What Commands Do You Teach A Service Dog?

As guide dog puppy raisers we teach our puppies 9 basic obedience commands before turn in.  Adelle’s service dog training manual lists 30 commands we are to teach our pups!  That’s right 30!!!

We’ve been raising and training guide dog puppies since 2006!  We get the privilege of working with these puppies from the time they are 8 weeks old until they are 18 months.  During this time we do our best to make sure they are rock solid with a handful of commands.  Just in case you do not remember take a peek back at our blog post: What Commands Do You Teach A Guide Dog?

There were only 9 commands on that list, but of course these are not the only commands our guide dog puppies will learn.  When our pups move on to guide dog college they will learn many more commands as well as advanced skills.

As a puppy raiser we do not teach our puppies everything.  We have 3 main goals as puppy raisers:

Teach our pup’s good house manners.Socialize our puppies.Teach them basic commands.

It is the same whether you are a guide dog puppy raiser or a service dog puppy raiser.  However, there are a few small differences.  One of them are the commands we teach our puppies.  As I mentioned before there are 9 basic obedience commands we teach our guide dog puppies.

As a Service Dog puppy raiser it is my responsibility to teach Adelle 30 commands!  That’s right!  Canine Support Teams has a list of 30 commands we are tasked to teach our service dog puppies in training.  In fact, learning how to teach these different commands is one of the main reasons why I was interested in raising a service dog puppy vs. a guide dog puppy this time around.

Lucky for us we are given a list of commands that we are to teach our puppies including what our pup’s physical response should be, application, and notes.  So, now you’re wondering what exactly are these 30 commands Adelle is required to learn?  Take a gander at this list:

WATCH MESITDOWNSTANDCOMECOME HERESTAYWAITRELEASENODON’TOFFQUIETSETTLELET’S GOHEELSIDEGO THROUGHBACKFOLLOWGO AROUNDMOVECLOSERGO TOGO INTHAT’S ALLLEAVE ITCAREFULGET A DRINKBETTER GO NOW

That’s it!  Not too bad eh?  Adelle is 5 months old and we’ve touched on many of these commands already.  We are very good at some, okay at others, and some we’re not too sure how to teach.  The good news is we will be attending special classes with Canine Support Team trainers where we’ll learn exactly the things we need to work on.

Of course that’s not all the commands we will teach our puppies.  When Adelle leaves my home she will move forward to the Prison Pup Program where she’ll learn advanced skills and commands.

I’m super excited to move forward with Adelle’s training!  And as you can see so is Adelle

Adelle taking a nap during training?!?

I’ll talk to you more about the different commands we are working on in the coming weeks.

How about you guys? Are you teaching your puppies anything interesting or fun? Tell us about it in the comment section below.

Colby Morita is a puppy raiser for Guide Dogs of America and has been raising and training puppies for over 6 years. He's been writing to the PuppyInTraining.com blog and sharing his puppy training tips from his experiences as a guide dog puppy raiser since August, 2007.

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