Accredited
The complete edition. Everything in Foundation and Elevate, then the full service dog curriculum: task training, public access preparation, legal knowledge, and real-world readiness.
The Complete Journey
Accredited is the most comprehensive program we offer: the entire Foundation and Elevate curriculum, a formal readiness assessment, and then the work that sets this program apart, a full owner-led service dog education. From understanding what the law actually says to teaching, proofing, and maintaining disability-mitigating tasks, this is the edition for handlers who need their dog to work.
Five Chapters, One Standard
Every Accredited team completes the full training arc and passes a formal assessment, 8 out of 10 reps per skill in two environments, before advancing to service dog work. A dog that cannot behave reliably is not ready for service work, regardless of task training.
Puppy Foundations
Critical development windows, housetraining, sleep routines, name recognition, and bite inhibition.
Core Obedience
Marker training and the six essential commands, proofed against distance, duration, and distraction.
Socialization & Environment Work
Neutral, confident exposure to the world with weekly checklists and location trackers.
Handling & Grooming Comfort
Consent-based handling that makes vet visits and grooming safe and cooperative.
Building Independence
Calm alone time, from thirty seconds to a full hour, that prevents separation anxiety.
Service Dog Training, Done Right
Under the ADA, a service dog is individually trained to perform tasks that directly mitigate a person’s disability. No registry, vest, or ID card creates a service dog. Task training does. Accredited begins with the law: what a service dog is, what it is not, and how service dogs differ from emotional support animals and therapy dogs, so you train with clarity and confidence.
Service Dog
Individually trained tasks that mitigate a disability. Protected under the ADA. No certification required, and the work speaks for itself.
Emotional Support Animal
Provides comfort by presence, typically without trained tasks. Limited housing protections, no public access rights.
Therapy Dog
Works with many people in schools and hospitals through a certifying organization. Comfort for others, not disability mitigation.
Need. Task. Criteria. Proof.
Most handlers fail because they never clearly define what their dog needs to do. This framework makes every task rooted in a real need, actionable, measurable, and provable in the real world. It also guides matching: honest assessment of your needs and your dog’s temperament, size, drive, and health.
Need
What disability symptom needs mitigation? Every task starts with a real, specific need.
Task
What can the dog actually do to help? Alert, brace, retrieve, interrupt, ground.
Criteria
What does success look like? Measurable standards, not feelings.
Proof
How do you know it is working? Logs, accuracy tracking, and testing in public settings.
Tasks Across Five Categories
A complete library of service dog tasks by category, with guidance on which tasks suit which dogs, how to build custom tasks for disabilities that are not listed, and the honest distinction between trainable response tasks and natural alert abilities.
Mobility
Item retrieval, door opening, light switches, balance counterweight, forward momentum pull, medication retrieval.
Psychiatric & PTSD
Deep pressure therapy, panic attack interruption, nightmare interruption, dissociation grounding, space buffering.
Hearing
Doorbell alerts, smoke alarm alerts, name call alerts, baby cry alerts, phone ring alerts.
Medical Alert
Blood sugar alerts, cardiac event alerts, medication retrieval, episode grounding, alerting another person.
Seizure Response
Fetch phone, activate emergency alert, cushion head, stay and guard, alert a family member.
Custom Tasks
A five-question framework for shaping valid, trainable tasks around any disability, even ones that are rarely discussed.
The Six-Step Training Framework
One framework applies to every service dog task, and Accredited walks through it with complete worked examples: medication retrieval, deep pressure therapy, panic attack interruption, doorbell and alarm alerts, seizure response, and bracing.
Foundation Behavior
Teach the raw mechanical behavior in a low-distraction environment, with a high rate of reinforcement.
Add the Cue
Introduce the verbal cue, hand signal, or situational trigger until the dog performs reliably on cue.
The Three D's
Build duration, distance, and distraction until the behavior is robust anywhere.
Contextualize to Disability
Connect the behavior to the actual symptom or situation, so the dog performs when it is truly needed.
Generalization
Practice across homes, public spaces, work, and travel. Different times, different conditions.
Reliability Testing & Maintenance
Track success rates with a target of 80 percent or better in all environments, with ongoing reinforcement for life.
Non-Negotiable Standards
Public access is earned through behavior. Accredited holds every team to the standards that protect your access and the reputation of all service dog handlers.
✓Neutral to food on the ground and offered food
✓Neutral to other dogs, with no pulling, barking, or fixating
✓Settles quietly under a table or beside the handler
✓Loose leash walking without pulling or lagging
✓No vocalizing except for trained alerts
✓Recovers from distraction within three seconds
✓Tolerates handling by strangers
✓Relieves on cue, in appropriate locations only
Beyond the Training Field
Air Travel & the DOT Form
Complete preparation for flying with your service dog, including the U.S. Department of Transportation Service Animal Air Transportation Form, long-duration settle practice, and airport navigation.
Legal Rights & Identification
What federal and state law actually say about service dogs and dogs in training, plus honest guidance on gear, identification, and avoiding the fake-certification industry.
Car Travel & Hotel Etiquette
Vehicle safety, road trip planning, and how to be the guest that makes hotels glad to welcome service dog teams.
A Lifelong Standard
Service dog training is never finished. Accredited includes a daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance plan, a final assessment with a pass standard of 9 out of 10 reps per skill, and reliability tracking across home, work, and public environments.
An Ethical Commitment
Humane, reward-based methods only. No shock collars, no prong collars, no punishment. A service dog is a partner, not equipment, and their welfare always comes before task performance.