Training Your Own Service Dog: What You Need to Know

Training Your Own Service Dog: What You Need to Know

 Training your own service dog is not an easy task--nor is it to be taken lightly. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) does allow for handlers to train their own service dogs, but they are held to the same standards as organization-trained serviced dogs.

The question on many people's minds is which is a better choice and to me, it depends on the person. There are a lot of organizations that raise amazing dogs--and dogs that are trained from birth and have mother's chosen for their temperament usually have a higher success rate, but depending on the organization, getting a service dog becomes pricey and there's a long wait time. What about training your own dog? Well, if you've never worked with dogs, it might not be the best idea. You need to understand the basics of teaching your dog to act in public to doing tasks on command. There are some Internet website resources, but it takes a lot of time and effort, but the good part is that your dog starts to learn with you and your disability.


So how does your owner-trained service dog qualify as a service dog? Well, according to the ADA, the dog must be housebroken, have public access skills, and to be able to perform a task. When they are referring to a task, they mean a skill or cue that will aid a person when their condition worsens or when they need extra help. For instance, many people have their dogs pick up items when they drop them, open doors, let them know when the doorbell rings, and other tasks to help them with their daily routine. Anything that just requires the dog to just exist is not considered a task. For example: carrying medicine and comforting someone by their presence (this does not include pressure and distraction cues).

Risk. There is a high risk that your service dog will not be up for the job--especially if you get the dog as a puppy. I adopted Cash (I thought he was 4) at 8 1/2. He has a very temperate personality. He is not easily frightened and adapts to situations perfectly. He listens very well and is not loud. The reason why he makes the perfect dog to train is that he reacts to me so well plus, he acts very well in public. But how did I know this? I was around service dogs AND I had spent time with him before adopting him. With Cash, I can take him to performances, dinner, church, and he will lay under whatever I cue him to and go straight to sleep. Sometimes during a performance, he might get startled, but when I tell him to go to bed, he will go right back to sleep. Even when that happens, he still is quiet. This is what you want your dog to be able to do while in public. I am still working on him walking right next to me, but he is doing very well with it. It's about patience.

So how are you training him?

I am training him using clicker training. So far, I have a laundry list of commands that I want to teach him. The first major cue I trained him (other than the basics) was to sit on my lap when commanded and bring me my emergency medicine. The lap command is used to apply pressure to my lap during sever panic attacks and psychogenic seizures. This technique causes my brain to start focusing on him and not the anxiety, but also restricts me from wandering off or focusing on something dangerous. I have started working with him to bring a laminated note to whomever I point to give them important emergency information if I cannot talk. I also plan to teach a lot of other techniques for PTSD, Psychogenic seizures, Anxiety, and low blood pressure. Even with my ideas in place, I have had to create ways to "shape" these commands into cues he understands. If you do not understand shaping, I highly suggest that you read up on it on Karen Pryor's website. Here are a few of her articles on the subject: Shaping Your Way to Success, The Ten Laws of Shaping, and Shaping Success.

Here are some links to my favorite Service Dog related articles and websites:

Choosing the Right (Service) Dog
FAQ: Service Dog Laws
Service Dog Training Costs
Tasks vs Work
FAQ-ADA Service Dog Laws
PHRA-Service Dog Laws (Pennsylvania)
Service Dog Laws by State
Karen Pryor Clicker Training


Service Dog Organizations
And a link to my favorite Service Dog Training Organization, Susquehanna Service Dogs. If you live in Central Pennsylvania, please consider donating to them--time or money. They are an amazing group of people and taught me so much. They have a list of items that they most often use and need on their website, which I will link below. Also, if you use Purina Pro Plan, please consider cutting out the weight circles and sending them to them so they can get money through Purina. Every bit helps!

Susquehanna Service Dogs

Product Review: Top Paw 3 'n' 1 Wet-Dry Glove

I was not sure how I was going to feel about this glove, but I had previously been using the Kong Zoom brush for his baths and I wasn't getting close enough to his skin. I just started using the  GNC Vitamin Enriched Natural Herbal Shampoo and I wanted the shampoo to get to his skin. The size of the bristles made it seem like I was able to wash more of his skin. It also seemed to distribute the shampoo well. Although, he is still itchy (you can't bathe dogs too often), I think this product was better than your hands, a traditional brush/zoom brush, or a wash cloth. 

Pros: the bristles allows you really work the shampoo into the dogs skin; having it on your hand allows for it to bend better to the dogs natural shape; it wasn't sharp and it helped shed some of his hair and retained it within the bristles. 

Cons: the size was too big for my hands (one size); it says you can use it to get pet fur off of furniture, in the bath, or as a regular brush, but I find that other than its use in the bath, it's not the best for the other two uses.

I Bought My Best Friend

For some people, they don't understand the special bond that many people have with their pets. It's how real their dedication is to you and the joy when you get home from work--try finding a human with that kind of consistency. But, at the same time, we purchase and own our furry "best friends." 

I believe the way that society treats pets is a main factor in why we have so many pets that are mistreated and it's not headline news--that we can just kill animals because there's just too many without any remorse, but refuse to eat a hamburger because your against eating meat. Why aren't we upset about about these animals (an unknown number to me) being killed for no reason? At least the cow was killed to feed someone. 

This is what the pet industry is about--money and convenience. It has nothing to do with the lovable animal that you promised to love. Would you move and not take your child with you? Animals have a shorter life than children and are far cheaper, but since they are pets, they are traded and discarded without a second thought. And if they aren't raised well (by someone that couldn't care less) they end up practically unadoptable by most people's standards. And why? Because a family was too lazy to teach them basic manners--bet people would be up in arms if a child acted as badly as some animals. 

As much as I hope "paying" for my best friend means that the money goes towards helping animals, it will not go far if people do not take pet "ownership" seriously. 

Right now, I do not hold any cards in the shelter business, but I would like to volunteer in shelters and train dogs to make them seem more appealing. I want to teach people simple ways to make their dogs behave better. I'd like to show anyone going to adopt a dog or that refuses to spay/neuter dog the sad/scared eyes of the overpopulated shelters. Don't send this new family member back there and don't take a chance that a new generation will struggle to stay alive because there's no one to adopt them. Maybe seeing this for themselves will open their eyes--or maybe it won't 

There's nothing wrong with purebreds. There's something wrong with taking a chance for puppies when you aren't taking care of them yourself or have people to adopt them out to... Meaning they will most likely end up either strays or surrendered if not adopted out. 

For me, Cash is one of the sweetest dogs that I have ever met. And raising Thornwald taught me a lot. It's not about whether or not they were breed to be a certain temperament or if they were adopted as from a shelter, it's how you treat them and appreciate the love that they will almost always give to you. 

Our problem is how we think about pets rather than pets being the problem. Think about it.