First Impressions: Finn – Supplements for Dogs

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Many people take daily vitamins as part of a healthy lifestyle, but have you ever wondered about nutritional supplements for your dog? We decided to give Finn a try to see if the "wellness routines" they promise will give your dog "the happiest and healthiest lives possible" actually live up to the hype. Can their supplement subscriptions for dogs calm your puppy or help your dog get control of their gas? Here's our full review.

This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

How Does It Work?

Finn offers five different types of supplements for dogs, so you can pick a supplement based on your individual pet's needs. You can also go through a "virtual vet" quiz, allowing Finn to tailor a plan for your pooch based on questions about their age, breed, diet, and more.

The brand offers the following supplements:

• Calming Aid
• Multivitamin
• Hip & Joint
• Skin & Coat
• Digestive Probiotics

Each supplement costs $28 for a can filled with 90 chews. Subscribing for regular deliveries reduces the cost of a can by 20%, bringing the price down to $22.40.

The amount of time each can will last depends on the size of your dog — dosages are based on each dog's weight.

Finn Review

With three dogs of different breeds and ages and with different health concerns, I opted to try out Finn's Calming Aid supplement for my corgi puppy (who just hit a year old in October), the Probiotics supplement for my gassy 5-year old mutt, and the multivitamin for my 10-year old coonhound. To get a sense of whether or not the supplements were having an effect, I opted to dose each dog with their chosen supplement for two weeks. Unfortunately, I didn't see much of an effect at all.

What Was in the Box?

Calming Aid

Made with organic hemp (no, there's no THC in here — no one is giving your doggies pot!), chamomile and melatonin, Finn says the Calming Aid is "endorsed by vets to help with stress and hyperactivity, whether you're home or not." My corgi puppy is – like most puppies — VERY active. We've recently been dealing with a bit of aggressiveness from her too, enough that I reached out to the trainer we'd brought in when she first came home to help us learn to handle raising a herding dog. While we're working on the tips from the trainer, I hoped a daily dose of Calming Aid might help her chill out a bit, and maybe stop growling at our 10-year-old coonhound every time he enters a room.

The "pills" themselves are like little logs, maybe a half an inch long. A dark brown color, they look more like traditional dog treats than something medicinal.

Figuring out how much to give her was easy — the side of the can lists dosages based on your dog's weight. Because she's under 25 pounds, she got just one Calming Aid a day. She gobbled them up like she would a treat, so I'm going to assume they taste pretty good (I have to admit I didn't taste them myself ... sorry y'all!).

After two weeks, the puppy is still acting... well... like herself. I wondered if the melatonin would at least make her sleepy since a human grade melatonin knocks me out, but we didn't notice any difference at all.

Digestive Probiotics

My mutt has the kind of gas that can clear a room. We've tried countless different kinds of foods over the years and have spoken with our vet, but nothing really seems to help. It doesn't exactly help that she is known to munch on poop in the yard (gross, I know!), but I feel uncomfortable just listening to her tummy rumble at times. So I hoped that the Finn Probiotics might help soothe her belly. Despite the name, the soft chews are actually made with pre- and probiotics, plus digestive enzymes which Finn says will give you "healthy poops, proper digestion, and a more comfortable dog."

These chews were very similar to those in the Calming Aid can — about the same size and same color — and once again, the dosage was right on the side of the can. My mutt very happily gobbled down her dosage every day as if I were giving her some treats.

The result after two weeks? Well, once again we noticed no difference. Her gas is still stinky, and her stomach still makes gurgling noises that sound terribly uncomfortable.

Multivitamin

So you know where I'm about to go with this don't you? The can told me the dosage for my coonhound for his multivitamin based on his weight — three little chews a day since he's just over the 70-pound mark. Pop open the can, and inside were little brown soft bullets that he was more than happy to snarf down just like his little "sister" pups.

To be honest, this was the supplement I figured was going to offer the least noticeable change. I mean, I've taken daily multivitamins for years, and the only real sign that they make a difference is when I have yearly bloodwork drawn that shows all my levels are in check. So I didn't expect my 10-year old dog to start doing cartwheels or even giving up on his extremely leisurely rise from sleep in the morning, while our other two dogs are racing circles around me begging to go out to pee. And, well, I wasn't disappointed here. Once again, I saw no difference in my dog after two weeks of Finn's multivitamins.

What I Loved About Finn

The fact that I saw no change in any of my dogs on three different supplements doesn't exactly bode well here, but there are a few good things about Finn.

The dosages on the can were extremely helpful — because it didn't matter who in the family was feeding the dog their supplement. They could just check the can to see how many to give.

The cans are also pretty cool. Made from metal, they can be used again, which means less waste, and I found out the hard way that they're able to withstand a coonhound trying to chew them open when someone accidentally leaves the can too close to the edge of the counter. He tried his hardest and thoroughly mangled the can, making it so I had to use a screwdriver to pry it open again, but he never got inside.

What I Didn't Love About Finn

I really hoped to see (or smell) some sort of change in my dogs with Finn, but after two weeks, I simply stopped dosing out the supplements. It's actually what the Finn cans say to do if you see no change in your dog.

It's worth noting too that before I decided to try Finn, I checked to see what the American Veterinary Medical Association had to say about pet supplements. After all, I didn't want to hurt my dogs. They don't have a recommendation for or against supplements.

But they do refer you to the American College of Veterinary Nutrition, which has this to say about getting vitamins for your dog: "If your pet is eating a complete and balanced commercially available pet food, supplements are not recommended unless specifically prescribed by your veterinarian."

Verdict

Every dog is different, and maybe someone else's pooch will have great success with Finn. Then again, you may want to talk to your vet to see if supplements for your dog are necessary.

Have you tried Finn yet? Did it have an effect on your dog?