Service dogs provide life-enhancing skills to their handlers. These impeccably trained animals help people with disabilities with everyday tasks, from a mobility service dog who turns on lightswitches, to a guide dog who helps a visually impaired individual navigate the world.
Due to the importance of their work, training a service dog can be a very lengthy process. While some pet dog training programs last just a matter of weeks, a service dog candidate is going to take months or even years to be able to perform their duties reliably. As their handler is often completely reliant on the service dog for performing tasks – in what can sometimes be a life-or-death situation – the dog must be able to perform their tasks without fail.
In this article, we’ll look at the training process for a service dog, and estimate how long it may take when all the variables are taken into consideration.
How is a service dog defined by the ADA?
Firstly, it is important to differentiate a service dog from other types of dogs who provide assistance to individuals, such as emotional support animals (ESAs).
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) defines what is classified as a service animal. A service animal is a dog (of any size and any breed) that is trained to perform specific tasks directly related to an individual’s disability. Service dogs are typically allowed to be in public places that pet dogs would otherwise not be permitted.
Emotional support animals are not afforded the same protections as service animals. Providing emotional support, while obviously valuable to the animal’s owner, is not a task that is linked to a disability.
Different types of service dogs
There are many different types of service dogs that can be trained to help individuals with disabilities. These include:
- Guide dogs
- Mobility assistance dogs
- Medical alert dogs
- Autism assistance dogs
- Hearing dogs
- Seizure alert/response dogs
- Psychiatric service dogs
How to train a service dog
To understand how long it takes to train a service dog, we must assess the different components that contribute to the training process.
In fact, the process begins even prior to any training, in selecting the correct dog for the job. Puppies should demonstrate the correct temperament for service dog work, and if necessary, the breed must also be suitable (ex: for mobility service dogs, a medium-to-large breed will need to be selected).
Once the service dog candidate has been selected, here are the stages of training that must be accomplished.
Socialization
A service dog must be able to behave appropriately around other dogs and humans. Appropriate behavior means that they are calm and controlled in a variety of different settings, particularly if much of their work is to be carried out in public. This means that any prospective service dog must display impeccable behavior in any setting, and around any person or animal. This also ensures that the service dog will not become distracted when they are required to perform their task in novel environments.
Obedience
Before any tasks can be trained, a service dog candidate should be well-versed in basic obedience commands. This lays the foundation for the tasks to be trained in the future, and helps to reinforce if the dog is a suitable candidate; if they cannot grasp basic cues like Sit and Down on a regular basis, it is unlikely they will make the step up to more complex commands. Once again, generalizing these obedience behaviors in public and in an array of environments helps to set the dog up for success.
Task training
With the fundamentals in place, task training can begin in earnest (the service dog candidate may have already been exposed to these tasks as part of socialization and obedience work). The tasks required should have been identified at the very beginning of the process. This is where repetition of these tasks is pivotal, as the dog must be able to perform these reliably without hesitation – for example, if a dog cannot locate medication in an emergency situation, or does not respond as anticipated to a seizure, it could have very adverse health outcomes for the handler. It will likely take several months for the service dog candidate to be able to perform their trained tasks perfectly.
Who can train a service dog?
The ADA website points out that a dog does not need to go through a professional training program to become a service dog, nor does the dog need any kind of certification or proof of training. This means that, technically, anyone can train a service dog. However, training a service dog is not an easy feat and should not be underestimated. As this article has already explored, there are numerous phases to training a service dog, each requiring a thorough understanding of how dogs learn and retain information.
With the sheer complexity and time commitment required to turn a candidate into a reliable service dog, many families turn to professional service dog trainers to help them on their journey. Taking into account how difficult the entire process can be, many service dog trainers undertake a professional program of study (such as the Service Dog Trainer program offered here at the School for Dog Trainers) to equip them with the skills they need to offer service dog training.
How long does it actually take to train a service dog?
Our team has vast experience of training service dogs and working alongside service dog teams; a fully-trained service dog can take anywhere from 12-24 months from beginning to end, with the timeframe leaning more toward the upper end of that scale. The actual time will depend on how quickly the dog soaks up the information that is being taught, in addition to the complexity of the tasks and consistency of the training.
Training a service dog is undoubtedly a huge investment of time, but the commitment is worth it when you see the difference that these incredible animals make to the lives of their handlers.