# Ceritfying a Service/Therapy Dog in Can?



## Shara Slorstad (Oct 19, 2008)

I know there was a thread about this regarding the USA, and I read through it, and also did a search on the WWW but couldn't seem to find my answer.

I'm just curious as to what it takes to certify a service dog or a therapy dog in Canada? I would asume it's roughly the same as the States, except replace "CGC" with "CGN".


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## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

It is the same. TDI (Therapy Dogs International) has dogs working in Canada and other countries.

http://www.tdi-dog.org/whatdo.html


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## Shara Slorstad (Oct 19, 2008)

Thank you!


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## Geoff Empey (Jan 8, 2008)

Shara in Canada there is quite a lot of hoops for a dog to be considered a service dog in Canada. The law is in favour of certified dogs but the grey area is actually getting them certified. Believe me I have been trying the local municipal government throws all sorts of snags at me. Therapy dog is much easier but not the same thing and doesn't have the same rights as a service dog.


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## Shara Slorstad (Oct 19, 2008)

Geoff Empey said:


> Shara in Canada there is quite a lot of hoops for a dog to be considered a service dog in Canada. The law is in favour of certified dogs but the grey area is actually getting them certified. Believe me I have been trying the local municipal government throws all sorts of snags at me. Therapy dog is much easier but not the same thing and doesn't have the same rights as a service dog.


Yeah, I know the differences between Therapy Dogs and Service Dogs.

I was asking because I'm very interested in service dogs, it's something I've always been interested in. I went to Canada West Canine Centre where I was introduced to a numberous amount of fields, and one of which was Service Dogs. My certificate says I can train them but I don't generally tell people that part because our instructor claimed he didn't have the equipment he needed to teach it to us properly (even without the equipment I feel he could have gotten into it more and chose not to for his own personal preferences... we spent more time on areas HE was into *rolls eyes*). All we really learned was what different service dogs are used for and how to teach a dog how to heel next to a wheelchair.

I was very disapointed because this is a field I would consider getting into. In the meantime I'm going to do my research and when the right time comes I'll contact local groups and see how to get started.

I asked about Therapy Dogs because this is something I've thought about getting into with my own dogs numberous times. They are both very affectionate and social dogs (one more so than the other, the one I would consider to use more than the other) and I think with the proper training they could excelle. I think that both service dogs and therapy dogs play a very important role and I think it's wonderful what they can do for people!

I've tried contacting a few organizations with questions regarding either Service Dogs or Therapy Dogs and I keep geting redirected to another organization. I'm sure I'll find the right person to talk to eventually...

Right now, I'm just curious is all :razz:


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## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

In the USA, you can apprentice under a program that trains, or be a fabulous trainer and hope to get hired on, or...

In the USA, a Service Dog is not required to be certified. So here, the third option is to TRAIN. Are there owner-trained Service Dogs in Canada? Working with someone who is training their own Service Dog is a way to get a feel for it, and to practice communicating with a person with a disability. However, it is common (IME) to end up working with a dog that is competely unfit for the work.

Practice task training on your own dogs. Pick a type of service that interests you, then train your own dog for it. I would suggest tasks for a mobility Service Dog first. They're fun, they make great tricks, and they're helpful. Plus, you will be training totally hands off, so you will learn a lot about working with a dog without constantly helping or being close to the dog. You'll be forced to teach targeting well.

Practice keeping training logs/journals. It took me a few tries to get something decent that I can use for my own reference. It probably wouldn't help much in court. I need to improve how I do this.

Learn all you can about writing legally binding contracts as this will come in handy. You would want to make a contractual agreement with the owner of the dog (for owner-trained) or with the handler of the dog (for placement) to protect yourself, your interest in the dog, and the dog.

Know the laws and, more importantly, know what holds up in court. 

OT - I'd be curious what your instructor said about heeling with a wheelchair. A dog that heels well and has a good flip finish won't need anything special. I take that back - if the handler is in a manual wheelchair - the dog should come into a heel position on cue so the handler does not have to stop to get the dog back into a correct heel. This is important if the dog is also being used to pull the wheelchair.

Geoff - What problems are you running into?


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## Geoff Empey (Jan 8, 2008)

Anne Vaini said:


> In the USA, a Service Dog is not required to be certified. So here, the third option is to TRAIN. Are there owner-trained Service Dogs in Canada?
> 
> Geoff - What problems are you running into?


Well it is the owner trained service dog that the local municipal government won't accept. They do the licensing of the dog. 

You see I have trained her to brace me (stairs etc) and pick up stuff I drop. But since I trained her they won't recognize it, they want a certification from a place that trains Service dogs, the problem is any of the businesses/organizations that trains service dogs here won't certify a dog that they didn't train. So I am caught in a catch 22 situation. 

My only option is to take the Doctor's prescription, her CGN, BH and CSAU Temperament test with a bubble gum machine accreditation from an American organization like http://www.servicedogsamerica.org/ or the like and do it that way. But me I'd like to do it right but I'm thinking that the bubble gum machine accreditation is the only way around the local bureaucracy sad to say.


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## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

Geoff,

Do you have training records on your dog? Here, if a dog has been trained tasks and public access for a documented 120 hours over a minimum of 6 months, and at least 30 hours of these for public access, you won't meet much opposition as far as the dog's qualifications.

Are you talking about a city dog license or a Service Dog certification that the local government issues? 

Here, I faxed my dog's training log over to city hall and they issued her a regular city dog license for free. (Nice little state law here - no animal licensing fees for service animals.) The license is noted as a Service Dog so when her placement goes through, the new handler will just take in her current license to his city and they will issue him a new license free-of-charge.

I know of a person who refuses to keep a training log and she has had issues with the city licensing and animal control as a result of it. While she is correct that her under ADA here, her disability cannot be questioned, she forgets that her dog's qualifications CAN be questioned.


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## Geoff Empey (Jan 8, 2008)

Anne Vaini said:


> Do you have training records on your dog? Here, if a dog has been trained tasks and public access for a documented 120 hours over a minimum of 6 months, and at least 30 hours of these for public access, you won't meet much opposition as far as the dog's qualifications.
> 
> Are you talking about a city dog license or a Service Dog certification that the local government issues?
> 
> Here, I faxed my dog's training log over to city hall and they issued her a regular city dog license for free. (Nice little state law here - no animal licensing fees for service animals.) The license is noted as a Service Dog so when her placement goes through, the new handler will just take in her current license to his city and they will issue him a new license free-of-charge.


That is the way it works here to. I regretfully haven't kept training logs and as for the public access requirements that has never been made clear to me by anyone. That's something I will need to jump on. 

It's also for both the city dog license and service dog certification same bureaucracy, same crap, same passing of the buck. The just want me to go away LOL! 

I have a training log from CKC but it is more oriented for CDX and Utility type of stuff. 

Do you use something like that or something different? Would you have any examples or ideas for me about your training log?


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## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

*Re: Certifying a Service Dog in Canada / Training Logs*

My journal/log definitely needs improvement for my own use. I never want to defend my training in court, I'm a believer in CYA.

I keep a running thread on this board for my own information. It's pretty crude. I think it should have percent success (How many times that I gave the cue and it was performed accurately) and details on shaping a behavior (what was the goal of the session?). I should chat with some of the LEO on this board and see what they use for their K9 partners.

My other log is just for times. I made a table with 4 columns: Date, Task, Location, Length and a running total.

Because the more description journal is spotty at best, the simple log has been very helpful for me to go back and see why I'm having problems in a certain area. 

Maybe someone can show me how to attach a file to a post so you can see the log?

I am working on a new log, but I'm not sure how I will structure it. I need something that will make sense to the average person.


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## Shara Slorstad (Oct 19, 2008)

Anne Vaini said:


> In the USA, you can apprentice under a program that trains, or be a fabulous trainer and hope to get hired on, or...
> 
> In the USA, a Service Dog is not required to be certified. So here, the third option is to TRAIN. Are there owner-trained Service Dogs in Canada? Working with someone who is training their own Service Dog is a way to get a feel for it, and to practice communicating with a person with a disability. However, it is common (IME) to end up working with a dog that is competely unfit for the work.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the detailed reply!

I think that if I choose to get into it, I will probably go to an organization and see about being trained by them. Even if in the meantime I learn everything I can on my own, I still would prefer to have someone who's been there, done that, teach me the ropes.

Actually your training log on here inspired me to teach my boys some stuff. Nothing too fancy shmancy right now, and it's only our third day of training... but they're learning to pick up objects and cary them and hand them to me, and am starting to do a bit of name association. Linkin is really not catching on, but Coal's picking it up quickly and with enthusiasm! I don't plan on getting them certified or anything, or attempt to bring them into places they're not allowed in and claim they're service dogs ;-) It's just for fun and purely for my learning sake, and as a way to teach them something knew and work their doggy brains!

Like I said, my instructor didn't go into depths with the service dog stuff, and I was very, very disapointed with that (everything else about the course was great though, and some areas were VERY indepth!). We basically just got in some wheelchairs and had the dog walk in a heel and learn to be aware of the chair. I remember I was amazed with Linkin's reaction. He's a very high strung dog and was only 8 months old at the time so very puppyish, but as soon as I got in that chair and told him to heel he was a completely different dog. Very calm and down to business. Listened perfectly and didn't jump around being the crazy dog I know him to be!

I have a "Dog Blog" online that I use for basic training, and have tried to update as much as possible but sometimes forget for weeks on end. I've been using this to document what I teach the dogs for service dog stuff. How exactly do your logs work? Do you just describe what you taught, how you taught it, and how the dog is doing and how the dog reacted? Are you as descriptive as possible, or basicaly point blank.

When I was at CWCC our instructor had is do tracking logs, and told us to keep the short and simple. I prefer as much detail as I can remember from the lesson so when I go back and look at it I know exactly what I may have done right (or wrong) and things that we may need to improve on, certain cues I may have forgotten, or to simply see how far we've come.


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## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

> I have a "Dog Blog" online that I use for basic training, and have tried to update as much as possible but sometimes forget for weeks on end. I've been using this to document what I teach the dogs for service dog stuff. How exactly do your logs work? Do you just describe what you taught, how you taught it, and how the dog is doing and how the dog reacted? Are you as descriptive as possible, or basicaly point blank.



http://www.workingdogforum.com/vBulletin/f35/service-dog-training-7988/

When I have been more detailed, it has just gotten me confused! :lol:


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