Testing in Service Dog Training
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
Everyone is familiar with spotting “fake” service dogs in stores, airports, and other spaces that are not typically dog-friendly. These dogs are an issue not only for the general public trying to shop, travel, or go to the dentist, but are a safety concern for actual working service dogs in that same space. While this is a larger issue than one blog can address, we will discuss one specific aspect of the topic today: testing.
In the United States, the governing laws for assistance dogs (service dogs here in the U.S.), do not require any sort of test. The reason—and a good one at that—is because requiring an in-person test would be restrictive to the population that needs these dogs. People with disabilities may not be able to travel to a test site, and with the general size of the U.S., it would likely place some people outside of a reasonable travel zone to a test site. Thus, the laws about service dogs are written with inclusion in mind.
Service Dog Restrictions and Requirements in the U.S.
However, this means that service dogs are an unrestricted entity and have no definite parameters for their behavior in public. Organizations like Assistance Dogs International (ADI) do provide a test to their organizations; however, the list of ADI organizations is limited by some of their rules, and cannot include many programs in the U.S.* The ADA states that service dogs must be “under control” at all times. It does not elaborate on what that means in terms of behavior beyond not barking, aggressive behavior, or things of that nature. There are no requirements such as heeling close to the handler, or not interacting with passing people; there are simply no specifics.
You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover
This is the area that opens up major issues for “fake”-spotting and for legitimate service dogs. The general public has a perception of how a service dog should look or act. Anything outside of that perception becomes a “fake” when it genuinely could be a real, tasking service dog. The law does not restrict how dogs must look or act, and so standards are all over the place. It is completely possible that a legitimate task-trained service dog looks like a small doodle wearing a flexi leash and sitting on their handler’s lap. Here’s why:
Service dogs can be any size. Small dogs may be better suited to some handlers' housing; they cost less in upkeep, which may be better for their handler's budget; and they are easier to transport because they take up less space.
Different tasks may require different equipment. A dog on a flexi leash may use that flexible length to retrieve items farther away from their handler, hit an accessibility button, or a variety of other tasks.
Different tasks may require different positions relative to the handler. Dogs of any size may be on their handler’s lap to do a task called deep pressure therapy. This task helps to activate the parasympathetic nervous system and calm their handler.
Our hypothetical little Poodle mix who appears to be cuddling their handler in a store may be working just as hard as a Labrador guiding their handler down a city street. It is not possible to determine if a dog is a “real” service dog by how they look.
Our Testing Process
While the law does not help us navigate what is expected of a service dog in public spaces, many programs develop standards that go beyond “under control.” Here at Medi-Dogs, we find testing to be an important part of the training process. We test dogs at least three times while they are in our program, beginning with an initial evaluation to determine whether they have the correct temperament to be a service dog.
Service Dog Prospects
After their evaluation, dogs become Service Dog Prospects and begin working towards our Readiness Test, which determines whether they are ready to begin training in non-dog friendly spaces. Until they pass the Readiness Test, our dogs only train in pet-friendly spaces. In these spaces, the public expects to see dogs with a variety of skills and levels of polish, and the dogs are typically unvested. They access these spaces while they build the skills they need to access non-pet friendly spaces. We follow this protocol even though Service Dogs in Training in our state have the same access rights as Service Dogs. No one with a task-trained service dog deserves to have a little untrained puppy distracting them at the doctor’s office.
Service Dogs in Training
Once the dogs pass the Readiness Test, they get an in-training vest and begin work in spaces that are not pet-friendly to prepare for their public access test. At this stage, they must have solid heeling, leave-its, stays and settles. Their basic skills are polished enough that they do not require a great deal of management or support. The expectation is that our Service Dogs in Training will not distract a working service dog or impede the public in any way.
Service Dogs
Our dogs end their training program with us by taking the ADI Public Access Test. While we are not an ADI organization, we do utilize their test at this stage to uphold the same appropriately high standards. Once dogs have completed their task training and passed the ADI Public Access Test, dogs are given Service Dog vests. Only at this point are dogs identified as Service Dogs. After graduation, all dogs in our program receive 5 hours (or more!) of continued training each year to ensure they maintain their training to our standards.
Why All the Rules?
Why do we follow this testing process and these restrictions if the law doesn’t require them? In short, it is the right thing to do. Not everyone wants a dog interacting with them in the produce aisle of the grocery store. Not everyone is comfortable with dogs, some people are allergic to them, and some others have a working dog themselves. We think they all have the right to not have service dog prospects overrunning their lives.
Dogs will never be perfect, and there must be room for some grace. A dog may sniff a distraction from time to time, get up from a settle, ignore a cue or make a mistake. We are not asking dogs to be robots, nor can we have that expectation. However, across the board we are looking for dogs to be consistently focused, calm, under control and engaged with their job.
The Benefits of Testing
Medi-Dogs uses tests and test eligibility to gauge how consistent a dog is. If we see consistent performance across multiple lessons, then we will recommend that the dog attempt their next test. If we are not yet seeing consistency across sessions, then it is considerably less likely that the dog would pass. While a handler could set an otherwise inconsistent dog up to pass by exercising them a ton, having special treats, etc., those extras likely won't make enough difference on the day of the test that they will be successful either in the test or the next stage of training.
If we do not recommend testing until we see consistency in a dog's performance, why do we need to test? Testing gives us a clear rubric for measuring multiple teams’ skills and abilities against our program's standards at each stage of training. Moreover, the fact that a test is a snapshot in time has tremendous value. We see strengths and weaknesses—the good and the bad together. If the dog's performance is reliable on a given day, we can better trust that the consistency in all skills that we have seen over a period of time will hold up.
Raising the Bar Protects Access
We do not support fake spotting, nor making laws that limit access to service dogs for those that need them. However, dogs that enter non dog-friendly spaces without the skills to keep the public and other working teams safe are a real issue. We encourage other programs to hold their dogs to higher standards and to use testing to have an impartial view of their dogs’ skills. Owner trainers who are not working with a program ought to have specific, high standards as well. Each unfortunate incident increases the risk that federal or state restrictions will tighten and limit access to service dogs. Just because the laws are loose right now does not mean they will stay that way. Protect your current right to train your own dog.
* One such rule is that ADI is only open to nonprofits that place more than 10 dogs per year. Smaller programs and for-profit organizations are thereby not eligible for ADI membership.