What Is A Service Dog?

By Barbara Cannon

What is a service dog and what can a service dog do for you? Creative trainers and handlers are finding more and more ways to help people with disabilities enrich their lives.  Dogs can be trained to assist with mobility tasks such as turning on lights, opening doors, or retrieving dropped items. Medical alert dogs let people with seizure disorders or diabetes know when changes are occurring in their bodies. Autism dogs can help people with autism manage stress and anxiety. PTSD dogs also help manage stress and foster confidence in social settings. Hearing dogs help people with hearing loss by alerting them to telephones, doorbells, and fire alarms. A service dog trained and approved for public access can go everywhere with their partner. 

There are two fundamental aspects to service dog training: task training and public access. As listed above, you can see that service dogs perform TASKS for an individual with a disability that the individual struggles to do on their own.  Task training depends on the needs of the individual. Public access is vital to a service dog that often needs to accomplish these tasks in a public setting. Assistance Dog International (https://assistancedogsinternational.org/)  sets standards for service dogs for public access with their Public Access test. Assistance Dogs International also assesses and certifies international service dog organizations according to very high standards.  If you get a service dog from one of these organizations, you can be assured that the dog has been scrupulously vetted in breeding and training.

It's important to note here that service dog training is a largely unregulated industry due to the fact that many people with disabilities are concerned about being labeled as such. There is no certification program, so don’t pay good money to someone who says they can “certify” your dog. That means nothing. The gold standard for a service dog is public access training. Also, the Federal government does not recognize emotional support dogs as service dogs at this time.  Physical disability is the qualifier for service dog training.  For example, many people who suffer from PTSD also have a physical disability such as Traumatic Brain Injury, which would qualify them and their dog for public access.  The ADA, or the Americans for Disabilities Act, has strict regulations for public access of service dogs.  You can read here for more information:  https://www.ada.gov/resources/service-animals-2010-requirements

We believe the best way to acquire a service dog is through an organization that vets and trains service dogs according to ADI standards. Assistance Dogs International has a list on its website of organizations that they have certified. For people with the kinds of disabilities mentioned above, these dogs can be free of charge if your application is approved. The dog you receive will be carefully bred, selected, and prepared to perform the tasks that you need. 

Should you decide to train your own dog, we believe it is vitally important that you do your research and find a breeder who understands the qualities that make a good service dog and implements them in their breeding.  It’s also important to realize that not every dog can be a service dog. As part of the process of training service dogs, I personally have disqualified as many dogs as I have approved. Temperament issues, anxiety, and lack of desire to work are a few of the qualities that can appear at various life stages and make a dog unsuitable for this kind of training.  Finding a dog that wants to work and has the personality and motivation to accomplish training goals is a painstaking process.  If you do decide to train your own dog, we strongly recommend that you find an in-person trainer to help you reach your goals and who has the understanding and ability to train for public access.

What can Baxter and Bella do to help our members train a potential service dog?  Since public access is so essential, we strongly encourage you to start early (the earlier, the better!) with socialization and continue it throughout your young dog’s life.  We have a list of socialization goals available on the website (see Games & Activities page) to help you get started.  Ultimately, you want to socialize your dog in every environment where you might take your dog and every kind of person you may meet along the way. Our curriculum covers the basic training you must build on for your dog’s service dog training. Completing our Basic through Advanced courses in year one will prepare your dog for service dog work. We can also help coach you with task training once you have identified the particular tasks you would like your dog to perform for you. Please note that we cannot help you with medical alert training or guide dog training. Being an online company, we also cannot certify or sign any paperwork for airplane travel or housing. You can always reach out to our trainers for more information about our training program and your service dog training goals. We are happy to assist you in achieving them!