About Your Neighborhood Pet Store®

I am a Registered Nurse with a clinical background in Emergency Medicine. My husband, Woody, and I have always made proper diet and exercise a part of our lives and -- with two vegetarians in the family -- nutrition has been a specific area of interest for me.

Since we married 35 years ago, we have always owned German Shepherds. About 10-12 years ago, I became interested in training and competing with my dogs in a German sport called Schutzhund and have since experienced the joy of training my current German Shepherd, Jaeger, to a championship level and competed at three National competitions. The more involved in the sport I became, the more I began to view my dogs as canine athletes. Accordingly, I became passionate about providing the proper nutrition to achieve peak performance from my canine athlete.

The pursuit of improved health and optimum performance led me on a wonderful educational journey encompassing topics such as nutrition through raw feeding, holistic medicine, acupuncture, chiropractic, minimal vaccination protocols, supplements and so on. I read everything I could find, corresponded with experts on a variety of subjects and began sharing that information through articles in our national Schutzhund magazine.

All of the above has brought me to where I am today. My goal is to share some of what I have learned with other dog owners and, hopefully, improve the health and fitness of the dogs they love. I am eager to share my learning in such areas as nutrition, dental care, new vaccination protocols, health supplements etc. Attention to these areas, in combination with good veterinary care, provides our dogs with the proper foundation to live healthier and longer lives.

Our staff possesses unique skill sets that includes knowledge in breeding, training, and handling of dogs. There are often impromptu classes in the store on a variety of subjects. We can help with advice on basic training and behavioral issues and it is not unusual to see a Villages dog training class in the store on a field trip to develop social skills.