Creature Comforts Pet Services LLC
Training help in group settings or private lessons
House visits for dogs, cats, and small animals
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Kera Wilhelmsen
CPDT-KA CTDI ABCDT
As the owner of Creature Comforts Pet Services LLC, Kera has a passion for animals. She is especially passionate about helping owners learn how to communicate with their dogs, and therefore help the relationships in the household.
The “comfort” part of Creature Comforts also comes from Kera wanting all the animals around her to feel comfortable. She has a soft spot for fearful and anxious animals. She believes patience and compassion are important parts in learning to live with our companion animals.
After training for over a decade, Kera decided to make the leap to open her own business in 2019, where she taught group classes and ran a small boarding and daycare out of her home in Winona. She has since moved to Dover, Minnesota, and decided to devote her time to training, and house visits for animals that would not necessarily do well in a kennel boarding situation, and who could potentially use some additional help as well.
She looks forward to expanding her business to help the entire southeastern Minnesota area with their pets!
In addition to training, Kera has worked in veterinarian offices in several areas, as a groomer, and as a boarding kennel manager, as well as volunteered at several humane societies.
However, once she found training, she was hooked. Since then she has attended Animal Behavior College, where she graduated as an ABCDT - Animal Behavior College Dog Trainer. In this program she took written tests, and was involved in a mentorship program.
After assisting and then teaching in classes for several years, she took her CPDT-KA test, which stands for Certified Professional Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed. This test is through the Certification Council of Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT) and in order to qualify to take this test one must have 300 or more hours of teaching done within the last three years, and a recommendation letter from a current CPDT-KA (or higher). At the time she first took her test she also had to have a veterinarian recommendation letter. Once you take this test, and pass, then you also have to fulfill CEU’s, or continuing education units in order to maintain your certification. These include conferences and seminars, and other educational opportunities. If you do not get enough CEU’s within 3 years, you must qualify and then retake the test.
Kera also loves teaching tricks, and her Border Collie mix, Tayla, has obtained her Advanced Trick Dog Title from Do More With Your Dog! She decided to become a CTDI as well (Certified Trick Dog Instructor). Canine Good Citizen testing, which is usually the first step in therapy dog work, is something Kera offers as well as an AKC Evaluator.
