A Service Dog Training Checklist for Your Team’s Goals

Build a service-dog training plan around the tasks that help with your disability and the behavior needed for your daily environments. A long checklist is not a qualification requirement.

How to use this checklist

Choose the skills that matter for your daily life. Beside each, note where the dog can do it comfortably, what help it currently needs and one small next step. For example: “settles beside my chair in the kitchen; still needs frequent rewards; next, try a brief practice in a second quiet room.”

Use the training-plan guide for the overall process. This checklist helps you choose individual practice goals; it is not a pass/fail assessment or certification.

Foundation behavior

• Responding to a familiar attention cue.
• Comfortable loose-leash movement and recall.
• Waiting at doors and settling in an appropriate space.
• Leaving food and other distractions alone.
• House training and a predictable bathroom routine.
• Calm behavior around people, other animals, transport, and everyday sounds.

Begin with AP’s five foundation skills, then use public-practice readiness to assess the next setting.

Possible task areas

• Retrieving dropped or needed items that are safe to handle.
• Bringing a phone or an appropriate emergency-contact device.
• Opening a suitable door or drawer with safe equipment.
• Operating an adapted light switch or button.
• Alerting to a relevant sound and leading the handler to its source.
• Taking a trained action to interrupt or respond to a psychiatric episode.
• Performing an individualized reminder or response that addresses a disability-related need.

These are possibilities, rather than instructions to teach every dog every task. Use an appropriate trainer to assess suitability, equipment, and reliable performance.

For focused next steps, see starting a retrieve and psychiatric task examples.

Physical and medical limits

The original list suggested catching falls, supporting body weight, bracing during transfers, and using a dog as a substitute for mobility equipment. Those instructions have been removed. Discuss your mobility needs with appropriate clinical professionals and consider tasks that reduce bending, reaching, or fetching without loading the dog’s body.

Medical-alert performance varies. An alert does not replace a medical device or treatment plan, and advance seizure prediction cannot be guaranteed. Keep medication and small items in suitable secure containers rather than asking a dog to mouth loose pills or coins.

Include your own learning in the training plan. Service Dog Standards works alongside the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), explaining training and behavior standards and the human handler’s ongoing responsibilities. Reviewing that foundation at the start gives you and your trainer shared expectations. Use them to plan consistent practice, appropriate care and the individual skills you both need to work safely together.

Practice in manageable steps

Use rewards and gradual increases in difficulty. Choose a few useful goals, record progress, and adjust for the dog’s health and comfort. The dog’s training should serve the partnership’s needs.

When you need a teaching resource, compare the audience and scope in AP’s service dog training books guide.