About Us

Our boy Max was born on February 14, 2000 and was a beautiful addition to our 7-year-old DJ. At 1 ½ years of age, a small lump was diagnosed as cancerous and was removed along with a good section of muscle mass from the side of his body. The surgical team felt that they removed all the margins however, we were told that there was a very good possibility that the cancer would show up again and they were not confident that Max would make it past 7 years.

Max recovered from his surgery and continued to live a “spoilt dogs” life. At the age of 7, we began to notice that he was not eating like he was and when a lab doesn’t have an appetite you know something must be wrong! At first, we thought it was because we introduced Oliver, a black lab puppy, into our lives and we hoped it would be temporary and that Max would get over it. Nothing changed. Things got worse as what little he ate he could not keep down. We needed to get weight back on him fast and took him to the vet for a battery of tests. We feared that the cancer had returned and the surgeon’s predictions 7 years earlier were coming true but numerous vet visits, tests, x-rays, blood work, stool samples and eventually thousands of dollars in bills showed no sign of cancer or indeed any diagnosis. We changed his food and still no improvement, no one could give us any answers and our man was fading away.

Then Donna met a wonderful lady whom she shared our story with and the first words out of her mouth “What do you feed your dog?” No one has asked us this question before. At the time, we thought we were feeding a good quality kibble that the vet had prescribed. We had no idea. The lady told us to get Max on raw, we knew very little about raw diet and had concerns about the raw meat an if Max could handle it, the bone content and the process of making it but we were at a point where we were ready to try anything.

That day Donna purchased four 5lb bricks of raw chicken and bone and that even we put the portioned meal in the bowls for both Max and Oliver. We could not believe our eyes when Max ate the whole bowl, it was gone in less than a minute. Within two days Max was eating like normal, his stools became small and firm, his coat shiny and his energy levels returned. The events that week opened our eyes to a whole new world of pet nutrition.

We were also introduced to a vet who integrated a holistic approach to pet health and was fully supportive of a raw diet for dogs and cats. Again, our eyes were opened to a very different and healthy approach to pet health. We became so interested in what we were experiencing that pet nutrition became a passion in our lives. Over the next few years we began to introduce our two labs to different type of raw food, raw meaty bone and whole prey. Our boys thrived while we became more knowledgeable about the different proteins we were feeding and supplements we could introduce.

Since that day in 2007, our journey with Max and Oliver has been filled with amazing people who have helped educate us and open our eyes to appropriate pet nutrition, supplementation, safe vaccination protocols as well as natural healing therapies. This new world of pet health created a passion within our lives and in September 2010 we opened Back To The Bone. Since that time, we have used our knowledge and expertise to transition dogs and cats onto a healthier diet. We get to meet fantastic animals and their owners every day and most importantly, we get to hear and see the amazing improvements in the lives of our customer’s pets after they have transitioned onto their new, healthy diet.

There is no doubt in our minds that a diet consisting mainly of raw meat, bone and organ meat is the main reason our Max lived for 15 years. Our other man, Oliver has thrived on his diet and the vaccination protocols we have chosen to use over the last 11 years of his life. Our visits to our vet are for yearly blood work and we strongly feel these necessary changes are what contribute to our boys living healthy, thriving lives to the fullest. We love to share our experiences with everyone that visits us in the store and Maxwell forever lives on through Back To The Bone and what we strive to accomplish.