Herbs for My Dog – Hemp
My husband and I cook for our dog weekly. Every week we make a meatloaf for our 25lb Corgi mix. One of the our favorite nutritional add-ins is Hemp Protein. I add ___ cup per pound of ground meat. The fiber keeps his digestive system happy and keeps him fuller for longer.
Hemp protein also offers healthy fats, including omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, along with essential minerals like magnesium, iron, and zinc. We like that it does not contain any common allergens and that he tolerates it well. I have observed that the hemp protein tends to absorb a lot of liquid so sometimes I add water to it before incorporating it into recipes. It is also a good binding ingredient when making dog biscuits.
Another hemp-derived product we occasionally use is CBD. The CBD I find helps him get through periods of change. We use it short term, till he is able to adjust to the change. The first time we tried it was when we would take him for car rides.
At first, he was very anxious about getting into our car and going for a drive. I figured that the first time he rode in a vehicle must have been a horrible experience, as he was picked up by animal control when he was found abandoned. CBD helped him get used to the car, and now he loves going for a drive with us.
The second time we used it was when we introduced a cat into our home. He was overly stimulated, and his prey drive got the best of him sometimes. For this, 3 drops twice a day on a dog cookie helped him maintain enough calm so that he was better adjusted by the cat near the end of 4 weeks.
