Rethinking Canine Wellness with Compassion Root Cause Healing – Interview with Rebecca Daws

Rebecca is a leader in innovating canine and equine health, wellbeing, and behaviour. After struggling with the behaviour of her own dog, Evie, her beloved Golden Retriever, she embarked on a journey to learn canine behaviour, nutrition, herbalism, shamanism, and kinesiology to develop a profound and new approach to total canine wellness that promoted a healthy relationship. She is the Chief of Eve's Animal Apothecary and will not rest until her mission is complete, to transform the way we work with canine health and behaviour, tackling it at the root cause with kindness and compassion.

Rebecca Daws, Canine Kinesiologist, Herbalist and Trainer

Who is Rebecca Daws?

I'm Rebecca, and I am a shamanic practitioner, kinesiologist, and behaviourist for animals. As you can probably expect, I'm obsessed with all things dogs and horses, and when I'm not out in the fields with them, I'm either reading about them or painting them. I share my life with two Golden Retrievers and a German Shepherd, who are all utterly nuts and beautiful.

I absolutely love books, the arts, and travel, and I love to challenge myself wherever possible. Recently, I have taken up Western horse riding, singing lessons, and kickboxing as part of my latest adventures.

I realised I had healing gifts from a young age, either wanting to be Dr Dolittle or a vet. Weirdly, I appear to have become a combination of the two. I began to hone my gifts and accept them through time, age, and experience.

If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be and why?

I've noticed that within the canine industry, namely the training and behavioural side of the field, there is a war over what methods we should be using. Force-free trainers argue about the methods and equipment used by balanced trainers, and balanced trainers argue that force-free trainers are idealistic and do not get results.

My own viewpoint is to train the dog in front of you. Each dog is different, so there is no one-size-fits-all. Ultimately, any training equipment has the ability to cause harm if we do not use it correctly and condition the dog first. Whilst trainers are busy warring with each other, we lose our focus on what really matters, helping the dog and owner.

We must always train with understanding and compassion. That is, we must look at the animal as an individual and understand what emotion is driving the behaviour for us to achieve full and lasting results.

How do you approach creating a truly bespoke program for each dog–owner pair? Could you walk us through your process from initial consultation to ongoing support?

I always take on a client and their dog as an individual, which means that my programme is tailored exclusively to their needs. The consultation allows me to assess where the client is currently and their end goals. It is a great chance to see if we are a fit for one another and to discuss a plan going forward to ensure that both the owner and the animal are comfortable and aware of the process. After the consultation, the owner will receive a nutritional guide on how diet affects behaviour, along with suggested foods and supplements for their dog.

The second step is the emotional healing aspect. Whether this is kinesiology, shamanic healing, or Reiki, I first like to dive deep and see what emotions are triggering the behaviour in the animal, and work at creating resolution and healing from the core aspect and wounding. I also delve into the emotional mirroring aspect to see where the animal is mirroring their owner and create a plan to resolve this within their relationship. In some cases, more than one healing session is required, which is why the programme is always tailored to the individual.

The next step is to implement a training and behaviour plan. We start with a session together to ensure that the owner walks away feeling confident and competent in their skills. I also provide a document that is vital in understanding some of the basic theory behind how a dog's mind works and how to get the best from each training session.

Ongoing support is always available, and owners have access to me via Facebook to discuss concerns and any future treatments they wish to explore.

I strongly believe that this multifaceted approach creates huge shifts in animal behaviour, as it includes all aspects of health and wellbeing, behaviour, nutrition, physiology, and psychology.

I have two course options available, including a complete package that includes a training session and programme, and another for those already attending training classes, so they can achieve results around their current schedule.

What inspired you to blend Canine Kinesiology, behaviour training, and energy healing modalities like Reiki and shamanic healing into a single holistic service?

It all started with my first dog, my Golden Retriever Evie. From the start, we experienced challenges in health and behaviour. I think by now I have spent thousands of pounds on some of the best dog trainers I could find, most of them labelling my dog as disobedient and disinterested. Yet I could not shake the feeling that there was more going on, a deep underlying emotional issue that was driving the behaviour.

I had already used shamanic healing and Reiki for myself in the past and became curious about applying this to our dogs. Before I knew it, I fell down a rabbit hole of learning, studying as much as I could about canine behaviour, nutrition, and alternative therapies.

During my time working in kennel facilities designed for residential training, I became increasingly convinced that training alone is not enough to deal with the complexities of animal emotions and how trauma is processed.

I began using these modalities alongside canine behaviour knowledge during my career in kennels and quickly became the go-to woman for dealing with anxious dogs. Training in itself never seemed to completely resolve the undesired behaviour, and in many cases, I noticed behaviour worsened when we failed to acknowledge the emotions driving it.

They are the same as us. Behaviour is always driven by emotion. Until we deal with the emotion, we cannot create lasting change in our animals. When we choose to take a multidisciplinary approach and a holistic view of our animals' wellness, we create a complete and lasting pathway to long-term healing.

What changes or trends have you observed in canine wellness and behaviour, and how is Eve's Animal Apothecary evolving to meet those needs?

Dog owners are waking up and asking questions, purely because we love and value our canine friends more than anything. Nothing shows this trend more than the changes in the food industry, with more and more people choosing to feed a raw or home-cooked diet over kibble. We are questioning vets, behaviourists, and dog trainers rather than accepting all knowledge as truth.

I honestly love witnessing this, and I found myself treading this path with my own dogs, having tried a ridiculous number of dog foods and trainers that always seemed to offer conflicting advice. The biggest lie I noticed in the market was how products labelled as natural and healthy were actually full of grains and preservatives.

This created the cornerstone of my business, to provide honest, bespoke, tailored solutions for animal wellbeing and health. Products that are not full of nasties, which I have tried and tested on my own dogs. I am always questioning and evaluating how things can be done better and what more we could learn. I am a dog lover first and a business owner second.

Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.

Oh wow, it was less of a pull and more of a hard shove into this career. I tried so hard to create a normal life, and I noticed that no matter what, I appeared to be blocked from it. Jobs, relationships, and home life all fell apart, no matter how hard I worked. I always hid my own gifts for fear of rejection.

The final catalyst was heartbreak, of all things, where I finally decided that I was going to pursue my own journey and path wholeheartedly and without abandoning myself. Knowing that there are so many animals and their owners out there who need support and help adds a further dimension. There is no greater feeling than following your own calling and watching others thrive because of the work you do.

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