Soldiers 6 Minneapolis K9

Ed Abrahamson is a combat Army Veteran (Gulf War), and retired police officer, who suffers from PTSD. In May 2015, he retired from the South St Paul Police Department, and was awarded his service dog; Rex. Rex has brought so much joy to him (and our family) and provided him with some peace and calming in his mind that PTSD tried to take.

In January 2016, we decided to create our own organization and give to another military and or police/ first responder family what has been given to ours. We fittingly named our organization Soldiers 6. Our dogs will always have their handlers back. We have taken off and soared to new heights with the help of so many that we have met along this journey.

We are family run and we have fun while doing it. My sister is our go to for all things officer related and she loves to plan our fundraisers. She is definitely the organizer of our crew. My brother is our head trainer. He is a former K9 handler himself. In fact, my husbands current service dog; Dez, was my brother’s former K9 partner. They trained for 6 months together on the streets.  Mike had to make the decision to pull Dez from the program for his safety and that of Dez. We stepped in and purchased him and gave that furry buddy a second chance at life. One where he can still see my brother. It’s the greatest story. Mike is now back in MN. He hung up the badge and duty belt and took on training our service dogs full time. In fact, he is also the head trainer for KLN Family Brands and NutriSource Dog Food. We have grown at such an incredible rate.  Mike has hand selected only the best to work with us. We are joined by Bonnie Edwards and Mark Madich, both former Minneapolis K9 handlers. Jesse Soufflet, K9 handler for MN Department of Corrections and Chris Juvrud former military dog handler.

To date, we have provided nearly 130 service dogs to qualified recipients in MN. We have recently provided a large metro city with therapy dogs for their fire and police department. The opportunity to reach more heroes is a dream come true. The ability to have our name out there and people to have it as a resource is the reason we hustle daily. Like I stated before, we are family run, and trying with all of our might to do big things. But we need help from our village to get there.

To learn more about the positive impact we are having in the community follow us on Instagram: @soldiers6mn  check out our website at www.soldiers6.com  or our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/soldiers-6-779754302154141/