Heart and Soul Dogs LLC

HEART & SOUL DOGS LLC

Subsidiary of Soul Dogs Inc

About Heart & Soul Dogs

Heart and Soul Dogs was established in 2021 as a subsidiary of Soul Dogs Inc. The mission of our program is to help individuals with disabilities have access to service animals, dog training, become dog trainers themselves, and have access to experiences working with animals. As part of our mission we have our own puppies that go through our training program and eventually move on to our advanced training, where they work to become service dogs. The goal of this is to donate trained service dogs to individuals who qualify and have gone through our train the trainer program. We employe individuals with disabilities who have gone through certification classes and have hands on experience, who desire to become dog trainers. Our service extend beyond that however and reach out into the community through our dog training and puppy community exposure programs, where dogs under 6 months old learn basic skills and get community exposure and desensitization to different environments and situations.

Meet the Team

Autumn Lynn has a B.S. in psychology with a MSW in progress while working as an intern at Soul Dogs, Inc. Autumn is passionate about helping underserved populations, such as people struggling with homelessness, people with disabilities, and survivors of noncombat interpersonal trauma. She has worked with nonprofits serving homeless populations, and children in out of home care.  She has experience working as a research assistant in areas such as childhood trauma, as well as human-animal connection.

Autumn is also a licensed Pet Dog Ambassador instructor and runs the service puppy half day training program at Soul Dogs. She has been working with and training dogs for over fifteen years, including many years in canine performance sports. She also trained her own service dog, who she has partnered with for almost 12 years. Her young service dog in training competes in racing and conformation, and recently obtained his International championship and holds the current 2021 regional solo speed race title for his breed.

Area(s) of Expertise: Service dogs, dog training, trauma, mental health, academic research focusing on trauma and service dogs

Megan is the Heart & Soul Dogs LLC. She studied Special Education and Psychology at the University of Northern Colorado. She has spent time in classroom settings teaching children with disabilities but most of her focus has been with adults with disabilities. She is very passionate about advocating for the underserved.

Chris Anderson started Heart Soul Dogs, LLC. with the dream of utilizing animals as healing agents for those struggling with trauma. She received her MSW in 1978 and PhD in 2010. She has been a therapist for 43 years. Additionally, she develops programs and nonprofit agencies to meet the needs of the underserved. She supervises all clinicians and ensures all programs at Soul Dogs, Inc. are therapeutic.