Canine gut supplement trials replicate calming effect

A digestive health supplement has been shown to have a notable calming effect on dogs across repeated trials.

CaniNectar, an enzyme-rich malt extract by animal health company and microbiome specialists Tharos, was shown to benefit anxious dogs in what is described as Britain’s largest professional trial of a canine gut supplement.

Split into two independent phases held across 2025 and 2026, 63 UK veterinary professionals, trainers and behaviourists tracked 129 dogs across more than 110 distinct breeds and cross-breeds while on the extract.

Trial

Among the 42 dogs that started the trial with elevated anxiety, 38 improved, with only one dog’s anxiety rated as worsening over the course of a five-week phase.

Mean anxiety scores fell from 4.29 to 3.23 out of 5 – approximately a 24.7% reduction – with a p-value less than 0.0001, which is said to be highly statistically significant.

Phase one produced a 1.04-point reduction in anxiety among its 74 dogs, while phase two produced a 1.10-point reduction in 55 dogs.

Handlers

No notable difference in effect was observed between dogs with different diets, and handler confidence in the product is said to have risen from 31% in week one to 73% by week four.

A VN tester said her dog seemed “much calmer” and she had begun allowing it out of its crate when not home, while another reported much improved stool quality and reduced wind from her dog.

Behaviourist

Canine behaviourist Gwen Bailey tested the product on her own two dogs, reporting coat changes in both and an unexpected improvement in her older dog’s mouth smell.

A separate clinical trial run with Blue Cross in 2025 followed 25 rescue dogs for four weeks.

It recorded improvements across several additional measures: 80% of dogs reached ideal stool consistency by week four, up from 41.7% at the start; a 33% reduction in noise reactivity and 29.2% of dogs showed a clinically significant improvement in skin condition.

The proportion of dogs rated as having excellent focus by their handlers increased from 4.2% to 20.8%.

Study design

Tharos said it was not marketing the extract as a calming supplement and that the professionals involved knew which dogs were on the product with no placebo group, so the study design can not fully rule out other influences on the results.

Chief science officer Rosemary Waring said: “What makes this stand out is not any single number, but that the calming effect appeared twice, in different dogs assessed by different people, months apart.

“I want to be clear that this was an observational trial, so the strongest claims have to wait for a randomised, blinded study. Even so, several separate pieces of research now point the same way, and that is not something you see often in this field.”