10/05/2015
Recently, I have been receiving many requests to train service dogs for people who state they are not disabled, but would like their dog to be an emotional support dog. In this case, such a dog may become an emotional support dog, but not a service dog. Think of it this way: without the person being disabled, the dog does not have cause to mitigate said missing disability. The dog can do tasks and behave appropriately in public venues, but will not develop as a service dog without a disability to react to/train for.
Task Training
This of course is the part that defines what a service dog is. Without training to do something that mitigates the owner's disability, it isn't a service dog. A task is an individual behavior that the handler can cue with a command (verbal or hand signal). A signal is a trained behavior that is cued by some event nearby (such as the phone ringing or a smoke alarm going off) or by some unconscious behavior of the handler (such as skin picking or the very early stages of a panic attack). Work is more difficult to define clearly. It is a class of related behaviors. The classic example is guiding. Guiding is not a task because because it is not one behavior. The dog is trained to do a group of related behaviors and the dog must execute those behaviors on an "as needed" bases rather than under direct supervision. For example, a guide dog is responsible for identifying obstacles, but on the ground and elevated, for being aware of the width of the team as opposed to his own width, for finding things (curbs, seats, restrooms, exits, doors, elevators), for choosing a path around an obstacle and for yielding the right-of-way to a person with a long cane. With the exception of finding things, all the rest comes from a single command to proceed forward.
Do not fall into the trap of "task shopping," which happens when a person looks at a list of possible tasks and picks and chooses the ones they think would be useful. When you choose tasks that way, you run the risk of choosing tasks that do not actually mitigate your disability and are therefore bonuses rather than actual tasks. A bonus is any trained behavior that is helpful or useful, but does not meet the definition of "task," usually because it doesn't mitigate that specific person's disability. Something that may be a task for one person, might be a bonus instead for a different person, depending on whether or not it is something the person could do for themselves.
A task is:
1. An intentionally trained behavior, not a natural behavior of dogs in general. Choosing a dog that is not naturally affectionate so that you can train it to act affectionate is a very obvious ploy to try to get around real task training and does not qualify a dog as a service dog.
2. Something that the handler cannot do for themselves because of their disability and that mitigates their disability. For example, if you are able to pick up items off the floor yourself, then retrieving dropped objects is not a legal task for you because your disability doesn't prevent you from doing it for yourself. You are certainly free to teach your dog to do any extra things you like, whether you need them because of disability or not, but understand these extra things are bonuses and do not qualify the dog as a service dog.
Another key factor is reasonableness. When you take a service dog into public and into private businesses, you are making life a little more difficult for others, including those with a fear of dogs and those with allergies. Generally the need of a person with a disability to be independent overwhelms the hardships inflicted on others, but not always, if the handler is being unreasonable. For example, if the alarm on your wrist watch or cell phone could as easily remind you to take medication at a certain time each day, and that is the sole purpose of the service dog, then it is more reasonable to use the alarm than the dog because of the impact the dog has on others.
Some service dogs are used for public access, and some are used only at home. Those used only at home are called home-only service dogs. Many (but not all) people with hearing dogs use them only at home. If you only use your service dog at home, it is not necessary to do the public access training, but it is still necessary to do the task training. If all of the tasks your dog performs are done at home, then there is no need for public access at all and it is unreasonable to inflict the presence of the dog on others who would rather not be around dogs. For example, if your dog's only task is to remind you to take medication by leading you to the kitchen or bathroom where you keep your medication, then there is no need to take him with you while shopping because he cannot possibly perform that task without access to where you keep your medication.
Choose appropriate tasks for your specific needs by starting with a list of all of the things you cannot do because of your disability. Prioritize that list so that the things that most interfere with your independence are at the top. Go through the list, item by item and consider what things others do for you to mitigate these impairments. Consider what you might ask a full time helper to do to help you overcome these challenges. Then ask yourself whether a dog would be physically capable of doing those things too. The final step is to work out how to teach the dog to do those helpful behaviors. If it's not obvious to you how to train that, consult an expert trainer, or post on our community forum to ask for suggestions. For example, if you know that you need help reaching for things in the back of the dryer, but don't know how to teach the dog to reach for them, seek help from those with experience teaching dogs how to do things like that.
