First Five Skills You Should Teach a Service Dog in Training
When you first bring home a new Service Dog candidate, it's easy to become overwhelmed at the sheer volume of "stuff" that needs to be mastered. While every Service Dog's end job may vary, there are foundational behaviors and concepts every working dog should know, no matter his or her specialty. Teams should be adept at skills in addition to the ones presented below (this list is not at all all-inclusive), but these are, without a doubt, the first five skills you should teach any Service Dog in Training.
What is a Service Dog?
In today's culture, many people understand that a Service Dog "helps people." It's all too common, though, for people outside of the Service Dog community to have no idea what Service Dogs do for their people, how to recognize a Service Dog, or how to answer the question, "What is a Service Dog?"