Common Types of Pet Soul Contracts: What Is Your Soul Agreement With Your Dog?

By Shannon Cutts.

It is no accident that you and your dog are together. Kind of mind-blowing when you stop to think about it, isn’t it?!

In the world I inhabit, the world of animal communication, we call this type of not-coincidental meeting a pet soul contract or pet soul agreement.

If this is the first time you are hearing about pet soul agreements, it is my absolute honor and delight to give you the good news – you and your dog share a soul contract and that is why you are together.

This shared soul contract infuses everything about your life together, from why you chose each other to how, when, and where you met to the length of time you spend together to the life lessons you learn together. It even influences whether your dog in spirit might be reincarnating back to you!

In this article, I am going to walk you through the major categories of pet soul agreements. After you give it a read, I would love to hear which type of soul agreement you feel best fits your bond with your pup.

Frequently asked questions about pet soul agreements

Before we dive into the different categories of pet soul agreements, it might be helpful to take a look at some frequently asked questions about pet soul contracts and an animal communication perspective on each.

What is a pet soul agreement?

A pet soul agreement is a shared decision to spend a period of time together here in “Earth school” for mutual benefit. The big picture goal for both pet and person is the same: to grow and evolve as a soul.

Is a pet soul contract the same as a pet soul agreement?

The terms pet soul agreement and pet soul contract are used interchangeably. Some people might prefer one term over the other. But both terms refer to the same type of relational agreement that you and your dog make to spend time together for mutual benefit.

How do pet soul agreements form?

We make soul agreements with one another before we incarnate into a physical body here on Earth. While many people are familiar with the concept of human soul agreements or the soul family, fewer realize that soul contracts also exist between humans and pets.

Why do pet soul contracts exist?

As a professional animal communicator, I have had the privilege of asking hundreds of pets this question. When I ask, the answer I receive is always the same. We share soul contracts with our animal family members for two reasons: to learn something and to teach something.

Do you have a soul agreement with every pet in your family?

Yes. The only way a pet will come into your family is if you share some type of soul agreement to spend time together.

Can you have more than one type of soul contract with the same pet?

There is typically a single over-arching soul contract you agree to share with each pet in your animal family. However, it is not uncommon to see elements from several different types of soul agreements crop up over the course of a lifetime shared together.

Common Types of Pet Soul Agreements

What you are about to read represents a simplistic overview of major soul agreement themes as the animals have outlined them to me. They are not meant to represent the sum total of different types of pet soul contracts that can exist between people and their dogs. Also be aware that no universal agreement exists about the names for each type of soul agreement.

Parent/child

The parent/child pet soul agreement can work in either direction. For example, you might feel like your pet is literally your human child. I have had pet parent clients tell me that their dog was their son or daughter, and this is a giveaway of the type of soul agreement they share together.

I’ve also seen the parent/child soul agreement work in reverse, where it can feel like your dog is parenting you. Often when I see the reverse parent/child soul contract, it will turn out that the dog is in some type of service role, such as a service dog, therapy dog or emotional support animal.

Partners

This type of pet soul agreement can have two main flavors: romantic and platonic. The romantic type of partnership soul agreement can have a very all-consuming energy to it, where it can even feel like it is you and your dog against the world. If you have this type of soul agreement and you also have a human partner, it is not uncommon to hear that the human partner sometimes feels like a third wheel!

For the platonic type of partnership soul agreement, there is still an intensity of commitment, but typically without the jealousy and resource-guarding that often crops up with a romantic soul partnership.

Siblings

Siblings is an interesting pet soul contract. With siblings, I will often see that sometimes there is harmony and sometimes conflict, just like with human siblings. In some cases this can look a lot like the frenemies pet soul agreement we haven’t talked about yet.

Siblings may also go through what I call some jockeying for position within the greater family unit, and some competition with each other for resources or attention. The sibling bond might be strong, but it also might not be. Just because two pets are biological siblings is never a guarantee they will bond emotionally as well.

Teacher/student (or boss/employee)

The teacher/student or boss/employee pet soul agreement is a fun one to look at. Here, it is most common to see the pet in the position of teacher or boss, and to see the person not quite understanding or flowing with that dynamic.

As an animal intuitive, when I asked the animals what the word “pet” means to them and why we call them our pets, they told me pet means “Partner, Empathic friend and Teacher.” So this is a perfect example of the teacher/student soul agreement dynamic.

If you have ever felt like you are able to learn lessons from your dog that no human could teach you, or that you are willing to explore deeper areas of your own life and emotional shadows to help your dog than you would to help a fellow human, then chances are good you share a teacher/student soul agreement with your dog.

The boss/employee pet soul contract is a variation of this type of soul agreement. If you have ever said, “my dog has me very well trained” you might share a boss/employee soul agreement with your dog.

Friends

If you and your dog share a friends soul agreement, there is a lot of equality in this type of bond. Friends have more freedom to come and go, to disagree without repercussion, and to maintain independence in their daily preferences and choices, without a great risk of damaging the relationship itself.

There can be several different levels of the friends soul agreement, from best friendship to casual friends and even friendly acquaintances.

Frenemies

You might be wondering why any human would choose to share a frenemies soul agreement with their pet. But what is so interesting about the frenemies pet soul agreement is that it is actually a type of teacher/student soul agreement where the relationship itself becomes the teacher.

In other words, you are both students of relationship in a frenemies soul agreement. Because of this, often what is required is that you both push through your comfort zone, past your existing belief systems or self-imposed limitations, along the way dealing with trauma and healing and all that good stuff, to find balance and harmony within your relationship.

Twin flame

Finally, we come to the twin flame pet soul agreement. If this is the type of soul contract you share with your dog, you may have wondered more than once what will become of you when your dog passes. You might feel like you have loved dogs all your life, but you have never felt about any of your other dogs the way you feel about this particular dog.

Here, it is important to emphasize that this is not because you love one dog “more” than all the others. Rather it is due to the intense nature of this particular soul agreement.

Twin flame soul agreements can be the deepest and most all-consuming of the various pet soul agreements. As an animal intuitive, this type of soul agreement is the one that often drives the pet parent to seek out animal communication and specifically ask about pet reincarnation.

Pet soul agreements a summary

As a pet parent, what is most important to know is that you invited your dog into your life for a reason – perhaps many reasons. You agreed to play a certain role in your dog’s life. And your dog agreed to play a certain role in your life. The roles you and your dog chose to play for each other are designed to help both of you evolve by teaching each other and learning from each other.

So if your relationship with your dog doesn’t feel like it always goes as smoothly as you would like, or if challenges crop up that you don’t feel equipped to resolve on your own, just know this is by design. You are being invited to grow. By saying yes to the challenge, you turn it into an opportunity for you both to evolve as souls and deepen your precious bond with each other.

Shannon Cutts is a professional animal intuitive and animal communication teacher with Animal Love Languages. Shannon’s global client base seeks her out for help with pet trauma, pet anxiety, highly sensitive pets, pet grief, pet reincarnation and more. Listen to 8 Types of Pet Soul Agreements on Let’s Talk to Animals podcast.