[djbelieny]

Indeed. Being through a few traumatic experiences in the first months of 2020, including the sudden death of my dad. I can attest that while it has been hard to let go of some memories and feelings, changing the geographic frame is an absolute hack that works. Look for something completely different, if you live in the city move to the country, if you live in the mountains move to the beach. Allow yourself the new experiences, use your senses to explore the new. In my case, the following also helped:

1) allowed myself to invest and finish a project that had special meaning to me since before the trauma;

2) Got a new dog, learned how to train her as a service dog, and put in the work to get that completed. BONUS: I now have a trained service dog that I love, can take everywhere, and is truly man's best friend.

3) Started small projects which involved my loved ones, which helped me bond and create new memories with each one individually.

Hope this helps. The most important thing is to keep on keeping on. Never give up.

[zain]

How did you learn how to train your dog?

[djbelieny]

TLDR; A Lot of internet coupled with a lot of trial and error - fun times.

But seriously, I first started researching online how people trained their dogs for obedience and to do simple tasks. Read a couple of books on the subject, signed up for an online class (COVID lockdowns and all), watched tons of Youtube videos, which were more informative and way more practical than the classes and books and practiced a lot with my Dog. She picked up really fast and within a couple of months I had her doing some serious obedience tasks. I would say she and I learned together ;) After that, I amped up the work consistency and focused on the specific task she needed to do in my case to become a service dog. Now with that said I want to plug something here, there's a group called STSK9 that has an outstanding online dog training university. I found them way down in my path and I still may register since I love what they are doing to help teach people how to train dogs and from what see on their site + social media interactions their students and dogs get the best in the biz. Link to their site https://www.stsk9.com/