How to Train a Psychiatric Service Dog

How to Train a Psychiatric Service Dog // Wondering how to train your own dog to be a psychiatric service dog? Or perhaps, you're wondering what your psychiatric service dog training options are - like adopting an already trained PSD from an organization? In this video, I will cover everything from your different options for preparing a psychiatric service dog (low & high budget options), to your options for specific Psychiatric Service Dog Training tasks.

0:00-0:30 Intro to Training a Psychiatric Service Dog
0:31-1:11 Getting a doctor's note for your Psychiatric Service Dog
1:12-1:50 Options for service dog training
1:51-4:08 Self Training your own Psychiatric Service Dog
4:09-4:29 Adopting an already trained service dog
4:30-5:10 Hiring a private service dog trainer
5:11-6:48 Working with an organization (hybrid service dog training model)
6:49-7:10 Shoutout to Atlas Assitance Dogs
7:11-7:41 Training Skills Needed for a Psychiatric Service Dog
7:42-9:05 General Public Access Test Skills
9:05-10:50 Examples of Psychiatric Service Dog Tasks
10:51 Get started with basic training for your service dog / outro

[Doriau]

More tutorials on all the specific psychiatric tasks you mentioned would be super helpful!

[BabetteHarvey-qs]

Grateful for people like you making this information free. Also able to understand in practical terms for people who are not dog intelligent. 😊

[gestiperiferici]

Could you do a focus on how to teach a service dog to help the handler leave a social situation? Also my social anxiety can lead to anger management issues, could my dog remind me in some way to keep calm if I rise my voice? It would mean a lot to me if you could give some advice! 🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻

[Ariel.]

You said potty and my dog herd you and got excited 😆

[moonflower]

Thank you so much. I’ve been looking into service dogs for awhile now to help me get a grip on everything (I often get disoriented and will need to leave asap). I have a couple tasks in mind for a service dog, but I never knew they could help me remind my medication since I forget it a lot. 😅

[Sidhe]

I struggled finding an already trained dog for diabetes alert and psychiatric care. A confidant asked why I can't just train one to do both, as it would give me something positive to work toward in the day time. I'll get my pup in a few weeks and start on scent training early on.

[PoppyRussianDoll]

I’m working with a private trainer currently to help me train my standard poodle pup for psychiatric service/medical alert. It’s gone so well thus far, though we’re in the very early process since he’s just 5 months old, but it’s incredible the intelligence the breed possesses. Guess that’s why they’re part of the fab 4! He’s learned his basic manners and now we’re working on focusing on me in high stress situations and I think it’s important to add that it’s stressful for the handler even working with a trainer half of the time, because Im doing all of what we’ve learned so far on my own most of the time. That’s been really triggering for my anxiety which can trigger a mood cycle or total mania for me. Which I think is important for people to understand before going it alone or using a private trainer. Something I didn’t think about at all before I started.

[JuanJohn]

You really don’t need the General Public Access but it’s good to have it.

[sydneybaker]

Helpful to gain a greater understanding of expectations for training a service dog. Thank you

[pjmarren]

REMARKABLY helpful. After some fifteen years, this is the first channel to which I've ever subscribed.

[theblessedblackwoman]

I really loved your video. Im in the UK and I have the cutest pomeranian service dog for my depression and anxiety (Im on highest daily dose for both). The worse thing apart from access questions i get is members of the public trying to touch my dog, take pictures, and distract him. It's a double-edged sword to have to explain to people, which sets me off into a major panic attack on the spot.

[MrPeterJacob]

Very helpful. I just got a puppy to train myself. My ESA was trained by me and was cgc b(2) certified. She passed from cancer at 11 years old just before Christmas. A PSD better suits my needs.

[MusicFandom]

#helpful .. Thank you. I am diagnosed with PTSD, GAD, ADHD and severe MDD, I am also disabled with back and neck issues. it is extremely hard for me to go anywhere in public (mentally and physically. I have a new puppy and am strongly considering doing this with her. I believe I will try to get on the list to adopt a service dog but there is no harm in training my dog even if she doesn't pass the test.

[ChristianSullivan]

I really like this video! Very helpful and informative for many people! This also will educate those that are confused between an Emotional Support Animal and a Psychiatric Service Dog too, since that can be a controversial and gray area for quite a bit of people. I’m Visually Impaired and have a Guide Dog from the organization, Guiding Eyes For The Blind. I really appreciate this from a professional Dog Trainer perspective because it’s not misinformation that We have on the internet and it’s telling people what to look for when considering this responsibility too.

[kris]

thank you so much for this! I’m turning 18 in a month and a half and will be starting the process of getting a psd for my autism, since i’m a late diagnosis. I’m bad at my words and this video is very helpful with helping me know what words to use when going through the process. Thank you!

[kimberlyaustin]

Very helpful! More videos on this. Please.

[govco]

What's up Lisa. Great Video. Thanks for the info. Colorado here as well, would love to hear more about the laws in Colorado and service dogs. Thanks!

[carljensen]

Thank you for the video. We trained out own service dog and the most important thing was having the right dog. Our dog is a border collie. They have been tested to be 10 times smarter than the second smartest dog breed, the standard poodle. Border collies almost train themselves. I say that, but keep in mind that she gets TONS of attention, so maybe it's more a matter of us enjoying spending time with her and her enjoying spending time with us. We didn't use a single dog treat in her training, but we also made sure there weren't things we had to "untrain". For example, she never gets treats, anywhere. She eats from her foot bowl twice per day, period. Also, we didn't use store bought play toys when she was little. She played with bones from the butcher, avocado's from our avocado trees, and sticks from the property. She learned that these things are her toys, and we never had to teach her the difference between a pet shop plush toy and one of our shoes. YOU have to learn that the pet industry will not make it easier for you. Because BCs want to please, you have to be very careful with negative reprimands. I would suggest NEVER spank a border collie, it is counter productive. At first, a stern tone is enough, and for our dog, a simple normal tone "no" is effective enough. If you think about how most dogs are the equivalent of a 4 or 5 year old, a border collie can be the equivalent of a 7 or 8 year old (obviously sans human skills like talking, opposable thumbs, etc), perhaps even more so as I would trust our dog with many situations where I wouldn't trust just any 8 year old. We live on a ranch, where she can get all the exercise she needs. I would not recommend them for most city environments unless you have a large yard. Our dog probably averages 20 miles or more of running per day. She is trained on a variety of things, including physical and psychological ADA, but also ranch needs, like she can detect a rattle snake by smell from 30 feet away and on average prevents half a dozen rattle snake encounters per year.

[creatureris]

Yes please to training videos for all 5 of the common support behaviours!

[reginaporter]

So helpful. Have my letter from my doctor need to start training