With an incredible academic résumé and a lifetime of field and work experience caring for animals, you simply could not find a more ideal combination of knowledge and expertise to entrust the care of your beloved family pet than JJ Bachant Brown, your DogSmith of Florida’s Gulf Coast. In addition to her academic achievements, including an advanced degree in biology, JJ has earned numerous qualifications from the National Association for Search and Rescue and is a certified Pet Care Technician qualified in Pet First Aid. JJ has enhanced her formal and professional training with extensive, real-world field work as a Search and Rescue Canine Handler and Vet Technician Assistant as well as a conservation and environmental educator. And JJ brings every ounce of her energy, expertise, knowledge and compassion to you as your DogSmith of Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Dedicating her life to animals started for JJ as a young child where the family unit always included dogs. As soon as JJ was old enough she began raising and training pet dogs of her own. JJ will tell you that her dogs, “help define who I am as a person and I strive to be the person that my dogs think I am”. It was one of her dogs that led her to become involved with search and rescue work.

A devastating storm, Hurricane Ivan, started JJ down the path to becoming a Search and Rescue (SAR) Canine Handler. The storm deposited a little black ball of fluff in front of her home in Milton, Florida, that turned out to be a beautiful black Lab puppy. No one knew where he came from or how he got to JJ’s front door but fate seems to have deposited the little black Lab, appropriately named Ivan, in the right place at the right time. Ivan and JJ started the SAR journey together and they have been constant companions and working partners ever since. JJ still works SAR with Ivan and her other rescued dogs, Onyx and Luna.

JJ lives in Milton with her husband, Eddie, and their three fur-kids where she owns and operates her DogSmith business providing you with unrivaled training and pet care.