Your journey as a medical assistance dog trainer starts here
The courses offered by the Center for the Study of Medical Assistance Canines (CMAC) are live, interactive and hands on. They are not pre-recorded classes, but you will instead be interacting directly with the instructors and will be asked to practice live and in between classes, with at least one dog.
Train a dog
Help a person
Be the difference
Learn everything you need to become a professional service dog trainer certification and specialize in medical alert dogs. This is an in-depth, comprehensive, hands-on dog training curriculum that will give you all the information and experience to get started and to specialize in the medical detection field. – A step-by-step complete program for efficient service dog training course with over 30+ behaviors – How to select service dog candidates – The laws and standards of the service dog industry – Specialized training for disabilities such as diabetes, seizures, autism spectrum disorders, and psychiatric disorders – Selection and matching the dogs with the right clients, etc.
All our classes are done live through Zoom. Nothing is pre-recorded. This is a hands-on, practical course. You will learn how to select and learn to train service dogs from A-Z. You must be able to dedicate at least 3 hours a week to the practical assignments between classes. Access to a dog that you can train as you progress through the dog training class curriculum will be required.
OUR COURSE DESCRIPTION
Finding service dog candidates – The selection process
Very few dogs can be trained as service dogs, so any service dog program must have strict selection criteria for their service dog candidates. You will have access to our temperament testing protocols, our standards and gain hands-on experience about selecting the right dogs to train as service dogs:
- What dogs have the most potential to be service dogs?
- How to test for temperament?
- What breeds work best?
- Partnering with breeders or starting a breeding program.
- Partnering with shelters and rescues.
Foundational and Intermediate training for all Service Dogs
A solid service dog program requires standards, tracking, and testing protocols for the dogs in training. This module is about learning the basics for all service dogs, no matter the disability they will help. This course offers a full data-driven system for service comprehensive dog training. We will cover:
- Behavior fundamentals: impulse control, problem-solving, taking initiative, etc.
- Foundation and intermediate behaviors for service dogs: over 20 trained behaviors, from the very basics to the more advanced behaviors.
- Organizing and keeping track of the dog’s training.
- Assessments for each level of training.
Training for Public Access
Service dogs must work in public places. This is the hardest part of the training as many dogs struggle with the level of distractions and stimuli present in the environment. The focus of this module is on public access training:
- The Laws and standards for service dogs.
- Managing the dog through public settings.
- Interacting with the public.
- What’s the Public Access Test and why it’s important?
Selection and coaching of service dog clients
We train service dogs so they can help a person with a disability. This module focuses on the human side, with its challenges and its successes:
- The different disabilities, how they affect everyday life, and how a dog can help.
- How to select service dog clients (application, interview, criteria, etc.)
- Matching dogs and clients.
- Preparing the client before they get the service dog
- Working with the client during Team Training.
- Following up after placement.
Specialized training for disabilities such as diabetes, seizures, autism spectrum, and psychiatric disorders.
This course will cover everything you need to learn about medical assistant dog training and will give you practical hands-on training experience:
- What disabilities can be helped with scent detection?
- How do they impact a person’s life?
- How do we train a dog to alert to hypo-hyperglycemia, to a seizure, or a panic attack?
- What are other tasks needed: pressing an alert button bracing, retrieving, finding help, etc.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
- 38 hours of live teaching sessions
- Required access to a dog to train as a service dog.
- Information-packed practical teaching with written and video assignments.
- Best suitable for intermediate to advanced dog trainers.
- Practical assignments at the end of every session.
- A practical learning experience with live project work and examples.
- A complete system for record-keeping and assessing dogs.
Total cost $4,500.00
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