Do you live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, want to train your own dog to be a service dog, but you are not a veteran or first responder? Our good friend, Myra Fourwinds, is teaching a course you can take!

Service dog training classes (you don’t have to be a veteran to take the class):

• Where: ValueCare Vet, 1515 E 66th St, Richfield, MN 55423
• When: Ongoing on Wednesdays, starting November 6, 2024, 7:00 pm
• How to sign up for the course: Contact the organizer, Inga From, through the Hippie Dog website, at https://ahippiedog.com/contact/

Some of the PTSD task that can be taught in the course:

• Go get help
• When the hander goes shopping and becomes overstimulated, they can ask the dog to "take me out" and the dog will take them to the door they came in., then, they can say "find me car" (which is a fun game to play with any dog) and the dog gets to lead the handler to their car.
• Also: perimeter search of your apartment, if you are worried someone might have gone in when you were away, send the dog in to check.
• When you are in a group of people, and you need to GET OUT you say to the dog: "Want to go Party?"  (the paw -tee is said in a southern accent) whereupon the dog gets up and starts dancing around, gives you an excuse to be able to leave.

About the instructor, Myra Fourwinds:

• Myra shared with me the curriculum she created for this course, and it is so exciting! Myra is wonderful in that she is entirely positive-training only, and she really knows both dog training and dog behavior…plus, she knows everything there is to know about service dog training! You’ll love working with her—Myra is terrific!!
• Myra's dog-training philosophy: "I am a dog trainer. I train dogs because it is fun for me and my dogs, because it makes me happy and high, because it puts me totally present in the moment and takes me to a place where there is nothing else on my mind."