Service Dogs: Self-Training for People with Disabilities

Service dogs provide people with disabilities assistance with daily routines. Non profits exist nationwide and internationally to train service dogs for adoption. However, long waiting lists or long distances from academies may deter some people with disabilities from adopting a service dog. However training courses and resources have been designed to help owners, with assistance from professional trainers, train dogs from home.

The advantages to home training include no wait time for the dog, no fees involving travel, and access rights for you and the dog.

The disadvantage is that home training relies on wiliness and participation from owners. Even with the help of a professional trainer, owners need patience with to train dogs. In addition, home training requires a time commitment on the part of owners.

Owners will need to invest in some extra equipment such as training leashes for pulling wheelchairs and jackets to notify the public of the dog’s service status. Training manuals and a training DVD entitled Teamwork II are available to assist owners. Purchase of these materials or like materials may be made from a service dog organization, book store, or online retailer such as Amazon.com

For one man’s first-hand account of self-training his own service dog plus resources and helpful links visit http://sdog.danawheels.net/ot-adog.shtml.