Book Review: ‘Healing Your Dog Naturally’ by Nicole Gabriel

Healing Your Dog Naturally is a revolutionary 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 canine’s healthcare 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, she has plenty of experiencing caring for sick dogs and loving them. This is a woman who deeply bonds with her pets and wants the very best for them. After she lost one of her Shar Pei dogs to an illness she believes was caused by a required vaccination in order for her to move to Hawaii, she decided to begin researching vaccinations and everything else about caring for one’s dog.

Now she has compiled all that research along with her personal experiences and successes into this new book, which may long be overdue considering the health and natural foods revolution going on 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 that same care and concern to our pets?

Gabriel walks the reader through a plethora of topics and information on everything from diet and nutrition to allergies, vaccinations, using essential oils, spaying and neutering, homeopathy, and even how to align your dog’s chakras. But before I go further, this book isn’t just a book about how to heal your dog and make him healthier. It’s 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 is taurine-deficient, and why that matters. She makes a great point in saying that if we would not eat the dogfood ourselves, why would we feed it to our dogs? Ultimately, she advocates that you cook dinner for your dog just like you would for your spouse, children, or yourself. She even offers several recipes to provide your dog with a nutritious diet.

Okay, I know many people might think this is radical—cooking dinner for your dog—but if you want your pet to be healthy, it is a decision worth considering. You can even do it while making dinner for yourself. As Gabriel states, “When you wake up to nutrition, you begin to question everything. This is not a journey that is just for your dogs. Have you gotten that yet? We are all doing 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 may be viewed as equally radical or perhaps just applying common sense. Gabriel comes down hard on vaccinations, not because they are not well-intended but because she has seen her own pet die as the result of one. She walks readers through what may be harmful about certain vaccines and how to reverse possible issues is you’ve already had your dog vaccinated and it is causing health issues. She also offers advice on spaying and neutering—another “don’t do it” chapter you’ll have to read for yourself.

But not everything in these pages is focused on overturning common canine care practices. If anything, this book is written with a lot of love. There are adorable cartoons of dogs throughout reminding us of how much we love our best friends. Gabriel goes into detail about all the wonderful experiences she’s had with her pets and why they matter so much to her.

She is not afraid of discussing the most sensitive issues, including how to deal with loss of your pet and your grief. She provides simple and natural remedies for everything from dealing with cut footpads to ingenious ways to offer nutritious treats to your 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 in our care for them. I can’t say whether she is right on every subject, but I do know her heart is in the right place and she provides a great deal of food for thought. I imagine people who read this book will have already gone or be going through a traumatic or heart-wrenching experience with a pet, so they will be looking for answers beyond what their local veterinarian may be able to provide. If so, this book is an excellent place to start. I truly believe Healing Your Dog Naturally will open many eyes, and hopefully, it will lead to a revolution in canine healthcare.

For more information about Nicole Gabriel and Healing Your Dog Naturally, visit the author’s website