Useful skills for every service dog to have

There are some basic things that service dogs should be trained to do aside from tasks. This is not a perfect list, so please comment on what you would like to see different below!


Canine Good Citizen:
• Accept a friendly stranger
• Sit politely for petting
• Sit politely for grooming
• Walk on lose lead
• Walking through a crowd
• Sit, down, and staying in place
• Coming when called
• Reaction to another dog
• Reaction to distraction
• Supervised separation
Basic obedience skills:
• Sit
• Lay down
• Stand up
• Stay
• Sit/stay
• Down/stay
• Wait
• Leave it
• Ignore
• Walking nicely on leash
• Walking close on leash
• Focus on handler
• Come
• Up (two paws)
• Up-on (on top of something)
• Go see
• Potty on command
• “target” for positioning
• Appropriate behavior when left alone
• Appropriate behavior when handler is not paying attention
• Under positioning command
• Other positioning commands