Welcome to DogGone Natural

What an exciting journey it has been since our Grand Opening, nearly a year ago. I want to introduce this new “Pet Health” section of our website by extending my warmest regards and deepest thanks to all of you that are supporting our store and a friendly welcome to those who are new to DogGone Natural. I have been overwhelmed by the way our community has embraced the alternative, holistic pet care movement, and am proud of the role we have played in helping our friends understand the benefits of a more natural approach to maintaining our pet’s vitality. This store has been a dream of mine for a long time. While I may have opened the doors, it is you, that have grown DogGone Natural into what it is today.

For those readers that are unfamiliar with DogGone Natural, let me give you a brief introduction to our history, values and approach. In 1998, I began serious study of alternative and holistic pet care because of a condition being suffered by my dog Sassi. Her trusted vet and the other specialists she had seen didn’t know how to treat her condition. They constantly prescribed conventional medications that did not work. From that moment on, my mission was to find her cure.

Changing her diet was my first step. Sassi had already been through awful allergy testing with no conclusive results. But with no food restrictions on her, I decided to try a raw diet. For the first time, I fed my dog the diet she was designed to eat. For years I continued to help her with a correct diet, herbs and homeopathic. Unfortunately, though, the over-prescribed antibiotics and steroids had already done their damage to Sassi’s system. With great sadness I resigned myself to the fact that her kidney damage could not be reversed. Even though every vet we visited gave her months to live, Sassi stayed with us for well over 6 years. I knew then this holistic approach needed to be shared with others.

I continued my schooling, and research, with in depth studies of available products and other peoples past experiences. Before our doors opened, this community’s only options were grocery or large box pet stores, staffed by stock clerks. This was unacceptable to me. I wanted a place where deceptive products were removed from my consideration by an educated, enthusiastic staff. I wanted a personal relationship with interested employees who knew my dog’s circumstance and took the time to find out her particular needs before making recommendations. Creating a pet nutrition & retail center in this image was the only way we could have this. I knew then that I would have to offer these great products and solutions to the pet owners of Ashburn.

DogGone Natural opened its doors in July of 2007. Since then, we have helped thousands of pets with proper nutrition, diet and remedies. I am this store’s most critical customer. If it is not good enough for my two dogs, its not good enough for my customer’s pets either. My staff takes a personal interest in each of our customer’s pets. The wealth of knowledge, gained from participating in their lives, has become the greatest resource shared among us…the customers of DogGone Natural. We are not veterinarians. We do not rely on or advocate the masking of conditions with medications. Instead, we seek to maintain the miraculous mechanism that is the body in proper and prime working condition. This is the essence of our holistic approach.

This approach requires us to give careful consideration to what we will even make available in the store. A false choice is no choice, and I will not offer for sale anything that has not been properly examined. Without reluctance, I have dropped some of my most popular products when they have changed their ingredients. Popularity, marketing and fancy packaging means nothing to me. It’s what is inside the package that counts, the purity of our pet’s diet is paramount. Imagine if your car’s gasoline was full of needless bulk fillers the way some pet foods are. What amount of work would the engine be doing just to process these worthless additions through it’s system? What of the wear and strain caused by this extra work? Why would you tolerate the unnecessary corrosion and corruption of that precise mechanism? Eventually there is a breakdown. In our pets, these breakdowns, or overload of toxins render our pets more vulnerable to a host of conditions, we call disease. The piling-on of conventional medicine treatments for these preventable conditions starts the whole “merry-go-round” of stress and suffering.

Remember, we are the guardians of our own pet’s journey. I am really looking forward to the opportunity for us to share our findings and welcome your comments. I hope that you will find these articles entertaining and informative. By cutting through mass media hype and confusion, I want to provide us with the clarity required to pursue an alternative, holistic approach to a pet’s health and vitality. DogGone Natural will be here to be the anchor for our growing community. Check our events listing for upcoming opportunities for us to all gather together and share some quality time with our pets and each other.

I thank everyone who perhaps saw an ad, spoke with a neighbor or just stopped in and decided to take a chance on a girl that has a lot of information to share. The number of pets and guardians we have touched has been tremendous. I realize that some of you are doubtful when you walk into the store, but it’s the smile I see when you return that tells me I am fulfilling my dream.

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