aspects that we have liked about the Calming and Moisturizing Pet CBD balm from CBDfx, which provides 750mg of broad-spectrum CBD. By using broad-spectrum CBD, CBDfx allows your furry friend to benefit from some of the entourage effect without risking any exposure to even very small amounts of THC. However, this product is going out of stock all over the place and is no longer offered on the CBDfx website, leading us to believe it’s been discontinued either permanently or temporarily. If you come across the product for sale in other venues, hopefully this information will help you.

Specifically, this balm includes:

• Broad-spectrum CBD
• Hemp seed oil
• Alaskan salmon oil
• Shea butter
• Candelilla wax
• Essential oil blend

The lavender, Roman chamomile, and rosemary essential oils were evidently included to do more than just make it a pleasant experience to apply, but our assessment here is more mixed. Chamomile and rosemary, used in moderation, can be beneficial to your dog’s skin and coat. But rosemary essential oil can do more to irritate or harm your dog; vets suggest that fresh rosemary or rosemary extract, in moderation, could be much safer for helping your dogs get the benefits rosemary can bring for skin and coat.

Similarly, exposure to lavender is not as reliably useful as chamomile and may hurt your pet; the scent can calm some dogs with anxiety, though some dogs experience skin or respiratory irritation if exposed too frequently to lavender (and dogs should not ingest lavender). While CBDfx’s generous 60-day return policy allows you to get a refund if the product doesn’t work well for your dog, we wouldn’t have been willing to promote this product as a top pick, unfortunately, because of the multiple ways in which its ingredients could irritate your furry friend (even as some other ingredients were very thoughtfully included).

At 12.5mg of CBD per mL, it’s been one of the strongest pet topicals on the market. It’s not easy to figure out exactly how much is one mL from the thick balm, though, which is a downside to all topical CBD balms.

One container holds 2oz (60mL) of balm, costing $39.99. CBDfx doesn’t offer any subscription or assistance programs, so while you can split the purchase price into four payments with Sezzle or Klarna, there’s not much you can do to lower the price. Luckily, it’s not particularly expensive per milligram of CBD (only $0.05), and 60 servings per container should last a little while. (Again, though, properly measuring a single serving is difficult.) CBDfx offers free shipping for orders over $75; if the product becomes available again and you decide to order only one container of the balm, you’ll pay $4.89 for shipping.

In previous years, we have recommended CBDfx’s CBD oil for dogs, but we couldn’t recommend it to the same extent this year. Our testing dogs tried the salmon-flavored oil, which had a particularly pungent smell; the smell didn’t linger, transfer, or dissuade the pups. But the bottle came with a blank dropper, making it very difficult to measure the right dosage. No matter what we tried, the CBD oil worked about as well for our testers as a botanical-only anxiolytic supplement. This was not enough to calm little Zeppelin (one of our more anxious dogs) in a substantial manner. Our top recommendations, like Lazarus Naturals and Innovet, produced pronounced positive, calming effects and were easy to measure a proper dose.

Itchy skin and allergies are unpleasant for humans to experience, but it becomes more complicated when your dog has seasonal allergies and doesn’t understand why they’re suddenly so itchy. Since CBD can decrease inflammation and itching behaviors, Charlotte’s Web put two and two together to create its Skin Health & Allergy Support Chews for dogs. We generally admire this company and its dedication to high quality, and we consider this a close runner-up for helping your dog cope with symptoms of skin allergies.

These chicken-flavored chews contain 5mg of full-spectrum hemp extract and are easy for small dogs to chew. Their small size, however, means that it’ll take quite a few chews to satisfy a large dog. This full-spectrum CBD may also contain trace amounts of THC; we prefer to recommend products that don’t contain any amount of THC for your dogs.

Each chicken-flavored chew also contains:

• Nettle leaf: 50mg
• Burdock root: 30mg
• Marshmallow root: 25mg
• Biotin: 0.3mg

Unfortunately, there isn’t much research at all on any of those additional ingredients in dogs. Biotin is good for human skin, and nettle leaf seems to make a slight difference for human allergies, but there’s nothing to back up any other included ingredients. They won’t hurt your dog, but they’re not likely to help, either.

One strange deviation from our safety standards is that Charlotte’s Web won’t share certificates of analysis with you until after you’ve ordered a product; there’s no way for the public to view these results. Considering that Charlotte’s Web is a certified B-corporation backed by the U.S. Hemp Authority and is one of the only brands on our list with NASC certification, skirting around this safety standard confuses us. The company does claim to test each product 20 times during hemp growth and the manufacturing process, but we’d love to see those results to verify before we order them.

These chews come in 30-count and 60-count bags, and you can purchase them one time or join the company’s subscription program to save 20%. Here’s how much you’ll pay for each size:

Charlotte’s Web offers free shipping on all orders over $25 (down significantly from $74 last year). Additionally, if you’re a first responder, nurse, military professional, student, or teacher, you’ll qualify for a discount at check-out. You’ll have to verify your identity using ID.me, which is a pretty fast process (and more convenient than most verification programs, including Lazarus Naturals’). However, you’ll almost certainly save less than Lazarus Naturals’ 60% discount.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many supplements that are great for dogs. You might find an inexpensive multivitamin, but if you feed them a well-balanced diet, it likely won’t do much. Otherwise, most supplements for dogs with a solid background are either probiotics or pumpkin puree for digestive support, tooth health, or joint and skin health.

Like CBD, most supplements safe for dogs are remarkably similar to human supplements. Here are the four most supportive supplements your dog could take instead of CBD.

If your dog also experiences significant anxiety, an anxiety vest like ThunderShirts may help them calm down. These vests are velcroed tightly around their torsos and apply gentle pressure, which is supposed to provide comfort. Think of it like a weighted blanket or a baby swaddle. This won’t work for all dogs in all situations, but it seems to work best for dogs who experience spikes of anxiety in specific situations (such as exposure to thunderstorms, fireworks, or other loud noises).

Medications and televeterinary support

A handful of human medications are safe for dogs. Most of these are antihistamines — Benadryl, Zyrtec, and Claritin — that can knock out itchy skin from allergies; Benadryl can also be used as a sedative to calm an anxious pup in an emergency. You might also be able to apply over-the-counter steroid sprays, gels, and creams for skin problems if they’re low-dose, but reach out to your vet with your specific brand and formula first to guarantee their safety.

Not sure you can afford a full vet visit to double-check that your personal hydrocortisone cream will be safe to use on your dog’s itchy spots? Televeterinary practices, such as Vetster, Pawp, and AirVet, have taken off since 2020 brought all kinds of telemedicine into the mainstream. These services are generally cheaper than your vet’s appointment fees, with the average appointment costing about $25. If you’re just looking for a one-time appointment to confirm that your over-the-counter medication is safe to give them, we recommend using a pay-per-appointment televeterinary service like Vetster; services like AirVet that provide unlimited appointments for a monthly fee are great if you want a safety net or your pet has other ongoing issues you want to monitor.

And, as always, you should always reach out to your veterinarian if there are any concerning signs or symptoms or if your pet’s anxiety, itchy skin, or joint pain doesn’t get better over time. There may be other underlying issues at play. Your vet will be able to diagnose any concerns and give you prescription medications that televeterinary services legally cannot prescribe.