How to Train a Service Dog Without a Professional Trainer

A well-trained service dog is truly a valuable asset to a person with a disability. Service dogs always accompany their owners to everywhere, including public places where dogs are not normally allowed, such as shops, libraries, museums, theatres, hospitals, cinemas. Unfortunately, the waiting list for service dogs is too long due to the need and usefulness of these dogs. If you are in need of a service dog and can’t wait long, you can find a way to train your dog yourself.

Table of Contents

Evaluation of potential service dogs

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Find a dog of the right age. It is difficult to know if a puppy under 6 months old is smart enough and has the ability to focus to be a good service dog. The “drop” rate at service dog training facilities is quite high, even when there are experts in the selection of candidate dogs.

Buying a puppy for the purpose of training to become a service dog is just a matter of luck. Perhaps it is better to look for a dog that is young, properly trained, and has formed a personality.

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Assess your dog’s health. Service dogs need to be in good health to meet the demands of the job. For example, if a dog has arthritis and has difficulty walking, it’s not fair that you put the responsibility of responding to the doorbell. Similarly, dogs with conditions such as diabetes will have unique needs and may not be able to perform their best service role.

When you invest a lot of time in training your dog, you need to make sure it’s in optimal health. Take your dog to the vet for a routine checkup twice a year, vaccinations on schedule, and preventive treatment for parasites. Depending on where you live, treatment for parasites may include tick and flea treatment or heartworm prevention.

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Assess whether the dog is intelligent and eager to please the owner. These are the qualities required of a trainable dog, making the task of training a dog easier and more enjoyable. Find a young dog, notice how it approaches you calmly without fear. Your dog’s body language should show confidence, for example, tail wagging, tail wagging, walking straight towards you (don’t go around the edge of the room) and always keeping his head up (don’t lower his head and get scared). .

The best service dogs are intelligent and love to please their owners, and these traits have nothing to do with their size. Any breed, from a small dog like a Chihuahua to a dog as large as a Great Dane can fill this role with the right temperament. ^{[1] X Service Dog Training Research Source . Bogetti.}

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Ask the dog’s owner how well the dog has been trained. If the dog has basic training, you can try telling him to sit and stay still. Watch to see if it stirs and looks around (easily distracted) or stares at you (ready to please its owner). Does it react quickly or slowly (not very well, as quick reactions are important for service dogs).

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Assess whether the dog is communicative and bold in social situations. Service dogs must be bold in many situations and with everyone. You may have a hard time if your dog is nervous and scared in certain situations. Fearful dogs will have closed body language such as cowering, looking away, slouching posture, tail tucked between the legs.

A frightened dog may not stop licking its lips, and if forced to leave its comfort zone, it may growl. In contrast, a confident dog will wag its tail and wag when approaching people, waiting to be petted.

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Determine if the dog is docile and not overly defensive. Dogs that are aggressive, territorial, or watchful often do not make good service dogs. You will have to spend more time controlling the dog than getting his help. ^{[2] X Service Dog Training Research Source . Bogetti.}

Aggressive dogs will bar their fangs or raise their lips, and the fur along their spines can stand up. It can look directly at people with a confrontational attitude and growl.
In contrast, a docile dog is more likely to prefer contact and to rub his head in your hand than to show signs of aloofness, such as growling.

Service dog training

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Sterilize the dog, if it has not been neutered. All service dogs are neutered, as female dogs won’t be able to work when they’re in heat (you’ll have to deal with a bunch of male dogs stalking her), and males will easily distracted by issues related to territorial ownership. In addition, spayed dogs are generally less aggressive, which is very important for service dogs.

Sterilize the dog when it is 4-6 months old to prevent the female dog from heat and the male dog from being distracted. This is taken as a general guideline because it works well and takes much less effort.
If you are experienced and your dog has not had the opportunity to come into contact with any unneutered dogs (this should not be taken lightly) then it is best to do this when the dog is 1-2 years old. , depending on the extent of the dog’s bony disc development (usually occurs earlier in small dogs and later in large dogs). This will help strengthen the dog’s bones, which is especially important for some service dogs that do heavy lifting for their owners (like helping the owner move, for example).
Depending on the weight of the dog, the price of dog sterilization ranges from 200,000 VND to 1 million VND.

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Teach your dog basic commands. The service dog will have to be able to follow the sit, hold, lie down, and close commands. It also needs to obediently walk beside the operator at all times. This means that you must always control your dog.

You can give verbal commands or hand signals. Teach your dog by holding the treat up in front of the dog’s nose, then holding the treat up high, around the back of his head. When the dog looks up at the reward, his bottom should touch the floor. Then press the clicker, say the command “sit” and reward the dog. ^{[3] X Research Source Reaching the Animal Mind. Karen Pryor. Publisher: Scribner Book Company}
The near callback command can be difficult to teach if the dog is distracted, so start teaching your dog indoors, away from other pets, or in a closed yard. Call the dog to come near you, click when it comes, repeat “come over”. If your dog doesn’t show up or is slow, never yell at him. If you do, it will be even more reluctant next time.
In essence, training a service dog is the same as teaching good behavior and discipline to regular dogs, but you’ll have to take it a step further. The role of a service dog is very important to your safety, so if you do not have experience in training it, seek the assistance of a professional dog trainer to ensure that you are not teaching your dog bad behaviors. bad vi or cause it to be overloaded.

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Consider using a clicker to train your dog. The principle of this method is to use clicks to mark the exact moment when the dog behaves well and reward it. Your dog will associate the click with a reward and enthusiastically do it for a reward when he hears the click. ^{[4] X In Defense of Dogs Research Source . John Bradbury. Publisher: Penguin}

This method encourages rewarding good behavior, helping the dog to remember and eagerly repeat the action for a reward. Punishing your dog will only make him afraid of you and not help your goals. ^{[5] X Research Source Reaching the Animal Mind. Karen Pryor. Publisher: Scribner Book Company}

READ More: How to Treat Fleas in Dogs

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Teach your dog to be obedient when on a leash as well as without. Service dogs must be completely obedient, whether led or not.

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Teach your dog not to celebrate other people. Service dogs must focus solely on you and not on anyone else. This step is extremely important because you may need immediate help, and if the dog is running around welcoming others, it will not meet your needs.

Ask a friend to assist you when teaching your dog this. The friend will slowly approach while you command the dog to sit and look at you. If it turns to look at an approaching person, tell them to stop (while ignoring the dog). When the dog’s attention returns to you, click and reward it.
Repeat the training sessions, and eventually the dog will learn that focusing his attention on strangers won’t reward him (and isn’t worth it), and focus on you for rewards.
In addition, you also need to teach your dog not to pay attention to cats, food falling on the ground, and strangers talking to it or vehicles (especially moving cars). You are the only object it has to care about.

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Teach your dog when duty time is up. In some cases, service dogs can still go out and play. Teach the dog to signal the end of the duty period.

To teach your dog this, you should invite a friend over to play. Have your friend bring a toy dog, and when your dog looks in the direction of the visitor, click click, say “play” and reward it. This signals to the dog that it can keep moving forward.

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Teach your dog special skills. The special tasks you need to teach your dog will depend on your disability. If you are severely deaf, it can be helpful to teach your dog to alert you to the doorbell, the phone ringing, or the smoke alarm. Similarly, if you have difficulty walking, you may need to teach your dog to pick up small items in the house for you, such as keys, remote controls, or phones.

Teach your dog small steps. The process of training a dog to get a key includes teaching the dog to recognize the key, pick up the key, bring it to you, and give it to you. To teach your dog what a key is, place the set of keys on the floor where he can clearly see. Every time it comes to discover the key, click click, say “key” and reward it. Repeat the above steps each time the dog approaches the key. You will see that the dog will be more active towards the keys, each time you say the “key” command, and when it continues to move forward, click click.
Now you will need to teach your dog to pick up the keys. Maybe you should attach a softball to the keychain so your dog can pick it up without hurting his teeth. Put the keychain in the dog’s mouth, click, say the command “hold” and reward the dog. Repeat this step regularly for several days. Now put the keychain a little further away, command the dog to come near, say “key” and ask him to pick it up, say the word “hold”. Then use the near command to have it bring the key back to you. When the dog has returned, command him to sit and release the key. Maybe you should give it a better reward to deserve it to drop the key. Click click, say the command “give” and reward the dog.
Each training session should last only 5-10 minutes at a time and do it twice a day. Intersperse with other training sessions and make them fun so your dog doesn’t get bored.

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Teach your dog how to approach public places. Good dog behavior is key to getting people to accept it and welcome back you or other groups with service dogs. These behaviors include:

go to the toilet only on command
don’t touch things with attractive shapes and smells (especially important when going to the store)
walk calmly beside you in public at all times (unless you don’t need to walk beside you to assist an owner with a disability)
Never be aggressive towards people or other service dogs.

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Get a certificate for the dog. Although the law does not require your dog to be officially recognized as a service dog, it can help reduce embarrassment when you are accompanying your service dog to places where dogs are not normally allowed.

Note that there is no legal or required way to obtain a certificate. If a website says you need to pay to get a legit certificate, it’s probably a scam.
Find out if there is an agency that controls a particular type of service dog (such as a hearing dog or a guide dog for the blind) and ask if there is an appraiser there to prepare for licensing. Your dog doesn’t.
Get a confirmation that you need a service dog. The certification can be a letter from your doctor confirming your disability and how important a service dog is to you.
Take your dog to the vet for a check-up and get a certificate that your dog is healthy and well-trained.
Send the file to the authorities and wait for them to guide further.

Advice

You can ask someone you know who loves dogs to help you train your dog, but be careful not to let the dog get too attached to that person without focusing on you.
Call a dog training organization for help if they do not provide you with a service dog or train for you. They can give you advice by phone or email if you’re having trouble with the coaching process.
The International Association of Assistance Dog Partners provides information on dog training, including behaviors and training tasks to help with a variety of disabilities, legal matters related to service dogs, finding candidate dogs, finding service dog organizations and more. ^{[6] X Research Sources}
Puppies are more easily distracted but also learn faster. You can try teaching your puppy to quickly mature.

Warning

Dogs require long-term care. You need to be mentally prepared to raise a dog for up to 20 years.
Realistic thinking. If you have difficulty training a dog due to a disability, do not try, because this job requires a lot of time and effort to train a dog to the level that it can be a service dog.
Seek the help of a professional service dog trainer, unless you are experienced in this. If you know how to teach your dog any behavior without the help of a trainer, you will probably have no trouble teaching your service dog.

Steps

Evaluation of potential service dogs

Service dog training

Advice

Warning

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