The Pet Chaplain® Learning Series
COMING IN 2025
The four books in the Pet Chaplain Learning Series take readers on an in-depth and eye-opening exploration of pet keeping and loss. The series include pet stories that will touch your heart as well as robust research and thought-provoking discussion questions that will engage your mind. If you’ve ever struggled with grief for the loss of a special animal, the series will give you a fresh perspective on your loss while offering a unique opportunity for spiritual exploration and personal growth.
Key Takeaways
Discover why we’re so madly in love with our pets and grieve intensely for their loss
We call them our best friends, babies, soulmates, and heart animals—terms of affection that signal a profound connection between people and their animal companions. Almost every pet keeper considers their animal to be a much-loved member of their family, and an increasing number of people rely on their pet as their sole source of companionship. Yet the loss of a cherished pet is still widely misunderstood and minimized in our society. The Pet Chaplain Learning Series explores this paradox with a critical eye—challenging common misperceptions about animals, beliefs about death and loss, and the human experience of grief to offer new insights into the experience of loving and losing a special pet.
Chart your path of healing and personal growth
The Pet Chaplain Learning Series combines rigorous research with intimate stories of pet keeping and loss as well as thought-provoking questions that will help you process your personal experiences with a pet. Whether you’re actively grieving the loss of a pet or mourning a pet lost years ago, the series will help you reframe your experience and make sense of the confusing whirlwind of emotions and sensations that can be so overwhelming. You’ll discover why guilt and anger are common responses to the loss of a pet; the powerful impact of our social experiences and cultural heritage on our journeys of grief and healing; and how the loss of a special animal can be a life-changing experience. Questions for self-reflection and discussion and writing exercises will help you craft a sacred story about a special pet as a lasting tribute to your animal’s memory.
Explore the spiritual connection between people, animals, and planet
The Pet Chaplain Learning Series is based on a belief in the sacred bond between humans and animals. We also recognize that a spiritual response to the loss of a special animal can be profoundly healing.
The series will encourage you to explore your spiritual beliefs about animals as well as your beliefs about the afterlife and the interconnection of all living things. People grieve for the loss of their pets, but they also grieve the loss of wildlife, champion trees, untouched wilderness, and the sacred places they hold dear. Through the series, we hope to spark discussion about these losses that remain largely unacknowledged and unexamined in the modern world.
Learn from animal lovers from around the world
The Pet Chaplain Learning Series incorporates the collective insights of hundreds of animal lovers from around the world and from diverse backgrounds and spiritual traditions.
The series is based on the written lectures from our former online course, the Introduction to Pet Chaplaincy. Animal lovers from all walks of life participated in the course, discussing the course’s written lectures and sharing their personal stories of love and loss in small discussion groups. The lectures evolved and expanded in this rich, interactive environment, often in direct response to student input. We learned a great deal from our students, and we’ve worked tirelessly to incorporate this new learning into the series.
The series also reflects the collective wisdom of pet keepers who’ve participated in our pet loss support group for the past two decades. We’ve personally lost pets as well, so we know how difficult the journey of grief and healing can be.
The result is a vital reflection of the unshakeable strength of the human-animal bond, the power of animals to teach and heal us, the struggles many people face when they say goodbye to their beloved companions, and the creative and inspiring ways they find to journey through their grief.
Make the world a better place for animals and the people who love them
The Pet Chaplain Learning Series offers a foundational education in the craft of interfaith spiritual care. We believe the best way to help ourselves is to help each other, and we’re big believers in community chaplaincy. No matter what your educational or work background, the series as a whole will serve as a rich resource for personal and professional development.
Professional caregivers, including board-certified chaplains, ministers, clinical counselors, or social workers, will gain the domain knowledge about pet keeping and loss that will help them better serve their animal-loving clients.
Animal care workers, such as veterinary professionals, shelter and animal-rescue workers, therapy animal handlers, animal behaviorists, control officers, pet trainers, groomers and sitters, will improve their ability to respond to their human clientele in ways that honor those clients’ spiritual or religious beliefs.
Everyday people with an interest in service as a volunteer community chaplain or lay minister will gain the knowledge and skill to provide a healing presence to pet keepers in their time of need. If you simply want to provide better support to your animal-loving family and friends, the series will give you the insight and tools to make a difference in their lives.
Connect with kindred spirits in a book study group
We encourage you to form a book study group with others who want to learn more about pet keeping and loss. Your group might include your co-workers, fellow church members in your place of worship, animal lovers you know through social media groups, people you meet at the dog park, or simply your family and friends.
To facilitate self-reflection and group discussion, thought-provoking questions are included in the Pet Chaplain Learning Series Workbook, which will be available on this website as a free PDF download. These questions are based on a collaborative educational approach that emphasizes exploration, analysis, interpretation, and dialog. There are no “right” answers to the discussion questions. Rather, the goal is to promote critical thinking and to encourage you to articulate your unique perspective.
You’ll be challenged to reflect deeply about many topics that are important to people who love animals and keep pets, including beliefs about animals and spirituality, the human-animal bond, euthanasia, grief, appropriate ways to memorialize animals, and much more.
An affordable educational opportunity for veterinary practices and animal rescue groups
The Pet Chaplain Learning Series offers a powerful yet affordable way for veterinary practices, shelters, and animal rescue organizations to build camaraderie, improve morale, and learn practical methods for supporting each other as well as their human clientele. Because the series is self-paced, it’s a perfect fit for busy practices and rescue groups.
Animal care workers often lack opportunities for personal and professional development. Our series will help workers create their own community of mutual support while improving their ability to support others who are in emotional pain and spiritual crisis.
