Dr. Bruce Barrett was born in the Caribbean where he began working with animals as a volunteer for the SPCA in Jamaica at the age of 9. It was around this time that he acquired his first English Cocker Spaniel and fell in love with the breed. He has owned, bred and shown AKC Champion English Cocker Spaniels ever since.

Dr. Barrett initially began as an Animal Health Technician for primarily large animals in the field. After studying in South America, then working two years with the Veterinary Division in the Ministry of Agriculture in Jamaica, he immigrated to Canada with a scholarship to the Atlantic Veterinary College at the University of Prince Edward Island. In May of 1993, he graduated and moved to Windsor, Ontario, Canada to begin his first job as an Associate with Downtown Veterinary Hospital in Windsor. He remained there for 5 years, pursuing a part-time informal surgical internship while also doing relief work for two local small animal emergency and specialty hospitals.

He then moved to Southern California in 1998 to work in general practice and surgery for Banfield Pet Hospital. After a brief formal surgical residency in a private referral specialty hospital in fountain valley, Dr. Barrett returned to General Practice as Chief of Surgery at a 24-hour hospital in OrangeCounty/Riverside, where his focus of practice was primarily orthopedics. Throughout his four years there, he worked with a mobile surgical referral practice, Cosmo Veterinary Surgical Services. When the practice owner retired, Dr. Barrett chose to go on the road full time and Cosmo was officially incorporated in 2008. He regularly attends several veterinary educational CE courses and holds certifications in the latest surgical techniques, and is a member in good standing of the AVMA, CVMA & the SCVMA.