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Posted by: Kirsten on 2010-02-21, 17:49:04
There are lots of organizations that place service dogs. Do you mean some sort of matchmaking service where you train the dog and they find a match for it? No, nothing like that. Each dog is custom trained for the individual recipient. It is not possible to adequately train a service dog without ever interviewing or working with the partner the dog is being trained for. Different states have different requirements for service dog trainers. Some states require no certification, some do. Ask your state's attorney general's office what is required in your state. What should you study? First and foremost, study dogs. That means volunteer volunteer volunteer at your local shelter to help rehabilitate dogs with behavior problems. Volunteer with the dog program with your local 4-H dog club. Teach basic dog obedience classes in your community, through your kennel club, for your local pet store or vet, through adult education courses, any which way you can. Compete with your pet dogs, paying particular attention to getting titles in obedience and agility. Next, get out in the community and get to know the people. You'll be working for people with disabilities and with them. So learn how. Learn how to communicate with a person who is deaf. Learn what it is like to navigate when you are blind. Learn about the barriers for people in wheelchairs. Learn how people are treated differently when they have a learning or other cognitive disability. As a service dog trainer, it will be your responsibility not only to communicate with all these people despite their disabilities, it will by your responsibility to understand their disabilities and what kinds of help they are likely to need. You also need to learn to be creative. What will you do if you wind up with a client who is both deaf and in a wheel chair? Not only will you have to teach the dog tasks for both deafness and mobility, you'll also need to teach the dog to do his mobility work with hand signals and his hearing work around the mobility issue. For example, hearing dogs typically poke or paw at the person's leg, but if they can't feel their leg, you'll have to teach him some other signal to use that works for that specific individual person. When you get to college, look for programs in animal behavior, psychology, or sociology. When you get out, apprentice with a program that trains service dogs. Get some guidance from the people who are already out there doing what you want to do. There is no need to reinvent the wheel and figure things out the hard way by trial and error when you can learn from the experience of another. If you can't find a program to apprentice with, try Bergin U. Be aware that service dog training is a lousy career. The hours are long and the pay sucks, that is unless your idea of good pay is knowing you've made a significant improvement in someone else's quality of life. You won't be bringing home a very healthy paycheck, if you bring one home at all. |
