Dr. Charmaine Tong was born in Malaysia and immigrated to Canada at the age of 6. She has always adored animals and grew up with dogs by her side. She also competed competitively in horse show jumping, spending many summers travelling to compete. Though she loved animals, she actually wanted to be a bioengineer growing up. She loved to build things and integrating it with science seemed so neat – like inventing a new pacemaker! But in her first year of college, she found physics was not her forte and started working at a local veterinary clinic. Though she was exposed to veterinarians from a young age, this is when she first fell in love with the art of veterinary medicine.

Dr. Tong graduated from the University of Toronto with an Honors in Bachelors of Science, and in 2011 obtained her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the Ontario Veterinary College in Guelph, Canada. After graduation, she practiced in Toronto for a year before leaving beautiful, cold Canada for sunny, warm Los Angeles in 2012. She has worked in veterinary clinics in the South Bay area ever since. She has special interests in canine sports medicine and behavioural medicine, but enjoys all aspects and challenges of veterinary medicine.

When not at the clinic you’ll find her training and competing in dog agility – her goal would be to some day make the national team and compete internationally. She has an ever-growing pack of dogs to hopefully help her accomplish this goal one day. If not training the pups, you’ll find her hiking with her pack or spending time with her husband, and young son in the great outdoors, exploring hiking trails or tide pools.