Service Dog Training: What is it?

This topic pops up occasionally during class when someone wants to train his personal dog to become a service dog. There is a big difference between a service dog and a therapy dog. Let me explain the differences while including links for further information.

ADA Guidelines for Service Dogs

“Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples of such work or tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties. Service animals are working animals, not pets. The work or task a dog has been trained to provide must be directly related to the person’s disability. Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA.

Some State and local laws also define service animal more broadly than the ADA does. Information about such laws can be obtained from the State attorney general’s office.”

From my perspective, service dogs are trained to perform a specific task for a person, and this can take years of training. Once the dog learns the task, he must practice this task in many situations. We call this generalizing a behavior. Generalizing a behavior, especially a complex behavior, takes lots of time.

Therapy Dogs

Therapy dogs and their owners have been trained and passed required assessments, such as the AKC Canine Good Citizen Test, Delta Society Pet Partner Assessment and Therapy Dog International testing. While there are different variations of Therapy Dog Certification testing, those previously listed are the larger organizations.

It’s not only the dog that’s required to be trained and pass required assessments. The handler does as well, as they are the second half of the therapy team. Many times, we focus on teaching the dog how to handle certain situations, but he needs to learn how to politely ask a patient for permission to enter his room (not all people like dogs).

 There are many places, which boast service dog training services, products and ID tags. Please always follow the ADA’s Guidelines and contact professionals at the listed Service Dog Directory for guidance.

Service Dog vs. Therapy Dog

Therapy dogs are taught to behave politely in specific situations (nursing homes, physical therapy gyms and hospitals). Service dogs are taught to behave politely in many situations (planes, restaurants, grocery stores and hair salons). They also perform a specific task for a person (picking up items, alerting seizures or low blood sugar and pulling a wheelchair).

Service Dog Training Tips

If you would like to teach your personal dog to become a service dog, I would begin your search at Service Dog Directory – Pet Partners. Also, if you are interested in learning how to become a service dog trainer, contact these folks too. They can point you in the right direction.

Service dog trainers, I want to hear from you! How did you become a service dog trainer?

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