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Training Tutorials

  /  Training Tutorials

For Most Handlers, Interacting With The Public Is The Worst Part of Being Partnered With a Service Dog For most handlers, unless you're an extrovert, interacting with the public is the worst part of being partnered with a Service Dog. Here's a typical scenario: You go out to run a quick errand. Your Service Dog's behavior is always excellent. But when the manager approaches, your palms began to sweat. Fortunately, the manager is educated enough to know what questions he's allowed to ask — and you have taken appropriate steps in order to be educated enough. You breathe a sigh of relief, knowing it could have gone very, very differently. However, not all business owners or employees are fluent with the law as it pertains to Service Dogs. While it can be uncomfortable at times, you have to be prepared to be an advocate for yourself and your Service Dog on some level. When working your Service Dog or SDiT in public, be certain to keep the following points in mind, especially if your Service Dog works "naked" without any gear.   Be Honest About Your Service Dog's Training Level Service Dogs in Training are of course not yet Service Dogs. However a key part of Service Dog training is exposing them to public environments. After all, how else would would any dog ever learn how to behave in public? While Service Dogs are protected by federal law and may accompany their disabled handlers anywhere the general public is allowed to be, Service Dogs in Training are not. It is up to each individual state, community or manager of whatever store or public place you're entering to extend access to your canine partner. Always be honest concerning the status of your partner, and never fudge the facts. Know the laws in your state as well as any areas you frequently travel, particularly if your partner is in training.   Special Service Dog Vests or Harnesses Or Any Other Gear Are Not Required Federal law does not require a Service Dog to wear gear of any kind. Your Service Dog does not have to wear a vest, harness, tag, ID card, collar or any other working equipment identifying your partner as a Service Dog or Service Dog in Training. This is because anyone who uses a Service Dog is disabled — a fact some disabled handlers choose to be discreet about. However, the simple fact remains that the public is conditioned

The same behavior chain used to teach your Service Dog to open or close a door. For those with physical disabilities, training your Service Dog to close doors can be incredibly helpful. Whether you're not steady on your feet or even if it just takes a while for you to move across the room, training your Service Dog to help with basic everyday tasks can be a huge help. Opening or closing doors is a task that's easy and straightforward to teach, so grab your partner and get ready to have some fun!

Whether your partner assists you during a seizure, detects high or low blood sugar, pulls your wheelchair or performs any other job, learning how to teach a Service Dog to retrieve a beverage from the fridge and training your partner to do so can mitigate many disabilities. The training can be difficult, but with patience, a sense of humor and lots of really good treats, your Service Dog will be retrieving drinks* in no time!

Dog potty training. Toilet training. House training. Whatever you call it, it's one of the most basic, if not the most basic, things your new family member needs to learn. And you should begin with your puppy as soon as you arrive home. Puppies need to go to the bathroom frequently and your success and theirs depends on anticipating their needs — which at first can seem like full time job. But don't worry, with proper training, puppies learn fast! Crate training We highly recommend crate training your new puppy. Be prepared for a drama show though! Sometime between 16,000 and 32,000 years ago when dogs learned how to live with humans, they also learned how to work our emotions. At first, your dog will whine, beg and cry but be strong! Allowing your puppy to learn how to be alone for a little while and self soothe is a crucial skill, much like for human babies. Crate training helps with a number of important issues — and gets them ready for one of the most important, life-changing and underused things you can train a pet, Service or Working Dog: tether training. In the wild, a dog's den is their home — a cozy place to sleep, hide from danger and raise a family. Your crate is your dog's den, a place where they can find comfort and solitude instead of tearing up your house while you're out running errands. However, today we're talking about using a crate for house-training since dogs, by their nature, don't like to "go" where they sleep. Choose a crate that is appropriate for how large your dog will be in about a year, but when they are a puppy you may need to divide their space with a cardboard box so that they only have enough room to turn around and sleep. Come up with a command to teach your dog to enter the crate such as "kennel" or "kennel up." Do not use the crate as a punishment. It's a happy little bedroom for your dog. If you use the crate to punish your dog, they will eventually come to fear it and not want to enter. Do not leave your dog in the crate too long and be prepared to arrange your life around this. Puppies need to be taken out to eliminate about every two hours and leaving your dog cooped up too long may cause

When it comes to Service Dog training, all of the hundreds of available tasks can be boiled down to 7 essential behaviors. One of those behaviors, targeting, is an easy foundation behavior every Service Dog should know. By learning how to teach a Service Dog to target, you'll be able to start task work with a solid base upon which to build.

For many Service Dog teams, formal retrieving is one of the most important tasks. Unfortunately, it's also one of the hardest Service Dog tasks to teach. In the professional dog training world, a formal retrieve consists of picking up or taking, holding and carrying any object pointed out to the dog until he's told to release it to the trainer's hand. While it takes patience, time and a good sense of humor, you, too, can learn to teach your Service Dog to retrieve.

With a clicker, some treats and a little patience, you can teach a dog to do almost anything quickly, easily and with minimal stress. Check out the attached video to learn how to teach a dog to jump through a hoop and jump over your leg in two directions.

Once your partner will take a dumbbell out of your hand and hold it under a variety of circumstances, it's time to teach him to pick it up off the ground and to introduce new objects. By the end of Part Three, your partner will be able to complete a formal Service Dog or obedience retrieve!

You know it takes work and practice to train a Service Dog to retrieve. You’ve managed to get your Service Dog to mouth at the dumbbell, but now you’re stuck. No matter what you try, your Service Dog keeps spitting the dumbbell out immediately. In this “Train a Service Dog to Retrieve” installment, learn how to continue to train your partner’s formal retrieve and how to easily and positively obtain the ever-so-elusive “hold” behavior.