Healing Your Dog Naturally is a revolutionary new book by Nicole Gabriel that will make you rethink the way you care for your dog. It will teach you how to be proactive about your dog’s health care and rethink your own dietary and medical habits. Thus, you can kill two birds with one stone, or in this case heal your dog and yourself, or better yet, avoid the need for healing.
Although Gabriel’s background is not in veterinary medicine, she has a lot of experience caring for and loving sick dogs. This is a woman who connects deeply with her pets and wants the very best for them. After losing one of her Shar Pei dogs to an illness that she believes was caused by a vaccination she needed to have so she could move to Hawaii, she decided to research vaccinations and everything else about caring for her dog. Now she has compiled all of that research, along with her personal experiences and achievements, in this new book, which may be long overdue given the health and natural food revolution for humans. I have to agree with Gabriel on this point: if we are all becoming more health and nutrition conscious about our own bodies, shouldn’t we extend the same care and concern to our pets?
Gabriel guides the reader through a wealth of topics and information on everything from diet and nutrition to allergies, vaccinations, the use of essential oils, spaying and neutering, homeopathy and aligning your dog’s chakras.
But before I go any further, this book is not just a book about how to heal and make your dog healthier. It’s also a book that encourages you to make lifestyle changes in ways that benefit both you and your dog.
For example, Gabriel is not a fan of commercial dog food. It provides a brief history of dog food and how it was affected by World War II, why it is taurine deficient and why that matters. She makes a big point by saying that if we didn’t eat the dog food ourselves, why would we feed it to our dogs? Ultimately, she advocates that you cook dinner for your dog the same way you would for your spouse, children, or yourself. She even offers several recipes to provide your dog with nutritious nutrition. Okay, I know a lot of people might think this is a radical dinner for your dog—but if you want your pet to be healthy, it’s a decision worth thinking about. You can even do it while preparing dinner for yourself. As Gabriel says, “When you wake up to nutrition, you start questioning everything. This is not a trip just for your dogs. Did you get that? We all do this together. This is a pack effort. What you choose for you, you choose for your dog and vice versa.”
The rest of the book can be viewed as just as radical, or perhaps just using common sense. Gabriel is adamant about vaccinations, not because they are not well-intentioned, but because she has seen her own pet die as a result of being vaccinated. She walks readers through what can be harmful about certain vaccines and how to reverse potential problems if you have already vaccinated your dog and it is causing health problems. She also offers advice on spaying and neutering – another “don’t do it” chapter you need to read for yourself.
But not everything on these pages focuses on changing common dog grooming practices. If anything, this book is written with a lot of love. Adorable cartoons of dogs are everywhere to remind us how much we love our best friends. Gabriel details all of the wonderful experiences she’s had with her pets and why they are so important to her. She’s not afraid to discuss the most sensitive of topics, including dealing with the loss of your pet and your grief. She offers simple and natural remedies for everything from dealing with clipped paw pads to nifty ways to offer your pets nutritious treats, and even ways to test your dog for various allergies and change their diet accordingly.
Most importantly, Gabriel challenges us to look at our pets with new eyes and to think more deeply about what we are doing in our care for them. I can’t say if she’s right on every subject, but I know her heart is in the right place and she provides a lot of food for thought. I imagine that people reading this book have already had or are going through a traumatic or heartbreaking experience with a pet, so they will be looking for answers beyond what their local veterinarian could possibly be able to provide. If so, this book is an excellent place to start. I truly believe that Healing Your Dog Naturally will be an eye opener and hopefully lead to a revolution in canine health.
Thanks to Tyler Tichelaar
