And if your dog has been a little… off lately, I want you to pay attention.

Earth is our stabilizing, grounding element. It is deeply connected to digestion, nourishment, muscles, routine, emotional security and the Spleen/Stomach system.

When Earth gets wobbly, you may notice:

🐾 softer or loose stools
🐾 gurgly belly, gas or nausea
🐾 yeast, funky ears or paw licking
🐾 feeling heavy or sluggish
🐾 weight gain with poor muscle tone
🐾 increased food cravings
🐾 clinginess or worry
🐾 difficulty settling
🐾 seeming mentally “muddled” or less focused
🐾 symptoms that seem worse in our lovely hot, HUMID late-summer weather

Sound familiar?

This is also a season when I pay extra attention to the gut.

Not just “give a probiotic and call it good.”

I’m looking at the food itself. Digestion. Starch load. Microbiome. Yeast. Inflammation. Stress. Muscle strength. Even what is happening emotionally in the home.

Because an Earth dog can sometimes absorb the household like a furry little sponge. 💛

A few simple Earth-season ideas:

🥣 Feed real, moisture-rich, easily digestible food.

🌱 Think about gentle digestive herbs such as ginger, chamomile, slippery elm or marshmallow when they fit the dog.

💧 Watch the dampness. A yeasty, overweight, inflamed dog probably does NOT need us piling on starch just because pumpkin appears on every dog-health list ever written.

🌿 Essential oils such as Vetiver, Frankincense, Lavender, Roman Chamomile or Cedarwood may be beautiful choices for emotional grounding.

For digestive support, Ginger, Fennel, Cardamom or Coriander may have a place too.

🚶 Keep them moving. Earth also relates to muscle strength, and this is especially important for our seniors.

🏡 And simplify the chaos where you can: predictable meals, routine, rest, movement and connection.

Earth is the Mother of Life.

It asks us to come back to center—to nourish the body, strengthen the gut, ground the nervous system and pay attention to what our dogs are trying to tell us.

And yep… sometimes the loose poop and the worried dog are part of the same conversation.

I wrote a much deeper look at Earth dogs, including food, digestion, dampness, yeast, herbs, essential oils, emotional patterns and seasonal support here:

👉 https://welloiledk9.com/health/season-of-earth-for-dogs

Is your dog showing any Earth-y behavior or symptoms right now? I’d especially love to know if you’ve noticed a shift with the humidity and seasonal change. 🌎🐾

Lymphatics, senior dogs, parasite follow-up — plus some changes at The WellOiledK9 and a favor I need from you.

Hi friends,

I owe you a little bit of a do-over.

Last week’s newsletter didn’t quite make it out the way it was supposed to, but I’m actually glad we’re catching it now because August’s parasite work, September lymphatics, and what I’ve been thinking about with our senior dogs all connect.

The common thread is movement.

Moving fluid. Moving waste. Moving nutrients. Maintaining muscle.

And quite literally — keeping the dog moving.

For our seniors especially, I want us to stop automatically accepting every change as:

“Well… he’s getting old.”

Aging changes the dog. Absolutely.

But that doesn’t mean we stop asking what we can support.

🐛 First: How Did Your August Parasite Support Go?

If you participated in the August parasite protocol, I want to hear how it went.

Read more

Recent animal research found that pulsed magnetic field therapy helped protect kidney tissue during acute inflammatory kidney injury — with improvements in inflammation, oxidative stress, cellular damage and kidney markers.

Now, this was **rat research — not a clinical study in dogs with chronic kidney disease** — so I’m not calling PEMF a kidney treatment.

But this is exactly why I keep watching PEMF research.

But you can bet I’d add PEMF to the protocol!

When I’m supporting a dog with kidney concerns, I’m rarely thinking about **one thing** anyway.

I’m looking at:

• fresh, moisture-rich nutrition

• phosphorus and protein appropriate for *that dog*

• hydration

• inflammation and oxidative stress

• circulation

• herbs and nutritional support

• and potentially modalities such as PEMF

Then we can layer in other tools.

**Juniper essential oil** is one oil traditionally used in animal aromatherapy protocols for kidney support, along with Helichrysum, Grapefruit and others.

And there’s another interesting option: **K&B — Kidney & Bladder — tincture**, which can be incorporated into the diet and is specifically discussed for kidney and urinary support.

This is where holistic care gets much more interesting than simply asking:

**“What supplement should I give for kidney disease?”**

The better question is: **What combination of food, herbs, oils, hydration and supportive modalities makes sense for THIS dog?**

That’s the work I love.

Visit my website for more info on kidney health and PEMF.

please use my affiliate links if you shop!

I’ve been told there were healers in my family generations ago. Not doctors in the formal sense, but the people who knew which plants to gather, which herbs to use, what to put on a wound, and what to do when someone was sick or injured. I don’t know their names, I don’t know exactly what they knew, and unfortunately there is no handwritten family remedy book tucked away somewhere for me to inherit.

What I do have are stories. And as I’ve gotten older, and as my own work has taken me deeper into nutrition, herbs, essential oils, Reiki, muscle testing, animal communication, energy work and natural healing, I’ve wondered more than once whether some part of this was always going to find me.

See your vet for a diagnosis and then you and I can collaborate on a custom strategy for your dog’s health.

That distinction is especially important in an article about intuition. I don’t believe intuition replaces diagnostics, veterinary medicine or education. I do believe there are times when it makes us pay closer attention, ask a question we might not otherwise have asked, or recognize that there may be another piece of the story we haven’t found yet.

This is a personal reflection on my family history, my experiences and my beliefs. It is not intended to prove that healing ability is inherited, and the historical remedies described here are family stories, not treatment recommendations.

My Grandmother Had a Remedy for Everything

My grandmother owned a general store that also sold fresh fish, and some of my clearest memories of her are tied to the remedies she kept around and used without much fanfare.

One of them was something we called Pine-Ol, a pine-oil liniment. That bottle apparently had a job description that included nearly everything. Bug bites, poison ivy, wounds, skin irritations—you name it, and Pine-Ol was probably coming out.

One day my uncle was scaling fish in the back of the store. I rounded the corner, hit the slippery floor and slid underneath the ice maker. A piece of metal hanging down caught my shin and gashed it badly. I still remember what happened next: out came the Pine-Ol. It was poured on my leg, and I was basically told, “You’ll be fine.”

Apparently there was no further discussion required.

For the record, I still have a divot in my leg and the scar to prove that Grandma’s confidence did not necessarily amount to reconstructive surgery.

And no, I am not suggesting anyone hunt down an old bottle of pine liniment and start pouring it into an open wound. This was another generation, another time and a family story. What stayed with me was how normal reaching for a remedy seemed. There was no philosophical discussion about “natural medicine.” Nobody called it holistic wellness. There were simply things people knew how to use, and when someone needed help, they used what they knew.

Then There Is the Story Nobody Can Quite Explain

Another family story has always fascinated me. My dad and his brother were badly burned when a radiator blew up on them. These were not minor burns. My dad’s injuries were severe enough that he had to wear what has been described to me as basically a soft mesh “dress” because regular clothing couldn’t be allowed to stick to his skin.

Someone in the family was called because that person apparently knew what to do.

I wish I had more details, but I don’t. The story that survived is that this relative arrived with lotions, potions or some sort of preparations and “took the burn out.” Nobody still alive seems to remember exactly what was used. There is no recipe, no ingredient list and no notebook describing what that person did. Was it herbal? A plant oil? A salve? Something completely ordinary to that person but extraordinary to everyone else? I have no idea.

What I do know is that my dad healed, and he had no scars.

I would give almost anything to know what was in those preparations.

How Much Knowledge Did We Lose?

That story makes me think about how much knowledge disappeared as generations changed. For most of human history, people learned this kind of thing from another person. Someone knew which plants to gather because someone before them had shown them. They knew what to dry, steep, grind, apply or avoid because that knowledge had been handed down.

Then families moved. Medicine advanced. Convenience changed the way people lived. Remedies that once had to be made could be purchased instead, and traditions that had once seemed ordinary became old-fashioned, unnecessary or simply forgotten. Sometimes the person who knew died before anyone realized how much information was going with them.

My family’s mysterious burn preparation is a perfect example. Whatever that relative knew may be gone now, and I find that incredibly sad.

Maybe that’s also part of why I feel so strongly about studying, documenting and teaching what I learn today. I don’t want useful knowledge to live only inside one person’s head and disappear when that person is gone.

And Then There Are the Things I Just Know

This is where the family stories start to feel much less distant from the work I do today.

There is knowledge you can study, experience you accumulate, and then there are those moments when something simply comes to you. A question pops into my head that I had not been consciously working toward. I feel strongly that I should ask about a particular symptom, food, medication, event, behavior or part of the dog’s history. Sometimes I suggest looking at something that, on the surface, seems to have very little to do with the reason the pet parent contacted me.

And more than once I’ve heard, “How did you know that?”

I’ve also heard, “There’s no way you could have known that.”

Sometimes I can tell you exactly how I knew. I’ve seen the pattern before. Something in the history reminds me of another dog, a nutritional issue, a medication response, a gut pattern or a combination of symptoms I’ve learned to recognize over years of working with dogs.

Other times, I can’t tell you where the question came from. It just did.

I don’t feel the need to turn that into something theatrical or mystical, but I’m also long past dismissing it just because I can’t immediately explain it. I’ve had enough of those moments to know that when the nudge is strong, I should at least listen to it.

Reiki Taught Me to Get Quiet Enough to Notice

My work with Reiki for dogs has probably made me even more aware of this kind of information. Reiki taught me to become quiet enough to notice what I am sensing instead of immediately trying to analyze everything.

Working with an animal in that space can feel very different from sitting with a checklist and moving symptom by symptom. Sometimes my attention keeps returning to an area of the body. Sometimes there is an impression, a word, an image or simply a feeling that something deserves another look.

That doesn’t mean Reiki diagnosed anything. It means something got my attention, and that may give me another question to ask.

Sometimes the most useful thing intuition gives me isn’t an answer. It’s the question I wouldn’t otherwise have thought to ask.

Muscle Testing Is Another Way I Ask Questions

Muscle testing can play a similar role for me, particularly when a dog is complicated, sensitive or there are several possible directions we could explore. I don’t consider muscle testing a replacement for bloodwork, imaging, veterinary diagnostics or common sense. I use it as another tool for asking questions and helping narrow direction.

Sometimes it suggests that something is worth exploring further. Sometimes it points me away from something I had been considering. Sometimes it brings me right back to an issue that didn’t seem especially important the first time I looked at the history.

It doesn’t make the decision for me. It can help me decide where another question belongs.

Animal Communication Is Part of This Too

I am also certified in animal communication, although I don’t work as a professional animal communicator or offer it as the center of what I do. Still, I can’t pretend that ability doesn’t come into my work.

Sometimes I simply know something.

I don’t mean that I’ve worked it out logically or that the pet parent accidentally gave me enough clues to make a good guess. I mean a thought, an image, a feeling or a piece of information seems to arrive without any obvious reason for it to be there.

There have been enough occasions when someone has stopped me and said, “How did you know that?” or “There is absolutely no way you could have known that,” that I’ve learned not to brush those experiences aside.

I don’t always know how I knew, and I’m okay with that.

I don’t need to declare every impression a message from an animal. I also don’t need to explain every intuitive moment away as coincidence. Sometimes it may be animal communication. Sometimes it may be experience. Sometimes my brain may have picked up on tiny details before my conscious mind caught up. Sometimes I can only call it intuition.

Whatever the source, I treat that information the same way: not as proof and not as a diagnosis, but as a reason to pay attention and perhaps ask one more question.

Maybe Some of It Isn’t Coming From Nowhere

I also think we underestimate what happens after years of studying and working with dogs. I’ve looked at a lot of food histories, digestive issues, lab work, supplements, medications, behavior changes, pain patterns and dogs who simply weren’t thriving even though nobody could immediately explain why. At some point the brain begins making connections before you consciously work through every step.

That’s pattern recognition, and experience absolutely plays a role in what I do. But I don’t think pattern recognition explains every experience I’ve had either.

There have been times when nothing in my notes pointed directly toward what I suddenly felt compelled to ask. I wasn’t following a decision tree, and I wasn’t consciously remembering another case. The question simply showed up strongly enough that I asked it, and sometimes the answer has changed the entire direction of the conversation.

Maybe Reiki, muscle testing, animal communication and intuition are completely separate things. Maybe they overlap. Maybe becoming more aware of one makes you better able to notice the others. Maybe some of what we call intuition is the brain processing information faster than we can consciously explain it, and maybe animals communicate much more than most of us have been taught to believe.

I suspect there is more than one answer.

Intuition Doesn’t Replace What We Know

This is important because being intuitive doesn’t make me less interested in facts. Quite the opposite.

I want the bloodwork. I want the diagnosis. I want to know what the dog eats, what medications have been used, which supplements are being given, what the stool has been doing, whether appetite has changed, when the symptoms started and what happened before they started. I want to know about weight changes, behavior, stress, sleep, movement, pain, previous diagnoses and what has already been tried.

I want the whole dog.

My work as a Holistic Canine Health Practitioner brings together canine nutrition, aromatherapy, herbs, homeopathy education, Reiki, muscle testing, animal communication and years of working directly with dogs and their people.

One part of that work is analytical. I gather information, compare patterns and look for reasonable explanations. Another part is quieter. It’s the nudge that says, Ask about that. Go back to what she said earlier. Look at the gut. Ask when this really started. Something here doesn’t fit.

Sometimes I know exactly why that thought occurred to me, and sometimes I don’t. Either way, I don’t treat the thought as the answer. I treat it as a reason to ask a better question.

Intuition may point me toward the question. Education helps me understand the possibilities. Diagnostics help us determine what can actually be measured. Muscle testing may help guide direction. Reiki and animal communication may give me another perspective. Experience helps me decide which pieces deserve more attention and which ones probably don’t.

That is one of the harder parts of whole-dog work to describe because it isn’t always a straight line from symptom A to recommendation B. Sometimes the clue we need is sitting three steps to the side.

And sometimes, for reasons I cannot completely explain, I just know to look there.

Pet Parents Have This Too

I cannot tell you how many times someone has said to me, “I know the vet says everything looks okay, but he’s just not himself.”

I take that seriously, not because it automatically means there is a hidden disease, but because you live with your dog. You know how he normally walks into the kitchen, how excited she gets for dinner, where he sleeps, whether she follows you upstairs and what that face looks like on a normal day. You notice the tiny things long before they become a neat little symptom that fits on a medical form.

When a pet parent tells me something feels different, my instinct is to get curious. When did it change? What happened around the same time? Has appetite shifted? Stool? Weight? Sleep? Thirst? Mobility? Behavior? Interest in food? Recovery after exercise? Tolerance for touch?

Your intuition isn’t the diagnosis. It may simply be the reason you look closer.

Maybe This Is Why I Ended Up Here

When I look at the subjects I’ve been drawn to over the years, I sometimes have to laugh. Herbs. Essential oils. Food as part of wellness. Homeopathy. Reiki. Energy work. Animal communication. Looking for patterns rather than isolating one symptom from everything else.

Somewhere generations ago, there were apparently people in my family gathering plants and making remedies because someone needed healing.

And here I am.

I have access to education they never had, veterinary diagnostics they couldn’t have imagined and research from around the world sitting on a computer in front of me. Yet some part of what I do still feels remarkably old: observe the individual, listen carefully, pay attention to patterns, use what nature offers when appropriate, and don’t assume the most obvious answer explains the whole picture.

Maybe that is intuition. Maybe it’s inherited curiosity. Maybe it comes from years of learning and watching. Maybe abilities really do travel through family lines. And perhaps some of what we are drawn toward has an even older history than that. I don’t pretend to know exactly how any of it works. I’ve simply experienced enough in my own life that I’m no longer willing to dismiss something just because I can’t explain it.

I don’t know, and I’m comfortable leaving room for that.

I probably have a little more comfort with the unexplained than some people do. I’ve experienced past-life regression myself, and whether someone interprets those experiences spiritually, psychologically or somewhere in between, mine certainly left me more open to the possibility that who we are—and what we’re drawn to—may have roots we don’t completely understand.

Was I Called to This?

I don’t know whether healing instincts run through families, but I do think some kinds of knowing do.

Maybe what gets passed down isn’t a mysterious gift at all. Maybe it’s curiosity, observation, compassion and the willingness to stay with a problem long enough to notice what other people overlook. Maybe watching one generation care for another teaches us things long before we realize we’re learning them.

Or maybe there is something deeper that we simply don’t fully understand yet.

What I know is that I believe there is more to healing than chasing symptoms one at a time. I believe the body gives us clues. I believe animals communicate far more than most people realize, and I believe food, plants, environment, stress, emotions and relationships can all be part of the bigger picture. I also believe good veterinary medicine and good diagnostics belong in that same picture.

Those ideas don’t have to compete with one another.

If you’ve ever looked at your dog and thought, something isn’t right, don’t be too quick to talk yourself out of it. You don’t need to diagnose the problem yourself, and you definitely don’t need to buy six remedies at midnight because somebody in a Facebook group sounded very confident. Pay attention. Write down what you’re seeing. Look for patterns. Get the diagnostics that need to be done. And if the pieces still don’t add up, keep asking better questions.

Sometimes healing begins with knowing the answer. Sometimes it begins because somebody knew there was another question worth asking.

As for whether I was called to this, inherited it, stumbled into it or somehow found my way back to something my family had been doing for generations, I still don’t know.

But I’m a believer.

And sometimes I like to imagine that one of those old family healers could see what I’m doing today, look at me like the answer had been obvious all along, and say, “Well, of course you are.”

Related Content

• Reiki for Dogs

• The Basics of Muscle Testing

• Energy Healing and Animal Communication

• Working With a Holistic Canine Health Practitioner

When You Know There Is More to the Story

If your dog’s diagnosis doesn’t seem to explain the whole picture, or you keep feeling that important pieces are being looked at separately instead of together, that is where my work comes in. I look at the history, nutrition, symptoms, patterns, medications, supplements, behavior, stress and the dog in front of us—and then we decide which questions are worth asking next.

Learn more or submit an inquiry.

Read more

There are several legitimate coaching programs. There are also people calling themselves health coaches with very little formal education. The same thing happens in plenty of other areas of the dog world. But even when someone has completed an excellent program, I don’t think the certificate tells you nearly as much as people sometimes want it to.

A certification tells me where someone studied and that they completed the requirements of that program. It does not tell me how deeply they understood the material, what they did with it afterward, whether they continued studying, whether they question what they read, or what happens when a dog sitting in front of them doesn’t fit neatly into what they were taught.

Someone who earns a canine nutrition certification doesn’t magically wake up the next morning knowing everything there is to know about canine nutrition. I didn’t. My canine nutrition credential is Cert.CN through Companion Animal Sciences Institute, a science-based program requiring roughly 200–250 hours of study and substantial written coursework. It gave me a strong foundation in canine nutrition, but I never looked at finishing the program as finishing my education. Building recipes and translating a lot of that info to raw feeding wasn’t always easy, even after completion.

My aromatherapy education includes a RACE-approved certification. So do some of the conferences I attend. I’ve also studied herbs, homeopathy, iridology, behavior, Reiki, animal communication and other areas that have become part of the way I look at dogs. Much of that education was already in place before I ever took a Pet Health Coaching course, and every new course, resource, practitioner and area of study since has simply added another layer to what I already knew.

I’m proud of my education—but I’ve never viewed completing a course as completing the education.

The Certificate Was the Starting Point

When I say I’m a learning junkie, I don’t mean I like collecting certifications. I mean I don’t know how to leave a subject alone once I become interested in it.

I didn’t study the material in those programs just to pass the test. The material was usually the launching pad for whatever came next. I would learn about something and start digging deeper. One reference led to another, one idea connected to something else I had studied, and before long I was reading papers, comparing information, making notes and building my own library around the subject. Some of those rabbit holes have been going for years.

I’m also the person who sees someone make a claim online and goes looking for the study. I want to read it. I want to know how many dogs were involved, what they actually measured, what the researchers concluded, what they didn’t conclude and whether the person sharing it has stretched the findings considerably farther than the research ever did. Sometimes the post holds up beautifully. Sometimes I learn something new and save it immediately. Sometimes I discover that a very confident social media post bears only a passing resemblance to the actual research. Either way, I keep the notes.

And boy do I keep notes. You should see my OneNote files, spreadsheets, saved PDFs and Word documents. 😂 There are files I started years ago that I still add to, research I saved because I knew I would want it again someday, and notes that lead me back to other notes because apparently one layer of documentation was not enough. It was those notes I took years ago that planted the seeds of nutrition and behavior while I was training that changed everything with one tough case.

That’s what “learning junkie” means when I say it. My nutrition education didn’t stop when I earned my Cert.CN. My aromatherapy education didn’t stop when I passed the exam. Neither did herbs, homeopathy, iridology or behavior. A good course gives me a foundation, introduces me to things I may not have considered and often gives me better questions to ask. Then I go find out more.

Troubleshooting Is How My Brain Works

I think some of that comes from a part of my background that probably doesn’t seem related to dogs at all. I have degrees in computer science and math, and I spent years working at Microsoft. I don’t talk about that very often in my dog work, but I use the thinking behind it constantly.

Computer science teaches you to troubleshoot. Something isn’t working, so you start tracing it. What changed? What happened before the problem appeared? Is the thing you’re looking at actually the problem, or is it the result of something happening farther upstream? What variable are you missing? What assumption have you made that might not be true? If the first solution doesn’t work, you don’t just do the same thing harder and hope the computer finally becomes afraid of you. You keep working the problem.

Dogs are obviously not computer programs—and biology is a hell of a lot messier—but that way of thinking has followed me into everything I do. I want to understand why. I want to know what happened before something changed, what has already been tried, what helped temporarily or not at all, what made things worse and what nobody has looked at yet. I want to know whether two things being treated as completely separate problems may actually be connected.

Sometimes the answer is nutrition. Sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes something that looks behavioral makes me wonder about what is happening physically. Sometimes something in a dog’s history makes me think differently about the nervous system, digestion, inflammation, environment or stress. Sometimes my education in herbs, homeopathy, essential oils or iridology gives me another place to look.

That’s the value, for me, of having studied across disciplines. It doesn’t mean I think I know everything about all of them. It means I have more places to look, more questions to ask and more ways to recognize that something else may be going on.

Knowing More Also Means Knowing When to Refer

I can already hear the “jack of all trades, master of none” argument, and that isn’t what I’m saying.

There are people who have spent their entire professional lives specializing in one of these areas and know far more about that particular discipline than I do. I refer out. I ask other professionals what they think. I want another nutrition professional’s eyes on something sometimes. I want a veterinarian investigating something when the dog needs veterinary diagnostics. I have practitioners and experts I learn from, collaborate with and bring into the conversation when their depth of knowledge is what the dog needs.

To me, that’s part of being good at this—not evidence that I’m not qualified. I have enough insight into several disciplines to recognize when there may be another avenue worth exploring, and enough sense to know when somebody else should take that piece farther than I can. I don’t need to be the person with every answer.

The team matters.

The goal isn’t for me to prove that I can solve everything myself—the goal is to help the dog, and sometimes the best thing I can bring to the table is knowing who else needs a chair.

I learned that education doesn’t require agreement a long time ago, too. My original dog training and behavior education taught me plenty about training, but it also taught me a lot about the kind of trainer I did not want to become. My instructor was much heavier-handed with the leash and in his training style than I ultimately wanted to be. I learned what he taught, went out and worked with dogs, continued studying and watching and thinking, and eventually figured out what I wanted to keep, what I wanted to change and what I was willing to leave behind. I made it my own.

I’ve done that with everything I’ve studied since. I don’t think taking someone’s course requires me to adopt every belief that person has for the rest of my life. What would be the point of having a brain if that were how education worked? I can learn something valuable from someone and disagree with something else they teach. I can use an approach for years and then change it because I have better information. I can read new research that forces me to reconsider something I was pretty damn sure about before I read it.

That isn’t a threat to my education—it’s the whole reason I keep educating myself.

In fact, I hope I don’t believe exactly the same things five years from now that I believe today. I hope I know more. I hope I’ve changed my mind about a few things because better information became available. I hope somebody who knows more than I do teaches me something that changes the way I work. I hope I keep finding ideas worth investigating and keep enough critical thinking intact not to fall for every exciting thing somebody posts on the internet.

That combination matters to me—curiosity and critical thinking. Curiosity without critical thinking can send you into some pretty ridiculous places. Critical thinking without curiosity can leave you doing something for twenty years simply because that was the way you learned it twenty years ago. I want both. I want to be willing to ask, “What else could be going on here?” and then be willing to do the work to find out whether the idea has any merit.

What I Really Look for in a Practitioner

So when I think about what makes someone qualified, credentials absolutely matter to me. The quality of the education matters. Experience matters. Continuing education matters. But I also want to know how the person thinks and what they’ve done since the certificate arrived.

When they don’t know something, do they go find out? When someone makes an interesting claim, do they repeat it or validate it? Can they troubleshoot instead of reaching for the same answer every time? Can they recognize when something doesn’t fit? Can they change their mind? Can they say, “I don’t know”? And when they reach the edge of what they know, have they built a network of people who can help take the next step?

Those things tell me far more than a title by itself ever could.

When I look at all the things I’ve studied over the years, I don’t see a pile of certifications that somehow prove I know everything. I see more ways to look at a dog, more questions I know to ask, more connections I might recognize and more places to look when the obvious answer isn’t getting us anywhere. I see more tools in my tool box. I see years of notes, research, cases, conversations, mistakes, things that worked, things that didn’t and things I’m still trying to understand better.

And maybe this is where I land after all of it: at the end of the day, the certificate itself is not what we put into practice.

The knowledge matters—however you acquired it, as long as you did the work to actually understand it. Results matter. Determination matters. Critical thinking matters. Creativity matters. The willingness to keep digging when the obvious answer isn’t working matters. And teamwork matters, because nobody knows everything and the dog is better served when good professionals are willing to put their heads together instead of protecting their titles.

A certification can tell you where someone’s formal education started. It can’t tell you how much work they put in afterward, how much they continued learning, how they think through a difficult problem or what they’re willing to do when the first answer doesn’t work.

For me, the certificate has never been the finish line. It usually just gives me a new rabbit hole to go down—and hopefully another tool I can actually use when a dog needs it.

Dana Brigman, Cert.CN :-)

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You may have no idea who I am, what The WellOiledK9 is, or why there is a paid membership attached to this Substack.

So let me start there.

The Well Oiled K9 Membership is not simply a paid newsletter.

Substack is one part of a much larger education and support membership I’ve built for dog parents who want to understand their dogs better, make more informed wellness decisions and have a useful place to come back to when the next question comes up.

And with dogs, there is always a next question.

Who Am I — And Why Am I Teaching This?

I’m Dana Brigman, a Certified Holistic Pet Health Coach and canine nutritionist (Cert.CN), and I’ve spent more than a decade working professionally with dogs and their people.

My work actually started heavily on the behavior and training side, but over the years it became impossible for me to separate behavior from what was happening physically in the dog. Food matters. Digestion matters. Pain, hormones, stress, sleep, the nervous system and the environment all matter. What we put on, in and around our dogs matters too.

That is what led me deeper into canine nutrition, fresh feeding, aromatherapy, herbs, homeopathy, Reiki and other complementary approaches to wellness.

Today, I look at the whole dog. Your Dog.

That might mean helping a pet parent improve the food bowl, understand allergies, support a senior dog, think through digestive problems, learn how to use natural remedies more confidently or recognize that an anxious or reactive dog may have more going on than a training problem.

I do not believe every dog needs a complicated protocol and twelve supplements.

I also do not believe every question should end with “ask your vet” and no further explanation.

Veterinary care matters. So does understanding your own dog well enough to notice changes, ask better questions and make thoughtful decisions.

That middle ground is where much of my work lives.

Why I Built The Membership

I kept watching dog parents get good information, use it successfully, and then end up right back at square one when the next issue came along.

• Maybe the dog stopped eating.

• Maybe diarrhea showed up.

• Maybe an allergy flare started.

• Maybe their senior suddenly seemed different.

• Maybe they wanted to improve the diet, learn more about essential oils, understand a supplement or figure out whether something they were seeing was worth worrying about.

Then back to Google or FB they went.

And Google can give you 4,000 answers, three sponsored products and six new reasons to panic before breakfast

Social media can be even worse. Ask one dog question in a large Facebook group and by lunchtime someone will have told you to change the food, never change the food, give pumpkin, never give pumpkin, fire your veterinarian and buy seven supplements and what a terrible pet parent you are. 😂

I wanted to build something more useful than that.

The Well Oiled K9 Membership gives you a place to learn, ask questions, find reliable resources and gradually become much better at understanding your own dog.

What Will You Learn Inside The Membership?

This is not about memorizing protocols.

It is about learning how to think through your dog’s wellness more confidently.

Inside the membership, we talk about things like:

• Nutrition & Fresh Food — improving the bowl, fresh feeding, homemade food, ingredients, protein rotation, fats, hydration and feeding through different stages of life.

• Natural Remedies — essential oils, herbs, homeopathy, botanicals and when each type of support may make sense.

• Digestive Health — diarrhea, reflux, poor appetite, nausea, food sensitivities, elimination diets and recurring GI problems.

• Chronic Health Concerns — education and supportive strategies around conditions involving the kidneys, liver, pancreas, thyroid, heart, skin, immune system and more.

• Senior Dogs & Longevity — mobility, cognition, nutrition, prevention and helping older dogs stay comfortable and engaged.

• Behavior & The Whole Dog — anxiety, reactivity, stress, nervous-system health and the physical pieces that can influence behavior.

• Seasonal Wellness — parasites, environmental exposures, detoxification, immune support and proactive seasonal care.

• First Aid & Everyday Questions — the things dog parents actually need when something happens and they are trying to decide what belongs in the “watch it,” “support it” or “call the vet” category.

And because dogs rarely arrive with one tidy little problem living in its own box, we also talk about how those pieces connect.

What Does Membership Actually Include?

Here is where the membership becomes very different from the typical paid Substack.

Member-Only Education

You’ll receive deeper articles and educational posts here on Substack, along with ongoing discussion around the topics I teach and the things I’m seeing in my work.

Live Q&A and Zoom Sessions

Members can participate in live sessions where we talk through questions, current topics and practical wellness issues. Replays are available when you cannot attend live.

A Growing Support-Guide Library

The member area includes a growing collection of wellness guides, troubleshooting resources, seasonal support material and practical references you can return to when something comes up with your dog.

The Remedies Class

Annual members receive access to my complete Remedies Class covering essential oils, herbs, homeopathy, botanicals, first-aid resources and practical ways to build a useful natural-remedy toolkit.

The Homemade Food Class

Annual members also receive my complete Homemade Food Class, designed to teach you how to think about balanced fresh food instead of simply following one recipe forever.

Community & Conversation

You can ask questions, participate in Substack Chat and learn from the questions other dog parents are asking too.

Resource Direction

Sometimes the biggest problem is not that information doesn’t exist — it’s that you have no idea which piece applies to your dog.

Part of my role is helping you find the right guide, class, article or next step instead of getting lost in a giant information library.

Member Discounts

Members receive discounts on eligible guides and private services when a situation needs more individualized support.

What Membership Is NOT

This part matters just as much.

The membership is education and group support.

It is not unlimited private coaching, emergency support, custom diet formulation, individualized treatment protocols, detailed lab interpretation or ongoing case management.

Sometimes your question will have a straightforward educational answer.

Sometimes I can point you to exactly the right resource.

And sometimes your question tells me your dog needs a deeper review.

When that happens, I will tell you.

I would much rather say, “This needs more than a membership answer,” than pretend every complicated dog can be responsibly managed in a comment thread.

You Do Not Have to Be “Super Holistic”

You do not need to arrive here feeding a perfectly balanced raw diet from a stainless steel bowl while diffusing Frankincense and growing medicinal herbs in the backyard. 😂

Some members are deeply immersed in natural wellness already. Others are just beginning.

Some feed fresh food. Some are trying to improve kibble. Some use herbs, essential oils or homeopathy regularly. Others have never used any of them.

Some are managing chronic health problems. Others have healthy dogs and are primarily interested in prevention and longevity.

There is no purity test at the door.

My approach tends to be food-first, whole-dog and lower-tox. I like fresh food. I use essential oils, herbs and homeopathy. I think prevention deserves much more attention than it usually receives.

But I also work in the real world.

You start where you are.

Why Substack Then?

The WellOiledK9 existed long before I started using Substack.

I am here because Substack gives us something a traditional website does not do particularly well: conversation.

I can publish something, you can respond to it, members can use Chat, we can keep discussions going and I can communicate directly with people who actually want to hear from me.

But Substack is not the entirety of the membership.

The simplest way I can explain it is:

Substack is where you subscribe and where part of the conversation happens.
The WellOiledK9 Membership is what you are actually joining.

Some of your membership experience happens here.

Some happens in the larger member resource library.

Some happens during live sessions and Q&A.

And some of the value is simply having someplace useful to start the next time you find yourself staring at your dog thinking, Okay… now what?

Why Join?

Because you are probably already spending money on your dog.

• Food.

• Supplements.

• Veterinary visits.

• Products somebody recommended online.

• Things you tried because they sounded promising.

Sometimes the most valuable thing you can have is not another product.

It is better information before you buy the next one.

The membership is designed to help you:

• understand what may matter first;

• recognize when you are dealing with a foundation problem instead of a supplement problem;

• ask better questions;

• make more intentional decisions;

• understand the options available to you;

• stop starting from scratch every time something changes with your dog.

My goal is to help you become much better at understanding and advocating for your dog.

Current Membership Pricing

The membership has grown considerably from what it was when I originally priced it.

Beginning September 1, 2026, new membership pricing will be:

$49/month

or

$399/year

But through August 31, you can still join annually through Substack for $150/year.

And this is important:

If you join at $150/year through Substack before August 31 and keep that annual subscription active, your renewal price remains $150/year.

That is not just a first-year promotional price.

You keep that rate for future annual renewals while your subscription remains active.

If you cancel and later decide to return, you will rejoin at whatever the membership price is at that time.

I am comfortable giving early members that advantage because you are joining while I am still actively expanding and organizing the membership.

You came early.

You get the cheap seats. 😂

If You Just Found Me Today

You do not have to decide anything because one article landed in your feed.

Read some of my public posts.

See how I think.

See whether my approach to dogs makes sense to you.

But if you are already the dog parent who wants to understand more, be more proactive and have a reliable place to turn when the next question comes up, I would love to have you inside the membership.

And if you are reading this before August 31, this is also your chance to lock in the $150 annual membership price before it changes.

You can join or upgrade directly here on Substack.

Questions are always welcome.

Welcome to The WellOiledK9.

Dana

I had a bad feeling about the whole thing the day before, but I tried to keep an open mind. I wanted help. No, I needed help. More specifically, I wanted someone who could help me safely return to exercise after a health crisis that nearly took me out and wrecked my nervous system and my stamina.

When the appointment began, the trainer asked whether I had a pen while holding one up to the camera. Then he asked whether I had paper while displaying a sheet of it for me.

For a moment, I wondered whether I had accidentally enrolled in kindergarten.

He told me to write down three words: fitness, nutrition, and accountability. Then he asked about my primary goal.

I explained that I wanted to rebuild my strength and endurance. I want to be able to travel and trust that I can walk wherever I need to go. I want to know I could walk to the grocery store and back if necessary. More importantly, I want to feel confident that if I were ever stranded or one of my dogs needed help, I would have enough physical strength and stamina to handle the situation.

My goal was not a particular number on the scale or a body that resembled one of the photos used in a fitness advertisement. I wanted to feel capable again. I wanted to rebuild trust in my body after a frightening health experience.

I told him about the health issue, but he glossed over it and moved on.

Next, he asked about my weight, even though I had already provided it on the intake form. Then he showed me a series of body photos and asked which one looked most like me.

That was when I stopped him.

“I don’t care about the number or the photo. They will shift naturally.” I said. “I care about how I feel. I need help getting started with fitness again and overcoming my fears.” “If the scale and weekly photo are your measurements (no pun intended) for success — I can tell you this isn’t for me, right now. It’s not my priority.”

That should have been useful information. It should have shifted the direction of the conversation because I had just clearly explained what I needed, why I needed it, and what I was hoping he could help me accomplish.

Instead, he moved directly into questions about what I eat, whether I binge at night, and how some of “his ladies” struggle with food and eat emotionally. For the record, referring to grown women as “your ladies” while questioning them about their eating habits is gross.

Then came the macros. How much protein was I eating? How many carbohydrates? How much fat? What would I track, and how would I measure it?

I told him that counting macros was not a good starting point for me.

That did not mean I believed nutrition was unimportant. I talk about food first constantly in my own work. I understand that food influences energy, inflammation, healing, muscle development, hormones, metabolism, and long-term health. I understand the role nutrition plays in fitness and recovery.

But I also know myself, and I knew what I could realistically manage.

I explained that I did not have the emotional capacity to overhaul several major areas of my life at the same time. I had already been working on my food. What I needed from him was guidance, supervision, and partnership as I returned to exercise. Once I rebuilt some strength and confidence in movement, I could take a closer look at the next area.

Instead of hearing that, he launched into an explanation that began with, “In my XYZ Program, we address fitness, nutrition, and accountability together…”

And there it was: the program.

The conversation was no longer about my health history, my goals, or the reality of what I could take on after a serious health crisis. It was about why I needed to fit inside the structure he had already created.

I stopped him again and asked, “What did you hear me say were my priorities and goals?”

He acknowledged that my priority was fitness, but immediately returned to explaining why I could not achieve it without participating in the entire program exactly as designed. Apparently, I could not even begin rebuilding my strength unless I was also willing to count macros from day one. It sounded like an all or nothing approach.

There was no room to start with supervised exercise, regain some confidence in my body, and address nutrition more deeply when I had greater emotional capacity. His program came first, and I came second.

When I did not fit neatly into the box he had built, he called me uncoachable.

I found that fascinating because I had not refused to work. I had not said nutrition was irrelevant, and I had not rejected the idea of making changes. I had simply communicated what I needed and where I was capable of starting. I knew being in the kitchen counting macros was not a starting point for me.

That is not being uncoachable. That is being honest about your capacity.

A Good Program Is Not Automatically the Right Program

There is nothing inherently wrong with tracking macros. Some people love numbers. They feel empowered by setting measurable targets, tracking their meals, and watching their progress through data.

Other people become overwhelmed before they even begin.

Some people are ready to change their food, exercise, sleep, supplements, schedule, and routines all at once. Others are recovering from illness, grief, burnout, financial pressure, caregiving, or years of feeling physically and emotionally depleted. They may have the capacity to make one meaningful change right now.

That is not laziness or resistance. It is information a good coach should know how to use.

There is an enormous difference between someone who refuses to participate and someone who clearly explains what they need in order to succeed. A coach who cannot recognize that difference is not customizing a plan. They are qualifying people for a program.

Sometimes the technically ideal plan is not the plan a person can realistically follow today. It may look brilliant in a presentation, but if it is too overwhelming, expensive, rigid, or disconnected from the person’s immediate needs, it will fail in real life.

Customization is not merely changing a calorie target, replacing one exercise, or swapping one food for another. It means understanding where someone is starting, what is currently blocking progress, and which first step gives them the best chance of continuing.

Dog Moms Keep Telling Me They Are Overwhelmed

This experience made me think about my own work as a Holistic Canine Health Practitioner because I hear one word from dog moms all the time: overwhelmed.

They are overwhelmed by conflicting advice, supplement lists, test results, food recommendations, medication decisions, vet appointments, social media opinions, financial pressure, and the persistent fear that they still are not doing enough for their dogs.

I also have to own that I have probably contributed to that feeling at times.

When I assess a dog, I may see several interconnected areas that need attention. I may see problems with the food, digestion, inflammation, nutrient absorption, mobility, medication side effects, stress, the home environment, or the way one health issue is feeding another.

Because I see those connections, I naturally want to explain them. I want the dog mom to understand why the symptoms keep returning and why the usual advice may not be solving the deeper problem.

But while I may see the whole puzzle, the dog mom sitting across from me may hear a long and expensive list of everything she is somehow supposed to fix by Monday.

I am trying to be more mindful of that because identifying every possible weakness is not the same as creating a useful starting point.

My role is not simply to point out everything that could be better. My role is to help determine what needs attention first, what the dog can tolerate, what the dog mom can realistically manage, and what fits within the budget available.

Sometimes that means we cannot begin with the most complete or sophisticated version of the plan. We begin with the step most likely to create an easy win.

Maybe the first win is getting the dog to eat breakfast willingly. Maybe it is firming up the stool, reducing nighttime restlessness, helping the dog rise more comfortably, or making one fresh-food improvement without turning the kitchen into a canine nutrition laboratory.

An early win creates confidence. Confidence improves consistency, and consistency gives us the capacity to address the next piece of the puzzle.

Sometimes Food Is the Right First Step

Sometimes the most useful first change really is food. For dogs, that transition can even be relatively easy because most dogs are delighted when tasty fresh food appears in place of dry brown pellets. The dog is not worried about learning a new system, reading labels, or logging meals in an app. The dog usually thinks this is the best idea anyone has had all week.

The dog mom may feel very differently.

She may already be managing medications, cleaning diarrhea from the carpet, losing sleep, driving to appointments, working full time, caring for other family members, and trying to understand why her dog still does not feel well.

Handing her a food scale, nutrient spreadsheets, detailed recipes, multiple new supplements, and a target for every gram of protein and fat may not be the best place to begin.

She probably is not going to count macros, and in many cases, she does not need to.

She may need one manageable improvement to the food she is already feeding. She may need help choosing a better fresh or gently cooked option. She may need to replace one meal, add useful moisture and protein, remove one obvious problem, or simplify a complicated routine that is not working.

We can build from there.

Meeting someone where she is does not mean lowering the standard of care or pretending the other issues do not exist. It means creating a plan that can actually be implemented instead of presenting an idealized plan that collapses under the weight of real life.

The Dog Who Just Wants to Walk With Mom Again

Consider a dog with a painful or unstable knee. Maybe she used to walk every morning with her mom, jump into the car for errands, or wander through the neighborhood sniffing every mailbox as if it contained breaking news. Now she hesitates at the door, struggles to rise, or turns back after a few minutes.

Of course food belongs in the conversation. A fresh, anti-inflammatory diet may help reduce inflammatory pressure, support tissue repair, improve body composition, and provide the nutrients needed to maintain muscle. If the dog is carrying excess weight, nutrition will also be part of protecting that joint over time.

But the dog mom may not have called me because she wants a lesson on food percentages. She may have called because her dog can no longer walk with her.

That changes where we begin.

Before asking this dog to lose weight, rebuild muscle, or tolerate longer walks, we may need to address the pain that is preventing movement in the first place. She may need an evaluation from a rehabilitation veterinarian or qualified canine rehabilitation professional to assess the knee, gait changes, compensation patterns, weakness, and muscle loss. Support such as appropriate pain relief, PEMF, cold laser, massage, CBD, essential oils, improved traction, and carefully guided exercises may help her become comfortable enough to move again.

A dog who hurts every time she stands is not going to rebuild strength simply because we improved her dinner.

The food work still matters, and it may become one of the most important parts of the long-term plan. But first, we may need to help the dog stand more comfortably, take a few stronger steps, and begin using her body again without fear. But for now, maybe we take one thing out or add in one fresh new thing.

Then perhaps she makes it to the end of the driveway. Later, she reaches the corner. Eventually, she may be able to enjoy part of that morning walk with Mom again.

Those are not small wins. They are the reason for the plan.

Once movement is more comfortable and the household has a manageable routine, we can continue improving the food, address body condition, support muscle development, and build a longer-term strategy for inflammation and joint health.

That is not ignoring nutrition. It is understanding that the best plan may still fail when it begins with the wrong obstacle.

The Best Starting Point Is the Barrier Blocking Progress

Dog parents are often handed a list that includes changing the food, eliminating treats, adding supplements, starting exercises, buying equipment, scheduling tests, changing household products, tracking symptoms, learning massage, managing weight, and reducing stress.

Every recommendation on the list may have value, but together they can become paralyzing.

Overwhelm does not create consistency. It usually creates avoidance, guilt, and a cabinet full of unopened supplements.

Some dog moms are ready to prepare a completely fresh diet, track symptoms, rotate proteins, learn acupressure, and make several changes at once. Others are exhausted, frightened, and barely holding their household together. They may be able to change one meal, add one supportive product, or schedule one rehabilitation appointment.

That is where we start.

My job is not to make someone prove her commitment by giving her an impossible list and seeing whether she follows it. My job is to identify the biggest obstacle, the most urgent concern, the most realistic next step, and the change most likely to create meaningful improvement.

When a dog sleeps better, walks a little farther, scratches less, has a formed stool, or rises with less hesitation, the dog mom begins to believe progress is possible. That success gives her the energy and confidence to take the next step.

The Dog Mom Is Part of the Wellness Plan

A dog’s wellness plan does not exist in a laboratory. It has to work inside a real home with a real dog mom, a real schedule, and a real budget.

She may work long hours, care for several animals, manage her own health problems, or be responsible for a spouse, child, or aging parent. She may have financial limitations, physical restrictions, decision fatigue, or fear left over from a previous medical crisis.

A plan that ignores the person caring for the dog is not truly customized to the dog.

That does not mean I tell people only what they want to hear. Sometimes the most important recommendation is not the easiest one. There are situations when the food must change quickly, veterinary care cannot wait, or the current approach is clearly making the problem worse. I will say so.

There is still a difference between being direct and being rigid. There is also a difference between giving someone a roadmap and demanding that she travel the entire road on the first day.

A useful plan shows the dog mom where we are going while helping her understand which step comes next.

Controlled Is Not Always Stable

We also need to consider the dog’s capacity, not only the person’s.

A dog may be technically cleared for activity but still be weak, guarded, painful, or afraid to move. The diarrhea may have stopped, while the gut remains fragile. The itching may be controlled with medication, even though the underlying inflammatory pattern is still present.

A dog may eat prescription food and avoid obvious triggers while remaining nutritionally depleted, digestively vulnerable, and prone to repeated flares.

Controlled is not always the same as stable, and stable is not necessarily the same as ready for every intervention.

Sometimes the body needs support before it is challenged. We may need to stabilize first, rebuild second, and expand later.

Changing too many things at the same time can also make it impossible to tell what helped, what caused a reaction, or what the dog can tolerate. A flare is information, but so are fatigue, hesitation, resistance, and overwhelm.

Good coaching pays attention to all of them.

Customization Still Requires a Plan

A customized approach does not mean throwing every natural remedy at a dog and hoping something sticks. That is not customization. That is expensive chaos.

A thoughtful plan still needs priorities and structure. Depending on the dog, it may involve veterinary diagnostics, medication review, pain management, rehabilitation, fresh food, digestive support, herbs, essential oils, homeopathy, CBD, medicinal mushrooms, bodywork, nervous system support, environmental changes, or a TCVM-informed assessment.

Not every dog needs every category, and not every category needs to begin today.

The order matters. The dog’s symptoms matter. The dog mom’s capacity matters. The budget matters. The response to each change matters.

A customized plan is often built in phases. It leaves room to observe, adjust, and make better decisions as the dog’s response gives us new information.

Coaching Should Feel Like a Partnership

The fitness trainer kept trying to convince me that his system was correct. He never stopped to consider whether it was the right starting point for me at that moment.

That is the difference.

I did not need someone to explain that nutrition affects fitness. I needed someone to hear that I was recovering from a serious health issue with emotional baggage and wanted support as I safely reintroduced exercise.

I was not saying I would never make another change to my diet. I was asking to start in a place where I could succeed.

Dog moms deserve that same consideration. They deserve someone who looks at the diagnosis but also looks beyond it—someone who asks what is most urgent, what is most fragile, what has already been tried, what the household can afford, what the dog mom can realistically sustain, and which first change is most likely to help.

Sometimes we begin with the bowl. Sometimes we begin with pain relief, digestion, sleep, mobility, hydration, stress, or simply getting the dog comfortable enough to eat.

The best plan is not the one with the most steps, the strictest rules, or the most impressive flow-chart. It is the plan that understands the dog, respects the person caring for them, and begins in the right place.

From stress, discomfort, and digestive upset to skin concerns, immune support, recovery, and senior wellness, essential oils are often among the first tools I reach for.

Have you considered adding them to your dog’s wellness toolbox?

In this video, Dr. Barb Fox and I talk about why so many dog moms are nervous about using essential oils—and how the right education and support can help you move past that fear and use this powerful modality with confidence.

Jump to about the 6-minute mark to dive right into that conversation:
WATCH THE VIDEO

Thinking about getting started with essential oils? Contact Me. My self-paced oils class is available in the membership program or stand-alone!

In this episode of Dogsplainin, I talk with Angela Ardolino, founder of CBD Dog Health and MycoDog, about natural wellness for dogs—and why the quality of the products we give them matters.

We discuss:

• How full-spectrum CBD supports the endocannabinoid system
• Functional mushrooms and adaptogens for canine health
• Natural support for inflammation, discomfort, stress, immunity, and aging
• Why synthetic ingredients may be problematic for some dogs
• What pet parents should look for when choosing supplements
• Supporting senior dogs before they begin noticeably declining
• Practical ways to promote comfort, vitality, and longevity

Healthy aging does not begin when your dog suddenly becomes “old.” The choices you make throughout your dog’s life—from food and supplements to stress support and daily movement—can influence how well those later years are lived.

This conversation will help pet parents better understand CBD, functional mushrooms, natural products, and the importance of choosing clean, thoughtfully formulated support for their dogs.

Subscribe to Dogsplainin for practical conversations about canine nutrition, natural wellness, essential oils, senior dog care, and helping dogs eat better, feel better, and live longer.

Learn more about holistic support for your dog at welloiledk9.com.
Order CBD Dog Heath and MyCoDog Here

CBD for dogs | medicinal mushrooms for dogs | senior dog health | dog longevity | natural dog supplements | holistic dog care | Angela Ardolino | CBD Dog Health | MycoDog | healthy aging for dogs

I’m hosting a live, interactive Zoom discussion to cover some of the issues I keep seeing come up again and again in Facebook groups.

We’ll talk about topics such as:

• How to properly balance a homemade diet

• Feeding dogs with pancreatitis

• Why “low fat” does not automatically mean healthy

• Why I do not love gabapentin as the default answer

• Taking a food-first approach

• Allergies, itching, yeast, and digestive issues

• How to stop wasting money on unnecessary supplements

• Ways better daily choices may help reduce avoidable vet visits

• Common advice circulating online that may be incomplete, misleading, or simply wrong

This is not a one-on-one consulting session, but I will answer questions and work through as many topics as possible with the group.

The discussion begins at 6:00 PM ET and will continue until 8:00 PM ET or until the question queue is empty, whichever comes first.

This will be held on Zoom only so we can actually talk, ask follow-up questions, and have an interactive discussion rather than trying to communicate through a Facebook comment thread.

Bring your questions, your notebook, and your willingness to rethink some of the advice that gets repeated online without enough explanation.

https://zoom.us/my/danabrig?pwd=qB7eaclzHRmKk1MixptB03VFsE9iTa.1&omn=93726261961

Subscribe now

Huey came to me when he was about six months old, so I had the privilege of knowing almost his entire story.

Both lived beyond 20 years old.

It is important to say that both Howie and Huey came to me long before I knew much about fresh feeding, natural health support, reducing chemical exposure or making more intentional decisions around vaccines. I did not start out doing everything I would recommend today. I learned as I went, and as I learned, I made changes.

I changed their food. I changed their vaccine schedules. I eliminated products from our home and yard that I no longer wanted around them. They ate raw diets for many years, and then, in their final years, I shifted them to gently cooked food as their bodies and digestive needs changed.

There wasn’t one magic supplement, one perfect food or one protocol responsible for their longevity. Their health was built over time through many different choices, including choices I changed as I learned better.

Neither dog was ever what I would call chronically unhealthy. I truly believe that when they died, it was simply their time after more than 20 years of life. That doesn’t make watching them grow old easy. The slowing down is one of the hardest parts. You begin measuring walks differently. You notice that it takes a little longer to cross the yard, get comfortable in a bed or make it to the door.

The body changes even when the spirit and appetite remain very much intact.

And both of those dachshunds still loved to eat.

They remained mobile around the house and yard throughout their senior and geriatric years, and they still loved golf cart rides or their stroller when longer walks were no longer practical. Their world became smaller and slower, but it did not stop being enjoyable.

I will always miss them, but more than anything, I remain incredibly grateful for the number of healthy years we had together.

Those years shaped the way I think about proactive health today.

We tell pet parents to get ahead of problems. Feed better before disease develops. Support the joints before arthritis makes every step uncomfortable. Think about brain health before cognitive decline. Protect kidney and liver function before the bloodwork changes. Reduce inflammation and chemical exposure before the body becomes overwhelmed.

Then we also say, “Don’t treat a problem your dog doesn’t have.”

That sounds contradictory until we separate supporting the body from treating an active disease.

I think of it like preparing your home for a storm. You maintain the roof, trim the branches hanging over the house and keep flashlights, batteries and supplies nearby. You prepare because you understand that storms happen. You do not, however, replace every window because one might eventually break. If a window does break, you stop preparing for a possibility and repair the actual damage.

Proactive health works much the same way. Maintenance. We support the body before there is a problem, but when a problem develops, we change the plan and treat what is actually happening.

Helping the body do its own work

I don’t wake up each morning wondering which disease I should try to prevent that day. I think about what I can do to help my dogs’ bodies continue doing what they were designed to do.

The immune system is already monitoring for viruses, bacteria, parasites, damaged tissue and abnormal cells. The liver is processing substances and preparing waste for removal. The kidneys are filtering the blood, regulating fluid balance and helping maintain mineral and electrolyte balance. The lymphatic system is moving waste and supporting immune function. The microbiome is involved in digestion, nutrient production, immune communication and even brain and behavior health.

The body also has an endocannabinoid system, a regulatory network involved in maintaining balance across the nervous system, immune system, gut, skin, appetite, discomfort and inflammatory responses. This is one reason CBD became part of my senior dogs’ care. I wasn’t using it to sedate them or cover up every sign of aging. I used it because CBD may support comfort, mobility, a balanced inflammatory response, appetite, calmer nervous-system signaling and the body’s efforts to maintain homeostasis. Read more about CBD for dogs.

My role is not to replace these systems or force them to work in a particular direction every day. My role is to provide good raw materials, support normal function and remove as many unnecessary obstacles as I reasonably can.

Food is a large part of that, but it is not the only part. I also pay attention to what enters the home through the laundry room, what is sprayed in the yard and what ends up on the floors, bedding, paws and skin.

Over the years, I have worked to reduce unnecessary exposure to lawn chemicals, weed killers, synthetic fertilizers, pest-control products, heavily fragranced cleaners, plug-ins, air fresheners, scented detergents, fabric softeners and dryer products. I also changed how I approached flea and tick products and vaccines as I learned more and became more comfortable making individualized decisions.

We cannot eliminate every exposure. Our dogs still walk through treated grass, breathe outdoor air, drink water and share a world that is far from toxin-free. However, reducing what we can control lowers the amount the body must continually process.

Harvey taught me just how important that is.

His heavy-metal numbers were off the charts. My first thought was to focus on detoxification, but then I had our water tested and discovered we had a problem. No matter how much I tried to help his body eliminate heavy metals, I was continuing to put more back into him—and into all of us—through the water we used every day.

That changed my thinking permanently. Detoxification is not just about adding herbs, binders or supplements. Sometimes the most important part of a detox protocol is identifying what needs to stop coming in. Otherwise, we are mopping the floor while the sink is still overflowing.

The difference between support and treatment

Howie gave me a very clear example of this distinction.

At one point, he was diagnosed with early signs of kidney disease. That was no longer a general wellness concern. We had an actual problem beginning to show itself, so I changed the plan.

I made more significant changes to his food ingredients, became much more intentional about what his kidneys were being asked to process and completed a focused cleanse.

After that, the issue was never brought up again. His veterinarians did not continue discussing kidney disease, and we never had another known problem with it.

That does not mean I ignored his kidneys afterward. It meant we moved from treatment back into support.

The problem had appeared, so I responded more directly. Once his body was back in a better place, I continued making choices that supported kidney function without treating him as though he were in active kidney failure for the rest of his life.

That is exactly the difference I want pet parents to understand.

Support can be gentle, seasonal and ongoing. Treatment is more targeted because something specific has changed.

Adding support as the years pass

I did not care for Howie and Huey at 18 the same way I cared for them at 8. Their foundation remained the same, but as they became seniors and then truly geriatric dogs, I added more support around the systems likely to work harder with age.

• Clarity functional mushrooms became part of their care because I wanted to support their brains as they aged. Howie did eventually show some signs of cognitive decline, but he was already 20 years old by then. To me, that matters. I was not expecting supplements to stop aging or make an elderly dog behave like a young one. I was trying to support brain function, awareness, routine, sleep and quality of life for as long as possible. I believe we slowed the onset of CCD naturally.

• Vitality mushrooms were used because I wanted exactly what the name suggests: vitality, resilience, energy and continued engagement with life.
  Read more about functional mushrooms for dogs.

• CBD supported multiple needs at once, including comfort, mobility, appetite, nervous-system balance and a healthier inflammatory response.

• PEMF helped support circulation, tissue recovery, comfort and movement. Keeping an older dog mobile affects much more than the joints. It helps preserve muscle, independence, digestion, confidence and quality of life. Read more about PEMF for dogs.

• Raindrop Technique was also a very important part of how I supported my senior dogs.

• For seniors, I generally begin with a three-day Raindrop protocol. From there, I usually move to weekly sessions and then maintain at least monthly support. Some dogs need it more often, and I adjust the frequency based on age, mobility, stress, discomfort, neurological needs and how the dog responds.

• Raindrop is not something I save only for a crisis. I use it proactively to support the nervous system, muscles, joints, circulation, immune function and the body’s overall ability to recover from the wear and tear of aging.

• The essential oils used during a Raindrop session are selected with purpose. Sometimes the focus is mobility and musculoskeletal support. Sometimes the immune system needs more attention. Sometimes the nervous system needs help settling so the body can move out of a constant stress response and devote more energy to digestion, sleep and repair.

I do not use oils simply because they smell nice or because every senior dog needs the same recipe. The choices and frequency are adjusted according to the dog standing in front of me.

Fresh, anti-inflammatory food remained the foundation. Howie and Huey ate raw food for many years, and as they became very old, I shifted them to gently cooked meals because that was a better fit for their changing needs. I continued offering variety to provide a broader range of nutrients, keep meals interesting and help them continue eating well as they aged.

Milk thistle and seasonal liver support also became part of the rotation because a liver that has processed nearly two decades of food, medications, chemicals and ordinary environmental exposure has earned some backup.

None of these things were added because Howie and Huey had every disease the products or therapies might be capable of supporting. They were added because aging changes what the body needs.

They did not receive every supplement every day for the rest of their lives. Some tools were used daily for a period. Others were seasonal, rotated or brought in when I noticed a change. Proactive care does not mean turning every meal into a mountain of powders, tinctures and capsules. It means watching the dog in front of you and adjusting the support as that dog’s age, environment and needs change.

Poppy’s seasonal rhythm

Poppy is now eleven and a half, and she currently has no known health issues. I am enormously grateful for that, but her good health is not a reason for me to stop supporting her body until something goes wrong.

We began seasonal liver work with all the dogs about five years ago. Over time, that developed into a general rhythm I use throughout the year:

• January and July: antioxidant support

• February and August: parasite-focused support

• March and September: lymphatic support

• April and October or early November: liver support

• May and November: heavy-metal support

• June and December: kidney support

This is a framework, not a rigid calendar carved into stone. I adjust it according to the dog, the season, environmental exposures and anything else happening in the body. I also do not necessarily stop supporting one system simply because the month changed. Fresh food, hydration, movement and basic immune support continue underneath everything else.

The rotation simply gives me a way to spend more focused time on systems that can easily be overlooked until they begin to struggle.

Poppy does not have kidney disease, but I know healthy kidney function is critical to longevity. From a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective, Kidney Qi is connected to vitality, aging, bones, the brain, endurance and the body’s deeper reserves. I do not need a diagnosis before including kidney-supportive foods, herbs and Chinese herbs periodically.

I am not treating kidney disease. I am supporting the kidneys while they are still functioning well.

The same applies to her liver, lymphatics, immune system and cellular health. I use food, herbs, essential oils, Raindrop, antioxidants, functional mushrooms, CBD, PEMF and seasonal detoxification as parts of a rotating wellness plan. Some supports stay in place. Others come and go. They are selected because they help the body continue doing its own work—not because I am pretending Poppy has every disease I worry about.

Cancer: proactive support is not treatment

Cancer is the extreme example, and it is the one that worries almost every pet parent.

Most of us have watched someone lose a dog to cancer, or we have had a veterinarian find a lump, abnormal bloodwork or something on an ultrasound that changed life in a single afternoon. It is difficult not to think about prevention when cancer has become so common.

Our bodies routinely produce cells that are damaged or abnormal. The immune system continually monitors tissues and can identify and remove many cells that are no longer functioning as they should. That immune surveillance is one of the body’s built-in protective systems.

Our efforts today can help create a healthier environment for that system to work in tomorrow.

That is why I care about fresh food, antioxidants, functional mushrooms, microbiome health, healthy inflammation, movement, appropriate weight, liver and kidney support, lymphatic flow, nervous-system regulation and reducing chemical exposure throughout the yard, home and laundry.

None of those choices guarantees that Poppy will never develop cancer. There are genetic risks, environmental exposures and biological events outside our control. Proactive care is not a promise of immortality.

It is an effort to give the body better raw materials, fewer unnecessary burdens and more capacity to identify damage, regulate inflammation and repair itself.

That is proactive cancer support. It is not cancer treatment.

If cancer develops, the approach changes. We may use more targeted nutrition, herbs, mushrooms, CBD, antioxidants and integrative therapies based on the cancer type, organ system and treatment plan. Conventional diagnostics, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, mistletoe, ozone or other therapies may become part of the discussion. The foundation remains important, but maintenance alone is no longer enough.

The window has broken. Now we repair it.

Read more about natural cancer support for dogs.

Read more about nutrition support for dogs with cancer.

Parasites: the same principle on a smaller scale

Parasites are a less extreme problem, but they follow the same basic pattern.

We often say that a healthy body makes a terrible host. That does not mean a healthy dog can never pick up a parasite. Dogs lick the ground, drink from puddles, walk through contaminated soil and investigate wildlife droppings as though they have uncovered something valuable.

Building a healthy body means supporting stomach acid, digestion, the microbiome, intestinal integrity, immune function, nutrition and healthy elimination. Depending on the dog’s lifestyle, history and environment, seasonal parasite maintenance may also be appropriate.

That is proactive support.

However, if a dog develops Giardia, hookworms, roundworms or another active parasite burden, the approach changes. Now we may need a defined parasite protocol, targeted herbs or essential oils, sanitation throughout the home and yard, frequent laundering of bedding, gut support, binders, repeat testing or pharmaceutical treatment.

We do not continue a gentle maintenance routine and pretend we are treating an established problem. We address the parasite directly. Once the immediate issue is resolved, we rebuild the gut, restore the microbiome and return to supporting the terrain.

Cancer and parasites are clearly not the same level of threat, but the decision-making process is similar. Before there is a problem, support the systems that help protect the body. When a problem appears, change the intensity and purpose of the plan.

The quiet work of longevity

When people ask how Howie and Huey lived beyond 20, I still do not have one simple answer.

They did not come to me after I had already learned everything I know now. They grew alongside my own education. I changed their food, their vaccine schedules, their environment and the way I supported their bodies as I learned more.

They ate raw food for years. They moved to gently cooked food when that became more appropriate. They received seasonal support, Raindrop, essential oils, mushrooms, CBD, PEMF, herbs and more individualized care as their bodies aged.

When Howie showed early signs of kidney disease, I did not ignore it. I changed his food, supported the kidneys more directly and completed a cleanse. When that problem no longer appeared to be active, I did not continue treating him as a kidney-disease patient forever. I returned to supporting the body that had responded.

It was never one product, one protocol or one lucky ingredient. It was countless small decisions, along with the willingness to change those decisions as I learned more and as the dogs changed.

Mostly, it was paying attention.

They did not live long lives because I constantly treated them for diseases they did not have. They also did not live long lives because I waited for their bodies to fail before offering support.

Their health was built gradually, through thousands of ordinary choices.

I cannot guarantee another 20-year-old dog. But I can hope. I do it because I want Poppy to have the strongest body, the best quality of life and the greatest number of healthy years available to her.

I will continue preparing for the storm. I will maintain the house and keep the tools we may need nearby. I will not replace every window because it might someday break.

But when something does break, I will not confuse preparation with repair.

I will change the plan.

Read more

Harvey had already spent a rough night at the emergency vet. He was exhausted, wired and doped up on seizure medications, which come with their own side effects and can leave him wobbly, disoriented and not quite himself. We stopped at our local vet for a blood draw, and a rookie technician had trouble with him. Harvey squirmed, yelped and wanted to get down. He did not bite. He did not snap. He was not aggressive in any way. He was a tiny, medically complicated senior dog who had been through hell the night before and did not appreciate being restrained and manhandled around his neck.

The technician became nervous, which made the handling worse, which made Harvey more upset. Rather than stepping back and asking whether there was a better way to do the blood draw, gabapentin and trazodone were prescribed for future appointments.

No. Not for us.

See your vet for a diagnosis and then you and I can collaborate on a custom strategy for your dog’s health.

I later worked with an experienced veterinarian who proved that Harvey’s veins were not “too tiny,” as I had been told. His blood could be drawn from his leg instead of his jugular. He did not need to be pinned down, and he did not need to be drugged into submission. What he needed was someone who knew how to handle a tiny senior dog, understood what he had already been through and was willing to adjust the procedure instead of blaming him for reacting.

This is exactly how dogs get labeled. They have one bad experience—sometimes because they are in pain, frightened, overmedicated, exhausted or handled poorly—and suddenly the chart says difficult, fractious or requires pre-visit medication. Then gabapentin and trazodone become part of every appointment for the rest of the dog’s life, even though nobody ever goes back and asks whether the original situation was handled badly.

That is the part that fires me up.

There are dogs who truly benefit from pre-visit medication. Some experience panic so severe that medication makes veterinary care safer and less traumatic. Some have a bite history. Some are in pain or need a procedure that simply cannot be completed safely without pharmaceutical support. I am not suggesting that pet parents refuse medication just to prove how natural they are. That is not fair to the dog, either.

But a dog who squirms, cries, pulls away or wants to get down is not automatically aggressive. A dog who is sedated is not automatically calm. A dog who can no longer physically resist may still be terrified.

Gabapentin is commonly prescribed for nerve pain, chronic pain, seizures, anxiety and sedation. Trazodone is frequently used for veterinary visits, travel, post-surgical confinement, fear and anxiety. Both can be useful. Both can also cause sedation, poor coordination, weakness, digestive upset, confusion, agitation or paradoxical excitement in some dogs. When they are used together, the dog may arrive at the veterinary office heavily sedated and physically unsteady before anyone has even assessed how he might respond with better handling.

In Harvey’s case, I would have preferred someone to ask a few basic questions first. What medications had he already received? How much sleep had he had? Was he in pain? Was he confused after the emergency visit? Did the blood really need to come from the jugular? Could someone more experienced try? Could I help hold him? Could we slow down for five minutes instead of escalating the restraint? Or — let’s try again another day.

Those questions require a little more time and thought than simply writing a prescription, but they also respect the dog in front of you.

And this problem is much bigger than gabapentin and trazodone. I see the same medication-first thinking in nearly every area of canine health.

The dog itches, so prednisone, Apoquel, Zenrelia or Cytopoint is prescribed, but nobody spends much time discussing food intolerance, yeast, bacterial infection, environmental chemicals, histamine burden or the health of the gut microbiome. The dog has diarrhea, so metronidazole is prescribed without enough conversation about parasites, stress, food changes, pancreatitis, dysbiosis or inflammatory bowel disease. The dog gulps, licks the air or vomits, so omeprazole or famotidine is added without asking whether the issue is meal timing, food intolerance, pancreatic disease, gallbladder dysfunction, kidney disease or medication side effects. A senior dog slows down or becomes restless at night, and gabapentin is prescribed without anyone discussing muscle loss, slippery floors, dental pain, spinal discomfort, rehabilitation or the cumulative effects of everything else the dog is already taking.

Any one of those medications may be appropriate. The problem is when the medication becomes the entire plan.

What I know is that controlling a symptom is not the same as understanding it. Sometimes we need to control the symptom quickly because the dog is suffering. An itchy dog should not be allowed to chew himself bloody while we conduct a philosophical debate about natural health. A dog in pain deserves pain relief. A bacterial infection may require antibiotics. A panicked dog may need pharmaceutical help to receive necessary care.

But after the immediate problem is under control, somebody still needs to ask why it happened and what can be changed.

That is where many pet parents are left hanging. They leave with a prescription but no real discussion about food, gut health, muscle condition, rehabilitation, stress, household exposures, sleep, pain patterns, lab trends or how the medication will eventually be reassessed. Months later, the symptom returns, the medication is increased or another drug is added, and now we are treating side effects from the treatment while the original driver is still sitting there waving at us.

I also do not believe holistic care means replacing one prescription with one supplement. Swapping gabapentin for CBD without understanding the source of the pain is still guessing. Replacing prednisone with a handful of herbs without understanding the immune pattern, infection risk or organ function is not automatically safer because the label has leaves on it.

The right natural support may include food changes, fresh food, omega-3s, herbs, CBD, medicinal mushrooms, microbiome restoration, physical rehabilitation, PEMF, cold laser, massage, bodywork, essential oils, Reiki or TCVM pattern support. But which of those belong in the plan depends on the individual dog: age, diagnosis, medications, kidney and liver function, diet history, stool patterns, weight, muscle loss, pain, stress, seizures, labwork and everything else already being given.

This is why I have become much stricter about casual recommendations. People sometimes want a quick answer—what can I give for itching, pain, diarrhea or anxiety? I understand why. They want to help their dog today. But medically complicated dogs are rarely simple, even when the question sounds simple, and I do not want to throw another product into the mix just because it was the first modality that came to mind.

Veterinary medicine is essential. Harvey needed emergency care that night. He needed seizure control, diagnostics and monitoring. I am grateful those tools exist. I am not anti-vet, and I am not anti-medication.

I am anti-lazy answer.

I am against a prescription replacing investigation. I am against blaming the dog when better handling could have changed the experience. I am against stacking two more sedating medications onto a senior dog already struggling with seizure drugs because one inexperienced technician panicked when he squirmed.

It is a reminder to be your dog’s best advocate.

You are allowed to ask respectful questions. You are allowed to ask why a medication is being recommended, continued or refilled You’re allowed to ask what the risks are, whether other approaches have been considered and whether your dog’s behavior could have been influenced by pain, fear, exhaustion, existing medications or poor handling.

You are allowed to say, “I am not comfortable with that.”

You are allowed to request a more experienced technician, ask for a different blood-draw location, remain with your dog, request less restraint or stop a procedure when it is clearly escalating.

And you are allowed to find another veterinarian or veterinary team when you no longer feel heard.

That does not make you difficult. It makes you responsible for the animal who cannot explain what happened after everyone leaves the room.

Harvey did not need gabapentin and trazodone because one blood draw went badly. He needed someone who knew how to draw blood from a tiny dog on new meds after a night of seizures without turning it into a wrestling match. An experienced veterinarian later proved that, and Harvey handled it just fine.

Sometimes medication is the right answer. Sometimes the dog needs pain relief, anxiety support or sedation so necessary care can happen safely.

Hopefully, it’s temporary while you explore other options for the future routine events.

More from The Well Oiled K9

For the comprehensive version covering commonly prescribed medications, their uses, possible concerns and whole-dog support options, visit:

Commonly OverPrescribed Medications For Dogs
https://welloiledk9.com/danas-take/commonly-overprescribed-medications-for-dogs-when-the-prescription-becomes-the-whole-plan

Gabapentin for Dogs: Side Effects, Concerns and Natural Alternatives
https://welloiledk9.com/health/gabapentin-pain-management-dogs

The Well Oiled K9 Membership
https://welloiledk9.com/membership

This article reflects my personal experience and professional opinion. It is intended for education and wellness support and is not a substitute for veterinary diagnosis, treatment or emergency care. Do not stop or change prescription medication without working with your veterinarian.

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https://welloiledk9.com/health/benefits-of-canine-massage

Canine massage should not replace veterinary diagnosis or treatment. Dogs with an injury, illness, unexplained pain or recent surgery should be evaluated by their veterinarian before beginning a massage program.

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The parents spending money at repeated vet visits. Abx that have to have really negatively impacted the immune system. Steroids. Etc.

Still no real resolution that holds.

All I could think -- start over. Regroup.

Lets back up and punt to rebuild the gut health and the immune system from the inside out -- and meanwhile use something new to support the relief effort. (For me in the case I read, would be essential oils, herbs, mushrooms, Ozone, FMT, new food -- even if it is a balanced homemade) -- something different than what has been repeated.

All I ask of you -- is learn, share -- let’s reach more dog moms who need alternatives. Dogs everywhere need YOU to participate in getting the word out. (It takes a share or 7, a google review, a post in a FB group, etc).

No I can’t promise much of anything and I’m not a vet -- but it’s worth trying a new approach. And I know it almost every case there is at least one new option -- long before it’s too late.

https://welloiledk9.com/danas-take/how-many-times-will-you-repeat-the-same-health-plan-before-you-try-something-new

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