You love working with animals.
So why does it feel like you're barely keeping your head above water?
Year-long coaching for pet professionals who care deeply — helping you move from exhaustion and self-doubt to ease, boundaries, and confidence that last.
You’ve poured yourself into work that matters—work that feels like purpose itself.
And some days, even purpose feels heavy.
Your care for animals runs deeper than most people realize. You carry the heartbreaks, the small victories, the endless responsibilities.
That love is real—and so is the exhaustion that comes with it.
Maybe you have ideas waiting on the edge of your awareness—a new class, a podcast, a rate that truly honors your skill—but the old whisper still asks, “Who am I to want more?” So you keep learning, preparing, adding one more certification—because growth feels safer than visibility. And still, that “perfect moment” to begin never quite arrives.
Or maybe you are moving forward, but each next step costs more energy than you expected. Clients need “just one more thing.” The inbox multiplies overnight. You end the day spent, wondering how effort and outcome became so disconnected. Busy, capable, and quietly drained.
Perhaps it’s the tug between work and life that aches the most. Your own dog waits while you care for everyone else’s. Your partner gets what’s left over after your compassion is spent. You want to be present for the people and creatures you love—without trading away your own aliveness to do it.
If this sounds familiar, it’s not because you’re doing it wrong. It’s because you care so deeply that your nervous system hasn’t yet learned how to let care include you.
You’re here for more than just getting through the day. You’re here to make a difference—and feel whole while doing it.
Positive Changes 2026
Positive Changes 2026A year-long coaching partnership for pet professionals ready to make changes that stick—without adding more to your plate.
So much of what we call “self-trust” begins as permission to exist — to take up space, to have needs, to matter in your own daily orbit.
And it’s from that ground that everything else can unfold.
When you begin to feel safe enough to need, to rest, to receive — even a little — the world starts to reorganize around your aliveness.
Work begins to energize instead of deplete. Choices feel clearer. Life feels like something you can inhabit, not just manage.
This isn’t about becoming someone different or doing more. It’s about remembering your own enoughness and letting that remembrance move through your life with less friction and more choice.
You deserve this kind of life. If it feels like what you’ve been longing for — quietly, for years — I’d be honored to walk beside you as you create it.
This program is for you if
You’re brilliant at caring for others, but your own patterns still mystify you — you can help a reactive dog or soothe an overwhelmed client, yet some part of you still says yes when you’re already stretched thin, or second-guesses yourself after every choice.
You learned early that being helpful meant being safe. It makes sense that saying no still feels risky.
You’ve poured years — and real money — into growing your skills, but that quiet hum of not-enough never quite stops. No amount of credentials or client success stories seems to grant permission to rest or to trust that you already are who you were hoping to become.
You’re ready to stop running on empty, yet the thought of slowing down feels disorienting. You’ve tried systems, boundaries, self-care checklists — and you know they help for a while — but something deeper keeps pulling you back into old loops. That “something” isn’t brokenness; it’s the part of you that once kept belonging alive by over-giving.
You want support that meets you where you actually are — not a one-size-fits-all plan, but a space that honors your pace, your sensitivity, and your real life.
Whether you’re struggling to take action, drowning in the details, or trying to hold too many threads at once, this program is designed to move with you — gently, precisely, sustainably.
This program is not for you if:
You’re looking for quick business tactics or marketing strategies. This work isn’t about algorithms or perfect messaging—it’s about the human behind the work.
When your inner system feels organized and safe, those outer choices—what to post, where to focus—become clear and much easier to make.
You want someone to tell you exactly what to do. I’ll be walking beside you, not leading from ahead.
My role is to help you find your own knowing—the kind that lasts because it’s rooted in your truth, not in my directions. Sustainable change grows from the inside out.
You’re seeking a ready-made blueprint. I’ll share what’s useful from my 25+ years as a pet professional when it serves your clarity, but this isn’t about adopting my path. It’s about refining your own, step by step, in a way that fits your life and nervous system.
You’re not yet drawn to self-inquiry. We’ll absolutely talk about that difficult client or full schedule—and we’ll also explore what those moments are reflecting back to you. This approach invites deeper awareness, the kind that changes how you relate to yourself everywhere, not just in work.
If that kind of inner exploration doesn’t feel resonant right now, it’s perfectly okay—this may not be the right season for this work.
Colleen is kind, caring and thoughtful and does an excellent job of directing the conversation and asking questions to make me think about and value what's important to me.
I love that she understands the dog business and the players, and I don't need to explain it like I would to a generic business coach (or a therapist who would then want to tell me about their dog problems!)
Coaching the way Colleen does it opens possibilities and new ways of thinking and seeing good paths. I found the 90-minute timeframe allowed me to settle in with my thoughts vs. rush through.
I understand what I really want from my business now, and I found peace in rediscovering how I can be true to what's important to me vs chasing all the new shiny things that I "could" do, but did not suit me.
madeline gabriel * baby safe dog training
The Positive Changes Approach
In Positive Changes, we don’t follow a strict curriculum or move through set modules.Instead, our work unfolds through six guiding principles—foundations that shape how we explore whatever matters most to you in each moment.
Everything that shows up belongs.
When you come to a session anxious about pricing, overwhelmed by a client, or discouraged by something personal, that’s not a distraction from the “real work.”
It is the real work.
Whatever surfaces carries the doorway to what’s next. Over time, you’ll begin to see how every topic—no matter how small—connects to the same few core patterns that shape your whole life.
Understanding dissolves shame.
As you see how fear, perfectionism, and people-pleasing once protected you, self-blame softens.
You begin to sense that your strategies made perfect sense in the context that created them—and that they can now evolve.
Whether that recognition arises through your own reflection or through frameworks I share, insight always lands with kindness, not criticism.
Hope grounded in reality creates movement.
Not wishful thinking, but a clear-eyed faith in your ability to take one small, manageable step at a time.
The year-long container matters because real change happens in spaciousness—where you can experiment, rest, and build momentum without pressure to transform overnight.
Self-trust is the real goal.
Confidence isn’t about knowing exactly what to do; it’s trusting yourself to respond to whatever comes.
Across the year, you’ll experience this many times—facing familiar roadblocks and realizing you can move through them differently.
Insight and action grow each other.
Every new awareness invites a new behavior; every new action deepens understanding.
This ongoing exchange becomes the bridge between knowing and doing—the place where sustainable transformation lives.
Wholeness includes everything.
Healing doesn’t mean eliminating the parts of you that once struggled.
It means welcoming them into an updated, more accurate map of who you are.
When you integrate rather than reject, the unwanted state reveals its wisdom, and lasting change takes root.
By the end of our year together, you’ll have practiced these principles enough to feel the difference—more choice, less friction, and a grounded confidence that you can meet life as it comes.
I was a bit blown away. Sometimes just saying things out loud can bring a lot to your attention. Colleen was able to hear things in what I was saying that I didn't realize. That was very helpful. It came down to breaking it down and isolating the specific parts that were giving me trouble.
rebecca brame * ruby dog training
What This Looks Like in Practice
You might arrive frustrated about a client who keeps testing your boundaries.
We won’t stop at surface solutions. Together, we’ll explore what you’re protecting by staying flexible, what fear arises when you imagine saying no, and what becomes possible when your boundaries reflect genuine care for both of you.
You’ll leave with clarity and compassion for the part of you that hesitated.
Or you might come in exhausted by a crowded schedule.
Rather than productivity hacks, we’ll look at what drives the “yes” when you long to say “no,” and how to make choices that respect both your business and your nervous system.
Maybe it’s guilt about balance—feeling you’re failing either your clients or your loved ones.
We’ll trace how the same loyalty pattern plays out in both arenas and find ways to honor all your commitments, including to yourself.
Here's what I know
You can’t think your way out of these patterns—you’ve already tried.
The solution isn’t another system, another credential, or more willpower.
It’s space: space to see yourself clearly, to re-map old strategies, and to be met by someone who understands both your work and the inner physics that keep you spinning.
That’s the work we’ll do—together.
Magic!!! Colleen sees things deeper than I can in myself. She is able to hone in on areas where I'm stuck without making me feel dumb. I am moving at light speed because she helps me remove blocks quickly. She helps me be clear on next steps - every time!
stephanie frank * fetch happy
Colleen Pelar
Professional Certified Coach (PCC)
A Bit About Me—and Why This Work Matters
I spent nearly three decades in the pet industry as a dog trainer, behavior consultant, author, and speaker before compassion fatigue caught up with me.
I know what it’s like to love your work with animals and still feel completely drained by it—to believe that exhaustion is simply the price of caring.
Here’s what I’ve learned: the weight you carry isn’t just about your individual clients or cases.
You’re holding something larger—the space between how animals should be treated and how they often are.
That’s an impossible burden for one person to carry, and it was never meant to rest on your shoulders alone.
So many pet professionals I work with have quietly taken that burden as proof of personal failure: If I just worked harder… if I were better… if I did more…
The same care that first opened your heart to animals can become the voice that won’t let you rest.
I became a professional certified coach (PCC) because I watched too many good, wise people—people who found something essential and true in their connection with animals—burn out and consider leaving the field.
The animals need you. And for you to keep showing up, you need to be well.
When we work together, you don’t have to explain why a euthanasia stays with you, or why “leaving work at work” isn’t always possible, or why saying no to an animal in need can feel unbearable.
I understand the depth of that love—and I also know you can’t pour from an empty cup.
Positive Changes runs for a full year because the transformation I want for you—learning to be as kind to yourself as you are to animals—takes time.
Over those twelve months, you’ll make small shifts that quietly change everything: more ease, more choice, more trust in yourself.
You deserve to enjoy your life, not just survive it.
If you’re ready to show up for yourself with the same compassion you give so freely to others, I’m here.
Colleen has a very soft and compassionate way of helping people feel heard and supported. I get the sense she really cares. She also pushes people to delve deeper and look at the roots of things while also acknowledging practical, everyday life aspects of the struggle.
alicia obando * pitter patter parenting
What's Covered
We focus on what matters most to you—right now.
That changes over the course of a year. One month you might need help navigating a specific situation; the next, you might be ready to shift a long-standing pattern.
The flexibility to meet you where you actually are—month by month—is part of what makes this work sustainable.
What We Might Explore
- Navigating a client situation that’s quietly draining you
- Deciding if you’re ready to raise your rates—and feeling safe enough to do it
- Turning down the imposter-syndrome voice that keeps you playing small
- Setting boundaries that hold, with clients, family, or yourself
- Unwinding the cycle of overwhelm that makes everything feel urgent
- Healing burnout at its roots instead of just pushing through
- Taking time off without guilt or anxiety tagging along
- Untangling a relationship that feels more complicated than it should
- Trusting your decisions enough to stop second-guessing
- Saying no without over-explaining
- Making genuine space for the parts of life that aren’t about work
It’s all connected—and it’s all welcome.
How the Work Unfolds
Each of these topics is a doorway into the same deeper terrain.
When you see and respond differently in one area, you’ll notice quiet shifts everywhere else.
Sometimes you’ll need a new way of looking at a situation—a reframe that makes what once felt impossible start to feel workable.
Sometimes you’ll revise old beliefs about yourself or the world that are still organizing your choices.
Sometimes you’ll simply recognize how beautifully you’ve been protecting yourself—and begin to let that protection rest.
For everyone, the movement is the same: expanding what feels possible.
Things you thought you couldn’t—or shouldn’t—do begin to come into reach.You start to inhabit your own life with less effort and more choice.
The aim is never to turn you into someone else.
It’s to give you access to the full range of your experience—so you can show up as yourself with more ease, more range, and more trust in your ability to meet whatever comes.
What to Expect
Twelve 90-minute, one-on-one sessions—on your timeline
We’ll meet for twelve private coaching sessions across the year—each one designed to meet you exactly where you are that month.
You choose the timing; most people find a monthly rhythm steady enough for momentum and spacious enough for life to breathe.
“But, Colleen, I’m already overwhelmed. How am I supposed to add coaching sessions to my schedule?”
That’s the beauty of this work: these sessions don’t add to your load—they lighten it. Think of them as a pause point that resets your internal compass.
Clients often tell me that ninety minutes of clarity here saves them hours of over-thinking later.
Real change takes consistency, not intensity.
After decades of working with hundreds of clients, I’ve seen that sustainable transformation needs both time and gentleness—space to integrate new awareness instead of rushing to perform it. That’s exactly what this year-long container provides.
How Sessions Flow
Each conversation begins with whatever’s most alive for you—big or small. From there we explore:
- What you most want and how you’ll recognize it when it arrives (so the goalposts stop moving).
- What might be getting in the way—and the usually very good reasons behind that.
- How to include those protective parts so that change feels safe enough to stick.
Our work weaves together positive psychology, professional coaching, and nearly three decades of supporting pet professionals.
I understand the unique combination of physical, emotional, and relational demands in this field—and the quiet guilt that can come with caring so much.
You set session times that work for your life.
While monthly sessions keep a steady rhythm, you can schedule more often during challenging stretches.
All twelve sessions are used within the calendar year, creating both structure and flexibility.
Many clients choose to continue beyond the first year—not because the work drags on, but because as you grow, new layers of possibility open up.
Ongoing support becomes the ground from which those new steps feel doable.
Between Sessions
Email Support
When something surfaces between meetings—a client situation, a decision wobble, or simply the need to steady your footing—you can reach out by email.
This isn’t another coaching session; it’s a touchpoint for perspective, reassurance, or a reminder of what you already know.
Resources When Helpful
If a book, article, or podcast seems useful to what we’re exploring, I’ll share it.
There’s no homework, no checklist—just optional tools you can engage with as they feel relevant.
After session nine of my twelve coaching calls, I've rediscovered the power of tiny changes over time. While I gained a lot from my first call with Colleen, joining the Positive Changes program has allowed room for deeper discovery.
Colleen knows me well now; she's heard my story, understands the challenges I've been facing, and has helped me grow into a more tuned-in version of myself.
I never know what will come from each call, and while I always want to be "prepared," there is no preparation necessary; Colleen guides you through the unknowns of your psyche—there's no preparation for that!
Rachael magee * dog's choice
I believe meaningful coaching should be accessible to the people doing the heart work of this world—our pet professionals.
That’s why I use Kindred Pricing: a shared approach that honors both your real-life circumstances and the sustainability of this work.
Understanding Kindred Pricing
Let’s be honest—most pet professionals give far more than they receive.
You pour energy, time, and care into animals and people alike. You hold calm for everyone else, often at your own expense.
Your wisdom and dedication are exactly what this field needs.
Kindred Pricing is a way to recognize that reality while keeping this work sustainable for all of us.
Here’s how it works:
I’m transparent about what sustains my practice, and you choose the rate that fits your current circumstances.
When some clients pay toward the higher end, it helps me offer this same depth of work at lower rates to others who otherwise couldn’t access it.
Every rate choice is an act of reciprocity.
Each decision contributes to a web of mutual support—your growth ripples outward to strengthen the wider community.
About Positive Changes 2026
This year-long program includes twelve 90-minute private coaching sessions designed to create lasting change in your work and your life.
Comparable programs typically range from $100–350 per session.
The sustainable rate for this program is $200 per session ($2,400 total)—this amount keeps my practice thriving and allows me to offer Kindred Pricing to others.
If this rate feels possible, even as a meaningful stretch, know that your choice directly supports accessibility for colleagues across our profession.
The minimum rate is $120 per session ($1,440 total), with a range between those two points.
You choose the rate that fits your life—no justification needed.
Regardless of the number you choose, you receive my full presence, attention, and commitment.
How to Decide
First, feel into whether Positive Changes is right for you—what it could mean for your work with animals and clients, and for your relationship with yourself.
If it feels aligned, consider the rate that fits your current reality and values:
$120 – a supported rate that opens access to this work.
$145 – a balanced rate for many professionals right now.
$200 – a sustaining rate that keeps this practice viable and extends support to others.
You don't need another program to prove your worth.
You need space to remember it.
Positive Changes gives you that space—twelve months of steady support, clear reflection, and grounded accountability.
It’s not about fixing what’s wrong; it’s about integrating what’s always been right.
Over the year you’ll:
Build self-trust that lasts longer than any single success or setback.
Learn to make decisions without second-guessing.
Reclaim energy for what actually matters.
Experience work and life as connected, not competing.
Feel the quiet confidence that you can handle whatever comes next.
This is the work of becoming whole while staying human—of finding a rhythm that nourishes you as much as the beings you care for.
If you've been longing for that kind of steadiness, Positive Changes was built for you.
How to Take the Next Step
1.
Start with a Conversation
Let’s talk first.
This isn’t a sales call — it’s a real conversation to explore whether Positive Changes is the right fit for where you are and what you need.
You’ll share what’s working, what’s not, and what you’d love to be different.
We’ll both sense whether the chemistry and timing feel right for a year of work together.
I’ll be honest about whether I believe I can help, and you’ll have space to decide in your own time.
(There’s no pressure to decide during the call. This is a meaningful commitment for both of us, and it needs to feel good on both sides.)
2.
Reflect and Decide at Your Own Pace
After the call, take a breath.
You’ll have all the information you need — rates, structure, and what to expect.
Give yourself a few days to notice how your body feels about it.
Clarity comes from resonance, not rush.
3.
Enroll and Begin Your Year of Positive Change
If it feels right, you’ll finalize your enrollment and select your Kindred Pricing rate.
You’ll receive a welcome email with scheduling links, reflection prompts, and next steps to begin your first session.
From that point forward, we’ll meet regularly to create the clarity, steadiness, and self-trust you’ve been longing for.
Enrollment is open between December 8, 2025 - January 11, 2026. This offer is limited to 15 clients.
P.S. If you already know you're ready for Positive Changes and don't want to wait for a call, email me to enroll directly. If you're uncertain — even a little — let's talk first. The conversation helps with clarity—no need to decide while we're talking.
Commitments and Cancellations
1. Your Commitment Matters
When you choose your payment plan—monthly or in full—you’re reserving a dedicated space for twelve sessions across the year.
This commitment is part of what makes the work effective. It creates a stable container where your nervous system can relax into consistency and depth.
2. A Safe Space to Grow
3. Flexible Timeline, Clear Boundaries
You’re in charge of scheduling your sessions.
While monthly meetings create steady progress, you have until January 31, 2027 to use all twelve.
Any sessions unused after that date expire without refund.
You can reschedule any session with 24 hours’ notice. Sessions missed or cancelled with less notice count as one of your twelve, though I’ll always make reasonable efforts to accommodate when life happens.4. Where the Magic Happens
The real transformation often unfolds between sessions—in the quiet moments when you notice yourself thinking differently, setting a boundary more easily, or celebrating a small win instead of dismissing it.
Never underestimate how profoundly those subtle shifts can reshape your relationship with your work and yourself.
5. Payment Plans
Choose from:
Single payment for the full year, or
12 monthly payments spread evenly across your program.
At this time, I’m not able to create custom payment arrangements.
I've worked with a lot of different coaches over the years and have had mixed experiences. From the initial consultation on, I felt seen, heard, and supported by Colleen, which are feelings I've rarely had with other coaches.
Colleen's loving support gave me the confidence to not only expand my business, but also make some challenging, life-changing decisions in my personal life. I wholeheartedly endorse Colleen as a coach!
Kristina bryte * bryte paws
Got a Question?
Use this form if you need something clarified to help you make your decision. I'm happy to help.