Healing Your Dog Naturally is a groundbreaking new book by Nicole Gabriel that will make you rethink how you care for your dog. It will teach you how to be proactive about your dog’s health care and, by extension, rethink your own eating and medicinal habits. Consequently, you can kill two birds with one stone, or in this case, heal your dog and yourself, or better yet, prevent the need to heal from arising.

While Gabriel’s background is not in veterinary medicine, he has plenty of experience caring for sick dogs and loving them. She is a woman who is deeply attached to her pets and wants the best for them. After losing one of her Shar Pei dogs to an illness that she believes was caused by a vaccine required to move to Hawaii, she decided to start researching vaccinations and everything else about caring for her dog. Now she has compiled all that research along with her personal experiences and successes into this new book, which may be long overdue considering the health and natural food revolution that is occurring for humans. I have to agree with Gabriel on this point: if we are all becoming more conscious about the health and nutrition of our own bodies, shouldn’t we extend that same care and concern to our pets?
Gabriel guides the reader through a plethora of topics and information on everything from diet and nutrition to allergies, vaccinations, use of essential oils, spaying and neutering, homeopathy, and even how to align your dog’s chakras.

But before we continue, this book is not just a book about how to heal your dog and make it healthier. It is also a book that encourages you to change your own lifestyle so that both you and your dog benefit.

For example, Gabriel is not a fan of commercial dog food. She provides a brief history of dog food and how it was affected by World War II, why it’s deficient in taurine, and why it’s important. She makes a great point that if we didn’t eat the dog food ourselves, why would we give it to our dogs? Ultimately, she recommends that you cook dinner for your dog as you would for your spouse, children, or yourself. She even offers several recipes to provide your dog with a nutritious diet. Okay, I know a lot of people might think this is a radical dinner for their dog, but if you want your pet to be healthy, it’s a decision worth considering. You can even do it while you cook dinner. As Gabriel says, “When you wake up to nutrition, you start to question everything. This isn’t a journey that’s just for your dogs. Have you made it yet? We’re all doing this together. This is a herd effort. What you choose for yourself, you choose for your dog and vice versa”.

The rest of the book can be seen as equally radical or perhaps just applying common sense. Gabriel is harshly critical of vaccinations, not because they aren’t well-intentioned, but because he has seen his own pet die as a result of one. She walks readers through what can be harmful about certain vaccines and how to reverse potential problems if she has already vaccinated her dog and it is causing health problems. She also offers advice on spaying and neutering, another “don’t do it” chapter that you’ll have to read for yourself.

But not everything in these pages is focused on overturning common dog grooming practices. In any case, this book is written with much love. There are adorable dog cartoons that remind us how much we love our best friends. Gabriel goes into detail about all the wonderful experiences he has had with her pets and why they are so important to her. She is not afraid to discuss the most sensitive issues, including how to deal with the loss of her pet and her complaint. She provides simple, natural remedies for everything from dealing with cut legs to clever ways to offer nutritious treats to her pets, and even ways to test your dog for various allergies and make changes to his diet accordingly.

Most importantly, Gabriel challenges us to see our pets with new eyes and to think more deeply about what we do to care for them. I can’t say if he’s right on all issues, but I do know that his heart is in the right place and provides a lot of food for thought. I imagine that people reading this book have already been through or are going through a traumatic or harrowing experience with a pet, so they will be looking for answers beyond what their local veterinarian can provide. If so, this book is a great place to start. I truly believe that Healing Your Dog Naturally will open many eyes and hopefully lead to a revolution in canine healthcare.