Owner Training Schools

In response to a growing number of requests from the disabled community and their family members. Prodigal is pleased to announce the formation of schools for Owner Training ones own Service Dog. These offer the client an extremely affordable alternative to a professionally trained Service Dog.

The schools will consist of four to five days of extremely informative intensive training that will take the client through the training process, step by step, of preparing a dog for a life of Assistance. The information is put forth in a logically progressing manner so as to make it easily understandable and in such a way that each lesson forms a building block for what is to follow. Ultimate success in the owner training arena will depend primarily on a high level of self-motivation.

The first course offered, which is a prerequisite to all other courses, is Assistance Dog Level 1. The objectives of the course are to help the client choose, raise, and prepare a dog for a life of Service, to learn how to train the dog to be task-specific to your needs, or the needs of a disabled family member, and, lastly, to provide the client with the opportunity to get not only further education in training their own Service Dog, but also the opportunity to get nationally recognized Certification for their owner-trained Service Dog.

The Assistance Dog Level 1 course covers the following areas in detail:

1. Selection and Preparation of a Service Dog Candidate

2. Level 1 Requirements, of the dog, its identification and certification requirements

3. Service K9 mindset, etiquette, communication, and positive reinforcement training methodology

4. Basic and Advanced Obedience training for the Service Dog Candidate

5. Task Training - discrimination, directional, target work, opening: doors, drawers, and cabinets, picking up dropped objects, etc.

6. Emergency procedures - training to fetch the phone, medications, alert to smoke alarms, soliciting help, etc.

7. Proofing the dog

8. State and Federal statutes regarding access with Service Dogs and Service Dogs In Training

Class sizes are kept intentionally small to allow for more attention to the details of each client and more one-on-one question and answer time. Each student is supplied with a Owner-Training Manual which follows the course step-by-step, and provides easy reference after the course.

In addition to the Assistance Dog Level 1 course, Prodigal will offer courses in Assistance Dog Level 2 and Seizure Alert and Response.

For more information, dates, times, and pricing, please call us at 406-439-5323 or e-mail prodigalservicedogs@bresnan.net.