Dr. Jacobs’ Journey To Veterinary Spinal Adjustment Therapy.
Dr. Jacobs grew up and graduated from Frankenmuth High School in 1983, and then went on to Michigan Technological University to study mechanical engineering with a biomedical minor from 1983-1987. She was accepted into Veterinary school at Michigan State University in 1987 and graduated with honors in 1991.
Dr. Jacobs has been active in the performance dog world since 1988. She started by showing her AKC Registered Alaskan Malamutes in conformation and obedience, where she owner-handled over 25 dogs to their AKC and CKC championships and many top-ranking dogs in the United States. She won Best of Breed at the Alaskan Malamute Club of America’s National Specialty in 2003 and Best of Opposite at the Alaskan Malamute Club of America’s National Specialty in 2000. She has had top-producing dogs as well with multiple Register of Merit (ROM) titles as well.
Sled racing has also been an interest of Dr. Jacobs’. She was active in sled racing all over Michigan for over 25 years, obtaining dozens of working titles including working team dog, working lead dog, working team dog excellent, and working lead dog excellent titles. Many of these dogs were given high-ranking wins at the Alaskan Malamute National Specialty for working dogs.
With her passion for the working and performing dog, she worked at a high-quality dog food company for a few years where she focused on performance dog and reproductive nutrition as an area of interest, and in 2005 wrote a book called Performance Dog Nutrition which won the Maxwell Award in New York City.
After working in nutrition, she started up her own veterinary clinic which she owned for almost 20 years where she focused on canine reproduction, nutrition, general medicine, and surgery. Dr. Jacobs is certified in many areas of canine reproduction such as frozen semen, transcervical insemination, and other reproductive areas. She also had a great love and interest in surgery.
It was during this time of owning her own practice that she realized the great need for veterinarians who could do more for the lame, limping, and back pain dogs, and her interest in “chiropractic” therapies started to gain interest for her. After hurting her own back, she realized the huge advantages chiropractic care provided and the benefits of actually “adjusting” the back rather than just using drugs and medications to “mask” the symptoms of pain. She frequently will tell clients, “Using medication only on a bad back like putting a band-aid on a broken leg…unless you work on ‘fixing’ the problem, it will never get better.”
Thus, after her own personal experience, she realized how beneficial chiropractic/spinal adjustments could be for dogs and other animals. Thus Dr. Jacobs applied and was accepted to the College of Animal Chiropractors at the Veterinary Chiropractic Learning Center in Ontario, Canada and where she graduated with her degree in 2015.
This degree in Veterinary Spinal Adjustment and Manipulation allowed her to bring together her whole educational and performance dog background together – taking the mechanical engineering background, her veterinary medical knowledge, and her performance dog experience and pulling it all together for the benefit of the lame, limping and back/neck pain dogs. She has experience working with hunting dogs, field training dogs, herding dogs, sled dogs, agility dogs, conformation dogs, obedience dogs, scent dogs, fly ball dogs, and many other areas of performance dogs.