Karen has had animals her entire life. She owned everything: cats, dogs, pet chickens, gerbils, hamsters, rats, rabbits. She even had a “pet” horn-pout she fished out of the river next to the farm where she grew up. His name was Rufus.
In Karen’s free time she can be?found on a hiking trail somewhere with her pup, ?Chase Newman?, or at the race track cheering on her?favorite drivers, Chase Elliott and Ryan Newman.
Karen has an A.S. in Early Childhood Education and a B.S. in Behavioral Science, which have helped her understand both pets and their owners. She started working on a professional level with animals and their people in 2014 and didn’t realize how quickly she would fall in love with it. Since then, Karen has earned her CDTI, become a CGC Evaluator, an ATD T/O, and she is also a member of the IACP.
Karen says that helping people with their pets is important to her, especially the therapy work. She has seen the positive effect pets have on people. She has seen shy children open up in the presence of a dog and elderly people smile and leave their room at the nursing home just so they could visit with a dog. She witnessed friendships develop between people all because one of them had a dog with them and the other felt comfortable enough to engage them in conversation.