Professional Certificate in
Service Dog Training
Learn the service-dog training system used at Medical Mutts and taught to organizations around the world.
A live, practical program for experienced dog trainers who want to train service dogs and build consistent methods for selecting dogs, planning training, assessing progress, and coaching clients.
CMAC’s specialty is medical alert training. The curriculum also covers psychiatric service work, autism-related support, and selected mobility, hearing, balance, and other assistance tasks.
A complete training system you can use
A system used in practice
Learn the system Medical Mutts uses to train its own service dogs and teaches to organizations around the world.
Tools you can put to work
Build a program with clear protocols, training plans, progress logs, and assessments.
Learn by doing
Practice with a dog, with guidance from experienced instructors.
What you'll study
Dog selection
Learn about service-dog roles, relevant laws and standards, dog behavior and development, health and welfare, housing, and candidate testing. You’ll apply the selection protocol to a dog and present your assessment.
Public access
Study public-access standards, preparation for outings, dog welfare in public, and how to handle challenging situations.
Foundation and intermediate training: Levels 1 and 2
Learn training methods for foundation and intermediate behaviors, including the plans, videos, records, and progress assessments used to guide the work. You’ll train a dog and submit videos of the required behaviors for assessment.
Selecting and coaching clients
Learn how to assess applications, understand client needs, match dogs and clients, prepare teams, and provide follow-up. Selected coaching topics include instruction from a licensed mental health professional.
Task training and Level 3 assessment
Learn to train tasks according to the dog’s intended role and team needs. To pass Level 3, students must demonstrate that their dogs can perform the assigned tasks and meet the assessment standard.
A live course with practical work
Classes meet live on Zoom most weeks, usually at 1:00 PM Eastern. Sessions run one to two hours, depending on the topic. Every class is recorded and shared with students, along with online materials and quizzes. Plan for at least three hours of practical work each week.
Live Zoom classes
Class recordings
Hands-on practice
Medical Mutts trainers participate, keeping the course connected to the methods and standards used in our own work.
Who should apply?
1 year
professional dog training experience
This course is for professional dog trainers with an intermediate to advanced understanding of learning theory. Applicants should already be comfortable with foundational skills such as luring and shaping; the course builds on those skills rather than teaching the basics.
You’ll also need access to a dog to assess and train, reliable internet, and the ability to record and submit videos.
Learn from a system used in practice
CMAC’s curriculum is built on the training system Jennifer Cattet uses with Medical Mutts dogs and teaches to service-dog organizations around the world. Jennifer and her team have more than 20 years of experience coaching professional trainers and have trained hundreds of medical alert dogs.
20+ years
Coaching professional trainers
Hundreds
Of medical alert dogs trained
Worldwide
Service-dog organizations taught