Who the Heck is Lynn Stacy-Smith?

I have been blessed with continually growing numbers of new friends and followers and I could not be happier that we found each other and that you are along for the ride! I thought it might be time to share more about myself and explain to you what Love, Laugh, Woof is all about.

I have been a dog lover my entire life. I grew up with Labrador Retrievers and have had at least one in my home since I was just a little girl, so long that I do not remember life without one. The first one was our family dog named Snoop who was the ultimate Labrador: family dog all week and duck hunting dog with my father on weekends. Snoop went everywhere with us and we enjoyed an active outdoor lifestyle in the country in rural northern New Jersey. And yes, there is rural New Jersey!

Flash forward a few decades to around 2010. I had built a nice little career at the home office of a large retail company in the Chicago suburbs. The best way to describe my job was part writer, part corporate trainer, and part analyst. Essentially I helped mentor and train store managers to run a profitable store in our industry. It was a job I loved for a long time, with a great team, an awesome corporation, and the perfect environment to thrive. It was a rare company in our current business climate because it was one where people stayed willingly and happily with the company for ten, twenty years.

As time went on, though, the entire company and culture changed dramatically and quickly. Layoffs began, people became uber competitive, drama started and things started to go downhill. At the same time I started to think about mortality, the quick passing of each year and realizing I was in my forties, chasing my own dreams, doing something I loved instead of driving to the same office day in and day out without anywhere else to move up with a promotion unless I wanted to focus entirely on numbers and spreadsheets.

It took months to get up the courage but one day I finally gave my notice. Six weeks later I was finished, on my own, no paycheck coming, with a supportive if not slightly nervous husband and a future with endless possibility.

I was thrilled to land a part time job working remotely as the Content Writer for alkaline, organic pet food company Canine Caviar. Each week I wrote blogs and newsletters for them and threw myself into learning about the pet food business and canine nutrition. I was thrilled to continually interview and ask questions of the company’s founder and Research Scientist and learn from him. I could still listen to him for days on end and keep learning! He is, in my opinion, a genius and incredible asset to the pet food industry. In fact Canine Caviar remains the only food I feed my own dogs.

After two years I stepped down from that position, with a great amount of sadness but immense gratitude for the experience, in order to put 100% of my time into following my own dream of helping dog owners create the best life possible for their dogs. It had been an incredible learning experience but it was time to accomplish the goal I set when I left my corporate job.

Throughout the job change and pondering of what to do with my newfound professional freedom, we had some rough years with our own dogs. In 2009 I lost my soul dog Babe to kidney failure and old age. In 2011 my beloved German Shorthaired Pointer Dutch passed away from cancer that started in his spleen and spread throughout his entire body. In 2013 our rescued Basset Hound Maggie passed away from Lymphoma.

After the heartbreak of losing Babe and Dutch to kidney disease and cancer, we added eight week old Jackson to our family in 2011. I fell in love with him at first sight and vowed to provide him the healthiest life possible, free of toxins and carcinogens, from the food that he eats to the toys that he plays with, all the way to the bedding on which he sleeps. Tinkerbell joined our family in 2013 after we lost Maggie and I vowed to provide the same lifestyle to her.

Love, Laugh, Woof was born from this promise. My mission is to take all of my experiences, both from the corporate world and my extensive experience, research, and knowledge as a dog owner, to help you provide the same healthy lifestyle for your dogs that I give to mine so that your dog can thrive and feel fantastic just like Jackson and Tinkerbell do.

Your dog’s health is more than just about his body. Creating a healthy lifestyle also involves working your dog’s mind and continually strengthening the emotional bond that you share across what I consider to be a true miracle of friendship and love between two different species. I am wrapping up work on my next workshop: The Compassionate Pet Owner that will touch upon much of this concept, so watch for that to be available soon.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for following me. In my next blog I will explain more about the Love, Laugh, Woof Philosophy and what that entails (no pun intended.) Until then, Love, Laugh, Woof and give your dog a chin scratch for me.