What is Involved
- Generally takes 1–2 years to train
- Must be trained to mitigate your disability
- Must behave appropriately in public to avoid being removed
How do They Get Trained
Obedience Training
Whether you train your dog yourself or enlist the help of an agency or professional trainer, your service dog must be obedience trained. This entails the basic commands of sit, stay, come, down, drop, heel and leave. Depending on the breed of dog you have chosen or already have this can take weeks to months to accomplish.
Socialization Skills
Another important quality your service dog must possess is socialization skills. A skittish, hyperactive or unruly dog will not do well as a service dog. Your dog must be quiet, calm, relaxed, alert, and of course, friendly.
Work Tasks
To qualify as a service dog your canine must be able to demonstrate the ability to do the work tasks that you cannot do for yourself. This can include fetching medicine bottles, opening drawers, or even alerting you to a drop in your blood sugars or of an oncoming seizure.
Public Access Training
How your dog acts in public areas is crucial to having a service dog. These working dogs must not respond to any of the noise, commotion, chaos, food smells or people when out with its handler. This type of training may take several months before your dog is desensitized to hustle-and-bustle of being in a public place. Some dogs may never have the ability for this type of public access training and therefore would not be considered a service dog.
Who Qualifies to be a Service Animal
The Dog
Your dog must obey basic verbal and/or hand signal obedience commands such as Sit, Stay, Come, Down and Heel. When off leash, your dog must come when called.
Your dog must also display good behavior and social skills including:
No aggressive behavior toward people or other animals;
no biting, no snapping, no growling, no mounting, no lunging and/or barking;
No begging for food or petting from other people;
No sniffing merchandise or people who pass by;
No urinating or defecating in public unless given a command/signal to eliminate in an appropriate place.
The Owner
Please remember to be confident, polite, courteous and respectful at all times, even if you encounter someone who is unfamiliar with the ADA. Be prepared to explain what tasks your dog is trained to complete to help manage your disability. You do not need to explain your disability. Keep in mind that the impression you leave with someone may be their only experience with a Service or Assistance Dog team.
What to do if You Want Your Animal to be a Service Animal
Training may be completed by yourself, a friend, family member or professional trainer or training organization. It takes about six months to a year (120+ hours) to properly train a Service or Assistance Dog. A full-time professional trainer may be able to train a dog more quickly. Be prepared to spend at least 30 hours of training in a controlled public setting so that the dog will learn to behave obediently and unobtrusively in public. Please remember that you are 100% responsible at all times for the behavior and control of your Service or Assistance Dog, even during training.
Note that all states do not grant the privileges of the ADA to Service or Assistance Dogs who are in training. Owners who have Service or Assistance Animals in training may register, but are personally responsible for obeying all applicable laws.
Individual training is the process by which a dog is specifically taught a behavior or task through rewards, praise or corrections. Methods may include using treats, clicker training or praise. Natural dog behavior such as protectiveness, barking, licking or comforting an owner are not considered appropriate tasks under the ADA, even if those actions help the disabled owner.
The best tool for evaluating a team’s readiness to graduate or finish formal training is a Public Access Test like the one available at ADI. It may be administered by a friend or family member, but again, keeping a video recording of your animal passing the test may prove valuable in the future.