Liam, age 9, stalked toward the meal lying completely still on the ground before him. His ears pointed straight to the sky while his head stayed low and his legs advanced with a deliberative rhythm. Step. Step. He reached his prey, but, taking mercy upon it, simply nudged it with his nose.
Apparently, my dog is not a fan of CBD-infused pizza-flavored organic dog treats.
Liam and I discovered this on Aug. 17 at Mandala Yoga in Amagansett at an event to celebrate the launch of dog treats made by Pet Releaf, a company that makes CBD products for pets.
To start, some context is required: Liam’s authoritarian nature befits a Great Dane more than it does his noble 22 pounds. His most common third-person reference is “the General” because he does as he wishes and expects others to follow. As such, I did not have high hopes for his level of participation in the day’s activities, which included a reiki energy workout, a psychic attunement session, and a custom poem.
CBD, or cannabidiol, comes from the cannabis sativa plant but does not get users high. According to Leafly, a website that connects consumers with marijuana dispensaries, CBD helps to decrease pain, stress, and anxiety, in humans and other animals. So far the United States Food and Drug Administration has approved only one CBD product, which helps treat a severe form of epilepsy. While there is no evidence that CBD is harmful, the F.D.A. says it has not found any widespread health benefits either.
When we arrived at the store after suffering through mid-August East End traffic, the barking was audible from the parking lot. Liam perked up, his interest now clearly piqued. I had tried to tell him the purpose of our journey beforehand, but he wasn’t very receptive. I guess he just wasn’t hip enough to have heard of CBD. No matter; he would learn soon enough.
In fact, Liam was probably one of the last animals in East Hampton to have encountered CBD. The last year saw it break into the mainstream. Before the F.D.A. cracked down on it as a food additive in June, one could find CBD-infused coffees, gummies, chocolates, and more. And Sunday, the company producing the world’s first CBD-infused active-wear line co-hosted a class in Montauk, ahead of their product’s launch this week.
On Aug. 17, around 20 or 30 humans and dogs milled about on the grass in front of a table set up by Mandala’s storefront. It offered free samples of the two different flavors: sushi, meant to appeal more to uptown dogs, and pizza, marketed for downtown dogs. Liam, apparently, should quit his city gig and live here full time because he chose to eat neither.
I almost wish I had known my dog’s anti-CBD proclivities before I bought two packs at $27 each, but otherwise I — sorry, I mean Liam — would not have enjoyed the reiki energy scan. Oh, wait. Liam is not one to follow orders, or abide by requests or pleas, unless there’s something in it for him. He did not view energy bodywork as an incentive, so refused to lie still.
Normally, the yoga teacher and reiki specialist Reena SenGupta would move her hands over different parts of the dog’s body to feel where they seemed most stressed out and to connect to them, she said. However, because of Liam’s obstinacy, we settled for a card reading instead. From a deck, she pulled large, rectangular cards, covered with a colorful picture and a phrase, such as “The Threshold.” She placed five on the ground, one for the past, present, and future, then two for relationships, and turned them over one by one.
Through this process, SenGupta determined that Liam loves the backyard (he does), enjoys peace and quiet most of the time (also correct), but eventually gets bored if he sees the same people at home (right on the money).
“If he were a human, he would be a hotelier,” she posited. The only profession I had envisioned for him previously was, as mentioned, a general in the strain of Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War, but hotelier wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. Perhaps, despite his initial doubts, the CBD really did lead Liam to learn more about himself, though not in the way he or I expected.
Jude Herwitz, an intern at The Star this summer and last, is a student at the Horace Mann School in the Bronx.