How To Properly Document A Service Dog

Documenting owner-grooming of a service dog serves 2 equally important purposes. First, it may at some bespeak go necessary to prove that your canis familiaris meets the legal requirements to be a service dog and, as an owner/trainer, you will have to provide this as you don't have the protection of a trainer or a programme to do this for you lot. 2d, it can be a valuable tool to make your training more effective, efficient, and comprehensive. At that place is no standard for how to document possessor-preparation of a service dog, but a combination of approaches can help y'all cover all the bases and exist prepared for annihilation you might need.

Disclaimer: Nothing in this article is intended every bit legal advice. Information technology is the opinion of a service domestic dog trainer and meant as instruction on how and why documenting possessor-training of a service domestic dog tin can be useful. For legal communication, consult a lawyer.

Owner-Preparation is Legal in the Us

The United states of america is very rare amid other countries in the globe in that it has legislated (and protected in example law) the correct for people with disabilities to railroad train their own service canis familiaris and does not require certification or testing of the service dog. In the United states, claiming your disability correct to public access with your service dog is quite like shooting fish in a barrel – often referred to equally an "award system" – as covered by the ADA titles 2 and III and the 2010 Revised Requirements. No 1 may ask you lot for more than than answers to the "two questions" for public admission. Withal, for work, housing, and aeroplane travel (as covered by the ADA title I, the FHA, and the ACAA respectively), information technology can be a bit more complicated and crave some documentation. In addition, should an possessor/trainer always detect themselves in court (generally because they or someone else filed adjust over a denial of their correct to public access), the court will undoubtedly require proof that the domestic dog in question legally qualifies equally a service dog.

documenting owner-training of a service dog judges gavel — Owner grooming of a service domestic dog is legal in the United States.

Plan Ahead for Documenting Possessor-Training of a Service Dog

To be prepared for these possibilities, it is necessary to plan alee, regardless of how unlikely you currently think this eventuality could be. At the very beginning of your grooming journey, yous should create a plan for documenting possessor-training of a service domestic dog and stick to it throughout the unabridged process.

To see the qualifications as a service canis familiaris:

To exist protected past the ADA, one must have a inability, which is defined by the ADA as a concrete or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.
Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to exercise work or perform tasks for people with disabilities.
The work or task a dog has been trained to provide must be directly related to the person'south disability.

ada revised requirements service dogs — Service dogs are defined by the ADA.

In a courtroom, especially given the 2008 Amendments, to prove you have a inability that meets the definition in the ADA is oft the like shooting fish in a barrel part. It may be every bit simple every bit a physician's note or medical records with a diagnosis. That's not what this article is virtually.

The more challenging part often is proving that your dog has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks and that these tasks/work are straight related to your inability. Here are the primary forms of training documentation yous should create and/or maintain that nosotros'll discuss at more length:

Training log
Corresponding videos of preparation and achievements
Certificates of passing tests or courses or achievements or competitions
List of service dog training resources

Preparation Log – the Master Method for Documenting Owner-Training of a Service Dog

There's no standard grade for a training log merely information technology's widely recognized every bit the primary prove of documenting possessor-training of a service dog. At a minimum, a log demonstrates the private training of the canis familiaris past enumerating each preparation session over months or years and the cumulative total preparation time the dog has received.

The 2 toughest parts of making a preparation log are creating/designing information technology and logging your training in information technology. For the commencement of these challenges, do some research on different types of training logs and consider which ones would fit more with your personality and piece of work fashion. The easier you make this for yourself, the more likely you are to keep up with information technology. For the second of these challenges, create a routine and don't deviate from it. Perhaps set up an alert that goes off at the same time every day to remind you to log your training time. Perhaps keep the leash in your hand after a training session until you log your training time. Perhaps put a mail service-it note on your fridge to remind you lot to log your training time. Some people prefer to log later every formal preparation session. Personally, I prefer to log one time at the terminate of each day. There'southward really no excuse non to log your training. If you can think to railroad train your dog, and can concur yourself responsible to practice and so every day, and then you tin recollect to log and concur yourself responsible for doing information technology every day.

Format

A training log tin can be digital (kept on a computer or on the internet) or hand-written. I prefer a digital version for several reasons:

It'south easier to keep on hand than a physical jump journal or three-ring folder. I access my net-based spreadsheet (I prefer Google sheets for this reason) on my phone, computer, or tablet, so I can fill up it in anywhere I happen to be, fifty-fifty in bed at nighttime when I realize I forgot to practice it earlier.
It'southward protected online (and I can have several backups if I'1000 worried about it) then I don't have to be concerned about losing it or damaging it or destroying it afterward putting then much time into it over the years.
I don't have to worry well-nigh filling it upwards and needing a second or their or fourth book/binder after years of entries.
Information technology'south piece of cake to share amid a training squad. Perhaps you have more than than one person training the canis familiaris. For case, sometimes I practice training sessions with my husband's service canis familiaris, and sometimes he does training sessions with his service dog. We both log the canis familiaris'due south preparation hours on the aforementioned spreadsheet. We each have access to the spreadsheet on our devices. If we tried to share a difficult copy, we'd inevitably misplace information technology or get information technology dirty or not have it nearby when we needed it.
It'south easy to share with lawyers, judges, airlines, 60 minutes representatives, landlords, etc. without making copies or risking my original.
It'south easy to proceed a running total of the training fourth dimension and so I always know where we stand up compared to the minimum standard of 120 grooming hours. The sum operation in a spreadsheet is a magical thing.
Digital formats corroborate your entries. Computer experts, with more knowledge than I possess, tin can check the logged dates against the digital record of when they were made and corroborate that I didn't just sit downwardly the night before and create a log to turn in as evidence.

Content

A training log can have every bit little or as much information equally you desire. Some people adopt journal style entries, with a new page for every training session. They like to write out their daily training experiences in prose. Personally, I find this process deters me from logging every day since information technology feels similar a real task. I prefer the spreadsheet with brusque answers where I just popular in a few words (and lots of copying/pasting) and even driblet-down choices for my mutual entries. I also think this is more straightforward and easy-to-decipher should I always need to offer it as evidence. Again, information technology'southward important to choose what volition nigh likely motivate y'all to keep on meridian of the daily logging.

At a minimum, you should log the engagement, the identify, and the duration of your grooming session (due east.g. January 24, 2022/living room/fifteen minutes) every bit well equally what you worked on during that session. Perhaps you log this by command or task or maybe you describe the skills you were working on or the type of preparation (foundational obedience, public admission, tasks/work). If your service canis familiaris has piece of work (something they are enlightened of or doing all the time rather than just on control), it's helpful to keep rails of this in your training log, besides. For example, if a domestic dog is trained to warning to depression blood sugar, log every fourth dimension they do this and whether information technology was an accurate alert or non. This is valuable documentation of your dog'southward successful grooming of that work, that is difficult to demonstrate on command should y'all ever need to.

Every bit a Training Tool – Non But Documenting Owner-Grooming of a Service Dog

Of course, the more you put into it, the more y'all become out of it. You tin create a useful training tool out of your log by including more than data that volition aid you improve your training. You tin can include a competence scale (like assigning a grade to each training session) and notes near the location, the weather condition, the distractions, etc. Yous can include a section for successes and commands/skills that need comeback. Having lots of boosted information like this tin can assistance you recognize patterns in your preparation, like your dog doesn't perform as well in the pelting or when the air current is high and blowing leaves effectually. Perhaps you'll note that moving from the living room to the backyard ordinarily drops competence for the first few training sessions but then moving to the street doesn't. This is also a practiced way to keep rails of where you are in the generalization process. Yous can review your log before a training session to remind yourself that today you want to work on iii minute duration for the sit down-stay merely you're dropping the downwards-stay to ane minute because you're grooming exterior with some distractions.

Training Videos

Videos of y'all training your canis familiaris serve the same dual purpose equally the preparation log. By watching your own videos (like athletes watching game and exercise films), you tin can oftentimes place patterns and things that need to be worked on that y'all couldn't meet from where you were training or didn't notice because y'all were in the moment. Perhaps you'll find you always trip over your dog when turning left because they're too far ahead or y'all mark "sit down" long afterward the dog'south butt hits the ground. You tin can often improve your preparation mechanism and timing just by watching yourself preparation your domestic dog.

video owner training service dog — Take videos of some of your service dog training.

No Demand for Perfection When Documenting Possessor-Training of a Service Dog

In add-on, digital photos/videos are fourth dimension and date stamped (even if y'all never see these) so they offering corroborating show that supports your training log. It's important to note that these training videos don't have to be perfect. In fact, they offer more evidence if you've got older videos showing poorer skills and newer videos showing better skills. This is proof of the dog's preparation and the results of that training.

Videos of tests or competitions

Remember to get video of your domestic dog achieving the goals, likewise, though. Whatever time yous take a test/assessment with your dog or participate in a competition, have someone video the test or competition. This serves as excellent proof of individual grooming because yous tin evidently see the results. Although it'southward just a snapshot in time basically, it still demonstrates clearly that, at least at that point, your domestic dog accomplished those standards. This corroborates the certificates you have from passing the test or winning the contest.

Videos of Tasks/Work

I category of videos that owner/trainers often forget is tasks and work. We are so worried virtually our dog's public access beliefs that we become video of that and we have public access tests to prove that our service dog is trained well enough for this. Notice, however, that the legal requirement for individual grooming is trained to do tasks or piece of work that directly relate to the handler's disability. Don't forget to have video of your service dog training and actively performing their tasks/work and include the command or stimulus to begin, the entire chore, and the abeyance of the task (how the canis familiaris stops doing it, either on control or because the stimulus stopped).

Organization

A logistical point virtually grooming videos concerns how to keep them. Rather than have them strewn out amid hundreds or thousands of other pictures and videos of birthday parties and days at the beach, accept the time to create a binder on the internet where you store all of your service dog videos (iCloud, YouTube, and Google Drive are obvious choices). This fashion when you need to make them available to someone, you're not earthworks through your telephone trying to find all of the relevant videos only can just share access to a video or the unabridged folder.

videos documenting owner training of a service dog — Shop your training log, videos, certificates, and list of resources online.

Certificates of Achievement

One form of documentation that you can submit as proof of your service domestic dog'south individual grooming are certificates the domestic dog has earned. These may be course completion certificates or passed-the-test certificates. Although classes/lessons and tests are not required, every external verification of your dog's grooming and skills adds weight to the growing portfolio of proof. Continue the originals somewhere safe only accept pictures and store these online with your videos or your training log and so you can access them from anywhere and/or brand them available to others as needed. (This is good to practise with your vaccination records as well.)

documenting owner training of a service dog — Keep your original certificates in a safe place, and shop photographs of them in your online files.

Service Canis familiaris Preparation Resources

Think of this as a bibliography or "works cited" page. Some courts have asked owner/trainers to listing/describe their resources for service dog training – in issue, "how did you larn how to train your ain service canis familiaris?" Create a document or spreadsheet online and keep it in the binder with all of your other documentation. You can listing the names of trainers yous've worked with (and their contact information) and any grouping classes or private lessons you've taken (where and when and even go along the receipts). Be sure to include the curriculum and so you can describe what was covered in those classes or lessons. You tin can list the websites you have used or YouTube videos you take watched, too as the books you've read. This evidence that y'all have researched, read, watched, and learned, not simply winged it, lends more weight to your case that you have the capacity (non just the authorization) to railroad train a service dog.

curriculum for documenting owner training of a service dog — A curriculum volition include the commands/skills covered in each course/grade.

Documenting Owner-Grooming of a Service Dog with ELLAS Animals INC

Owner/trainers who piece of work through ELLAS Animals INC'south complete service canis familiaris grooming program build this portfolio of documentation as part of our program. We provide a web-based training log template for them to log their daily training minutes. They won't fill in every prison cell in the spreadsheet for every training session, just they pick and cull how much is helpful each time.

They as well send in training videos for each lesson, which we save in their file and mark on their Grade Completion Tracker. They send in cess videos at the end of each course, demonstrating their domestic dog can meet all of the requirements at that level. We salvage these in their file. Nosotros present them with certificates of completion for each form/test they pass and we proceed these in their file. This includes the final grade, Tasks & Work, so they've got videos and a document that verifies their service dog's tasks and/or work.

They've got their curriculum list then they tin can easily show what commands/skills have been covered in each course – after reading each lesson, they pass a quiz demonstrating their understanding of the form content which is marked on their Course Completion Tracker. They likewise take a certified dog trainer who has worked with them and can testify to their preparation of their dog. Past the cease of our program, our owner/trainers are confident in their ability to prove that their dog legally qualifies as a service domestic dog because they have been documenting possessor-training of a service canis familiaris every step of the way.