Default Behaviors for Service Dogs

This list often surprises people because this is not the same list as you would have for an obedience trained dog.

Follow

A service dog must learn to follow you. This means that it’s focus is on you, not the ground, not other dogs.  This behavior starts by teaching puppies to follow you and stay with you.

But you also need to teach your dog to ignore anything unique or different. Dogs are naturally curious. They want to explore and investigate. This is a natural behavior that helps them avoid danger. When dogs are on leash they cannot explore so they often become reactive.

Instead of working with a dog for several months and then hoping it will not become reactive about 8 – 12 moths.  Instead, patiently teach the dog to ignore.

Disinterest

We start by teaching dogs to leave it. Then we teach them to ignore things, even scary things. If you do this right, by about 15 – 18 months old, your dog will be disinterested in their surroundings when working.

Drop on Stop

An obedience trained dog waits until it’s owner tells them to sit or down. But, this requires you to micromanage your dog every moment of the day. It is stressful for you. It is stressful for your dog. Instead, we teach the dogs to lay down and go to sleep when we stop moving.

When drop becomes a default, comfortable behavior, then there is no need to teach a stay and worry about whether your dog will stay.

Calm

This is the most wonderful gift you can give your dog. Teaching it to remain calm and focused on you. Teaching your dog that it doesn’t need to fear people or other dogs. You will start teaching calm, or stress, from the first day your dog comes home to live with you.

Teaching calm requires patience and consistence. If you are correcting, even giving a leash jerk when out walking can increase stress, reducing your dog’s ability to remain calm.

Active Focus

I call this behavior active focus because we often teach dogs a form of passive focus. Passive focus means the dog is responding to your engagement to it. Instead, teach the dog that you are a team that works together. Teach the dog to follow your lead.

Active focus is not difficult to teach, but it does require patience and consistent reinforcing when your dog is good. This can be difficult for handlers to learn because we often ignore our dog’s good behavior and only respond when our dog is being bad, ie. Acting out in annoying or embarrassing behavior.

None of these skills are difficult or even ‘secrets’ of dog training. They are commonly used in the working dog world. They are an attitude, that your dog is your team mate.