Nutrition is the basis of health and behavior. Without proper nutrition, the body has to work overtime to achieve homeostasis - if it even can.

There is that old saying we are all familiar with: You are what you eat. There is a lot of truth to this! Everything that is put into our body affects our health and behavior. Our animals are no different!

We can all live with minor imbalances throughout our lifetime. But, over time, toxins can build up within our systems and cause less than desirable effects. This can look anything like anxious behavior, over exuberance, hot spots, poor healing, and more.

All of these things can lead to heft vet bills and unnecessary behavior training that add up over time and often lend no results. It can be frustrating both emotionally and financially.

I am here to help. Book a Nutrition plan with me, and I will work with you, and your animal, to formulate a diet plan that works for the both of you! 

My nutritional experience started with my sled dogs. High performing athletic dogs have a very high nutritional requirement. Anything missing can hinder performance and health, making them more susceptible to illness.

One of my dogs at the time, Sampson, was not thriving on a kibble diet. He was hard to keep weight on even though I was feeding him a lot of food. The problem was that the food was going "right though him." What I also noticed was that when we were feeding our winter diet, he did not have these issues. His winter diet consisted of mostly raw beef. It was because of him that I explored the idea of feeding all of my dogs a full raw diet.

There were a lot of trials and errors on how to prepare raw food for 24 dogs. I ended up deciding to make it similar to a "soup." I would mix everything into a large bucket and then ladle out the amount of food each dog needed. 

I did all the research on what supplements to add to make sure they had the vitamins and minerals they needed since I wasn't feeding a whole prey diet. I was adding pork bone meal, brewer's yeast, kelp meal, and wild salmon oil on top of my beef and fat diet.

I saw a lot of changes very quickly in my dogs. Their coats improved, their energy improved, and overall, I felt they stayed healthier. 

It wasn't until 2018, 3 years later, that I started to see the effects of an imbalanced diet. I bred one of my dogs and she had a tough pregnancy and a difficult labor. One of the puppies didn't survive. Siren, the momma dog, suffered anxiety, anorexia, and emotional imbalances despite feeding her more than enough food. 

A couple of the puppies started to develop some structural weaknesses which is when it was brought to my attention to have my diet tested.

When I sent in our raw diet for a basic analysis, I was surprised to see the results. I was deficient in many things and my calcium and phosphorus ratios were backwards. Thousands of dollars of nutritional testing later, I had my diet corrected and reformulated to fit nutritional requirements for both puppies and adult maintenance. 

This experience set forth a change in me to become even more passionate about nutrition than I already was. I became an advocate for food testing when not feeding a traditional diet. It helped me see nutritional deficiency from a different perspective. I used it as a great learning experience. 

Thankfully, the puppies made a recovery. Aside from being on the smaller side, they all had great careers as active and working dogs. I got lucky!

Since then, I've gotten certifications in nutrition and pet food coaching and have immeasurable time in independent study learning about all aspects of nutrition from the function of protein in the body to each individual trace mineral. In more recent times, I've delved into the art of 5 Element Theory and TCM to add even more depth to the world of nutritional benefits.