IAADP
International Association of
Assistance Dog Partners

IAADP Minimum Training Standards for Public Access

IAADP's overall mission is to foster the assistance dog movement in the USA and other countries. As part of this mission, we seek to promote the responsible use of access rights in the disabled community.

For over 75 years, assistance dogs have worked successfully in public and won the public's acceptance by achieving high behavioral and training standards which set them apart from pets and other animals. Their exemplary conduct led to state legislatures granting access rights to the blind, deaf and mobility impaired. Those early teams paved the way for the Americans With Disabilities Act, which has opened the door to individuals with a wide range of physical and mental impairments being able to have access rights.

In response to many inquiries from disabled citizens who want to train a dog to be their assistance dog, but tell us they do not know how much training or what kinds of training to give the dog, IAADP has developed a set of Minimum Training Standards for Public Access. These are drawn from the Minimum Training Standards for Service Dogs first established a decade ago by Assistance Dogs International (ADI) with consumer input from IAADP. Visit www.adionline.org

If you are a disabled person and want the right to be accompanied by an assistance dog in public, we encourage you to meet or exceed the minimum standards set forth below for training an assistance dog for public access.

Disabled persons who want to join IAADP as a Partner Member [voting member] must have a professionally trained guide, hearing or service dog from a Provider or a dog at least twelve months old whom they have trained to meet or exceed IAADP's Minimum Training Standards.

 

IAADP Minimum Training Standards for Public Access

1. Amount of Schooling: Your dog should be given a minimum of one hundred twenty (120) hours of schooling over a period of Six Months or more. At least thirty (30) hours should be devoted to outings that will prepare the dog to work obediently and unobtrusively in public places.*

2. Obedience Training: Your dog must master the basic obedience skills: "Sit, Stay, Come, Down, Heel" and an off leash Recall in response to verbal commands and/or hand signals.

3. Manners: Your dog must acquire proper social behavior skills. This includes at a minimum:

4. Disability Related Tasks: the dog must be individually trained to perform identifiable physical tasks for the benefit of the disabled human partner.

For a definition of a "physical task", "individually trained" and examples of tasks
performed by different kinds of assistance dogs, Click Here.

* the number of hours required for schooling a hearing or guide dog may be reduced to the number required by ADI's minimum training standards for programs if you utilize a professional dog trainer's services. Visit www.adionline.org

 

PUBLIC ACCESS TEST

How will you know when your dog is ready to graduate from an "in training" status to the status of a full fledged assistance dog with whom you are entitled to have public access rights?

The best tool for evaluating a team's readiness to graduate [e.g. finish up formal training] is the Public Access Test. It can be printed out from the Assistance Dogs International website for educational purposes. Visit www.adionline.org

The ADI Public Access Test was developed as a consumer protection measure by the ADI Team Testing Committee with input from IAADP Partner members more than a decade ago. Overall, the test measures whether or not the dog has been adequately prepared for public access work so the team can go places without trainer supervision. The safety of the dog, the handler and the public were the main considerations in developing the specific exercises for testing the team.

This test creates a level playing field, since it does not matter whether it is a guide, hearing or service dog team being tested or who trained the dog.

Disability mitigating tasks are not critiqued. The tester evaluates the dog's obedience and manners and the handler's abilities in a variety of situations which include:

A. The handler's abilities to: ( 1 ) safely load and unload the dog from a vehicle; ( 2 ) recover the leash if accidently dropped.

B. The dog's ability to: ( 1 ) safely cross a parking lot, halt for traffic, and ignore distractions; ( 2 ) heel through narrow aisles; ( 3 ) hold a Sit-Stay when a shopping cart passes by or when a person stops to chat and pets the dog; (4 ) hold a Down Stay when a child approaches and pets the dog; ( 5 ) resist food temptations; ( 6 ) remain calm if someone else holds the leash while the handler moves 20 ft. away; ( 7 ) remain calm while another dog passes within 6 ft. of the team.

C. The team's ability to: enter a public place through a doorway with the dog remaining under excellent control.

If you do not have a trainer to administer the test, it can be administered by a colleague or family member for informational purposes, as it is easy to score to measure your dogs readiness for Public Access!

 

IAADP agrees with ADI's ethical position that the amount of training given to an assistance dog should NEVER fall below the minimum level needed to pass this Public Access Test.

NOTE: Passing the Public Access Test does not officially "certify" a dog unless a program giving the test provides such a Certificate of Training to its graduates. However, it could serve as documentation for an owner trainer to prove that he/she has made a serious effort to train the dog to the level required by Assistance Dogs International for a service animal in case of an access dispute, especially if you have the test video taped.

If you have any questions about the Minimum Training Standards for Public Access set forth by IAADP or anything else in this section, please feel free to contact Joan at iaadp@aol.com

We hope you will be interested in joining IAADP.

For an IAADP Membership Application, Click Here.

For information or print copy of a membership application contact:

IAADP c/o Carol Schilling * 367 Ottawa Drive * Troy, MI 48085-1578

database@iaadp.org

Call 888-544-2237 (888-54-IAADP) for more information.

DEFINITIONS

What is a Physical Task?

A physical task is a certain desired behavior or set of behaviors the dog is trained to habitually perform in response to a command or a particular situation such as the onset of a seizure.

 

What is meant by "individually trained"?

"Individual training" involves deliberately rewarding the dog for the right response and, at times, it may require correcting the dog for the wrong response. The task is learned when the dog reliably exhibits the desired behavior whenever needed to assist his/her partner in a way that mitigates the disabling condition. Examples of individually trained tasks include, but are not limited to: retrieving a phone in a medical crisis; guiding a blind person around an obstacle in the team's path or providing balance support on a staircase to prevent a fall.

 

What is NOT an individually trained task?

Spontaneous behavior a dog occasionally exhibits such as licking someone's face or barking does not qualify as a "trained task" under ADA even if it accidently or coincidentally has a beneficial result. While everyone enjoys the emotional, social and safety benefits that a dog's presence can provide, those benefits do not constitute trained tasks that would transform a disabled person's pet into a legitimate Service Dog under ADA.

 

Why are individually trained Tasks so important?

Trained tasks that mitigate [e.g.lessen the effects of] a disabling condition are the legal basis for granting access rights to disabled handlers under the Americans With Disabilities Act. An assistance dog with this special training is viewed as assistive technology / medical equipment, not as a pet. Businesses have the right to ask a disabled person, "What Tasks does your service animal perform?" This question can be asked if there is doubt about the legitimacy of the dog and whether to legally impose existing restrictive pet policies. (an acceptable answer might be, "my service dog is trained to get help for me in a medical crisis by ____________." (Fill in the blank as to the specific task) You do not have to reveal your disability in formulating your reply.

         Task examples: Traditional Tasks performed by Guide, Hearing and Service Dogs. Click Here.

         Task examples: Tasks for Service Dogs for Persons with a Psychiatric Disability. Click Here.