My New Book! | Short

Hi, this is Rita Hogan, and welcome to the Dogs Are Individuals podcast. I'm a clinical canine herbalist, and I've been practicing for over 20 years. This podcast is all about your dog through an herbal lens. So let's get to it and dive right in.

Hi, everyone. I hope you guys are doing well this week. We had a little break last week. I do four podcasts a month, and this month we had five weeks, so we had a short break. We're back, and I'm so excited to share my new book with you. So I got a galley copy of my new book, the Herbal Dog. I'm holding it in my hands right now as I speak through this lovely microphone, and I can't be happier. I am so excited. The COVID is beautiful. And for those of you that haven't seen the COVID go to theherbaldog.com and you'll be able to see the COVID there. And I, you know, I have it in my hands. It's so beautiful. It's split up into two parts. So one part is kind of learning about your dog as an ecosystem, and then the second part is herbal practicum. So I wanted to just take this little to go over the book with you to give you some highlights, maybe do a little reading and get you jazzed up about the book. I'm so excited. I'm already working on my second book, which is going to be about canine cancer, but gonna focus on this book. I got a book tour coming up, and the book is dedicated to my pug, Francis, one of my best friends I've ever had. And I love that I was able to dedicate a book to her. You know, she was my heart dog, and I'm hoping I have another heart dog in my future. I have lots of dogs right now, and I absolutely love them, but, you know, sometimes our heart dogs only come around one time in our lives, you know, the dog that we just ultimately bond with. And Frances was that dog for me for sure. She was a little black pug. I loved her so much. Working on a book for years, like, I've been working on this one. And seeing it in your hands, like, in the flesh, it's so much. It's just so, like, amazing, you know, even touching the pages. Oh, my God. And it. A written book is, for me, is so much better than, like, a digital version. A digital version is very handy. You can search it. Totally get that. I mean, I have a digital version of this book, but, like, touching it, feeling it, putting on my bookshelf is awesome. So the foreword of my book is from Dr. Isla Fishburne, my sister from another Mr. Love Her. It's a short forward. She does a really nice job at introducing my book, and I'm ever, ever grateful for her. If you don't know who she is, check her out. The second part of my book is the preface, which is my herbal beginnings. And it really talks about how I got started in herbalism. And then I have some acknowledgments, and then I tell you how to use the book. And part one is dogs and plants are individuals. And this covers holistic canine herbalism. And what that includes is your dog is an ecosystem, whole plant medicine, the trap of evidence based medicine. And no, I'm not bashing evidence based medicine, but I'm going through the things that you really need to think about when you're looking at a study and how herbs are studied and the reasons why they're studied and the importance of when they're studied and how to use that information. I think that's really important for good integrative veterinary care. And then I go through the principles of holistic medicine, like what differentiates holistic medicine from allopathic herbal medicine. I talk about integrative veterinary medicine. And then one of my favorite chapters is Our Dogs Ourselves, which talks about the stress and the heart field that we share with our dogs and why that is so important, especially when one and two dogs will get a cancer diagnosis. And this part of the book is just dear to me because we can help our dogs relieve stress by relieving our own. So that's really a magnificent part of the book. I find it's short, sweet, but mighty. And then I have food as medicine. So it's, you know, this is an herbal book, but food is really important. So I talk about, you know, dogs as carnivores, and not obligate carnivores, but carnivores nonetheless. I talk about kibble and canned food, cooked food, raw food, supplements. And then I give you some feeding guidelines from the herbalist perspective. And then, of course, we talk about canine energetics and how everything's connected. And I go through the nervous system, the lymphatic system, the liver system, the skin, the gastrointestinal system, the cardiovascular system, the respiratory system, and the renal system. Wow. And just really explaining those main systems and how they're connected and what they affect and what herbs are good for those systems. And then we get right into part two of the book, which is the herbal practicum. And this part you know, yes, a lot of it is reference and you may not need all parts of it all at once. You know, being the geek and nerd that I am, you know, I usually read these types of books from front to back. I love learning about different herbs and then, you know, I highlight parts. I. All my books are covered in different highlighters for sure. But I hope that you make use of the herbal practicum. I go through different types of herbal remedies like tinctures and glycerins and infusions and decoctions and rinses and pulses and capsules. And I cover essential oils and flower essences. I also cover homeopathics. Homeopathy gives us access to lots of poisonous plants. This isn't a homeopathic book. But while I was mentioning different herbs, I did mention what homeopathics were good for, what condition. Also, medicinal mushrooms. And then phytoembryonics. I cover a small amount of phytoembryonics. These are plant stem cell remedies. That is also my third book. So yes, I'm writing a few. I really, you know, before I leave this planet, I really want you all to have this information so that you can use it and expand on it and work with it and all of that. Good, Stu. So the next chapter is chapter six is Planning Herbal Protocols. And we go through acute versus chronic dosing, creating an herbal protocol for chronic conditions and general guidelines to using holistic herbalism. So very valuable information there. That's page 131 to 144 and then go right into herbal applications. So here are the things that I cover in my book. So I cover acid reflux, allergies, sensitivities, anal gland conditions, recovering from antibiotics, arthritis, chronic musculoskeletal pain, bladder and urinary tract conditions, candida overgrowth, that's like yeast, constipation, diarrhea, coughing, ear infections, grief growth and warts, histamine intolerance, hot spots, itchy, scratchy, leaky gut, lipomas, nausea, vomiting, poor appetite, paw problems, skin issues, stings and bug bites, surgery preparation and recovery. That's a big one. And vaccine preparation and recovery. So those are some holistic herbal applications that I cover. And then come my friends, the plants. So plant and fungi monographs. So that starts on page 235. And I go over agrimony, alfalfa, aloe, angelica, artichoke, ashwagandha, astralagus, bee balm, BlackBerry, burdock root, calendula, cayenne, chamomile, chickweed, cleavers, couch grass, dandelion, echinacea, elecampane, fennel, ginger, goldenrod, goldenseal, gotu kola, gravelroot, hawthorn. Should I go on? Juniper berry, lemon balm, licorice, marshmallow root, meadowsweet, milk thistle, milky oats, mullen nettle, love nettles, olive, Oregon grapefruit, parsley, passion flower, potiarco, plantain, red clover, rose, rosemary, skullcap, slippery elm, Solomon's seal, St. John's wort, turmeric, usnia, uva, ursi, violet, woodbent, yarrow, yellow dock. And then I cover some additional mushrooms, Chaga, cordyceps, lion's mane, maitake, poria, reishi, tremella and turkey tail. And then phytoembryonics, beech, black currant, bramble, cowberry, fig, heather, horsetail, mountain pine, olive, walnut and willow. And then finally I cover a bunch of flower essences, too numerous for the short, but they're just. It's really short and sweet. I will have, you know, eventually have a book on flower essences. And then in the back I have appendixes, which are herbal actions, herbal constituents. I go over vitamin minerals, different supplements, food energetics, a huge list, including the energetics of most of the herbs that I could think of as far as Western herbs. And then I have a glossary in the back for those of you that don't understand some of the keywords in this book. And then all my references and the index. I love it. That's basically my book. I'm super excited for everyone to read it. Now I am going to read just a little bit of the book for you. So in the preface, My Herbal Beginnings, I start out with this lovely quote from Julia DeBarkley Levy from the Complete Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable. It's just so beautiful and I really wanted to include it in the opening of my book. It's a dog's prayer. I pray, you who own me, let me continue to live close to nature. Know that I love to run beneath the sun, the moon and the stars. I need to feel the storm winds around me and the touch of rain, hail, sleet and snow. I need to splash in streams and brooks and to swim in ponds, lakes and rivers. I need to be allowed to retain my kinship with nature. That one pulls up my heartstrings. So here's just a couple paragraphs of beginning of my Herbal Beginnings from the preface. When I was growing up in rural Michigan in the early 1970s, I spent most of my time outside with my best friend Kathy on my horse or hanging out with my dog Susie. We would play in the water on the roadside stream, hanging from the trees in the apple orchard, or explore the piney woods. When I was around eight, I saw my first lady slipper. It was magical. I sat there gazing at it like it was a fairy. Though I wanted to pick it for my mother, she had taught me that lady slippers were rare and had a bigger purpose than her love for beautiful flowers. My maternal grandmother was the unknowing herbalist. She never considered herself a healer. Herbalism was simply a way of life for low income families. She raised 16 children during the Great Depression with only a midwife to help with childbirth. I love my mother's stories of my grandmother going into the woods with her basket and returning hours later with a bounty of food and medicine. In the time of my childhood, country folk knew the plants around them, which ones to avoid, which ones to eat, and which ones to use for medicine. My father introduced me to plants by gardening and by caring for our cows, chickens, horses and pigs, describing them by color and shape. He would tell me to go out into the field, pick a particular plant and bring it back to him. My dad loved his garden and grew beautiful vegetables without pesticides or herbicides using the principal's companion planting. I would kneel beside him, ask him if every plant was a weed and if I could pick it. Okay, so that's a little excerpt from the preface. Thought I'd share that with you. I'll be sharing little excerpts from my book throughout from like basically now until February until when it comes out on the fourth. Please, please please tell people about my book. Please pre order my book so that I get credit for it. On day one of sales. I would. I want to knock it out of the park. So please, please please pre order wherever you order your books. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, bam locally at your local bookstore. They can pre order it for you. I love local bookstores. Always support them. So order, order, order if you can, when you can. I'll keep reminding you. So want to thank Green Juju, our sponsor. Love love love them. Check them out. They now have frozen raw and again, I'm loving that mushroom probiotic. Oh my God. It is doing great things for my dogs. I can really see the difference in my dogs. In their faces, in their eyes, in their skin. So just loving, loving, loving the mushroom probiotic.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Dogs Are Individuals. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in your podcast app. And don't forget, sharing is caring. So if you love Dogs Are Individuals Podcast, share it with your friends and family who love dogs. This will help me so much. And remember, as a listener, I appreciate you much. Thanks to Resonant Media, my podcast production team. This podcast is produced by Drake Peterson and edited by Mike Fry. Any questions? Email the show, go to k9herbalist.com Click podcast contact in the menu and then fill out that form and I'll answer any questions here online. Okay, so thank you so much for listening to this episode of Dogs Are Individuals Podcast and I'm going to talk.

To you in our next episode.

The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for veterinary care. This podcast doesn't constitute a provider patient relationship. As always, talk to your doctor, veterinarian or health care provider first before starting anything new. And that includes herbs. I'm not a doctor and I don't treat disease or prescribe anything. I'm a traditional herbalist providing herbal support education only. Regarding any products I may suggest the statements made regarding these products have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The efficacy of these products has not been confirmed by FDA approved research. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. All information presented here on the podcast is not meant as a substitute or alternative to information from your vet. Please consult your veterinary professional about potential interactions or other possible complications before using any product.