Train a Dog

Find out how what options are available for training a dog through ELLAS Animals INC’s program.

Courses

Learn about the different stages of Service Dog training, from Foundational Obedience to Public Access to Tasks & Work.

Our Dogs in Training

Meet the dogs who are currently training with our program to become Service Dogs, Emotional Support Animals, and Therapy Dogs.

Effective Lifelong Learning for Accessibility and Service Animals INC

Service Dog Training

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We support a network of volunteer trainers (mostly owner/trainers) developing rescue dogs into Service Dogs, Emotional Support Animals, and Therapy Dogs (service dog training).

Our world continues to experience a steady increase in people struggling with Autism, Clinical Depression, Anxiety Disorders, PTSD, and other psychological challenges. Animal shelters and rescues are overflowing with dogs who just need a good home and a solid purpose. By bringing these two issues face-to-face, we rediscover how healthy and mutually beneficial relationships with appropriate dependency can overcome obstacles and ease burdens.

It is well established that animals can perform many diverse tasks that allow individuals with mobility and/or psychological challenges to function more effectively in today’s varied locations and activities. Additionally, animals can provide comfort and ease physical and emotional pain, thereby improving the quality of life for their humans. However, trained service dogs can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 and the need is so great that many clients wait years to receive a service dog. It is our mission to reduce the costs and the wait time for service dogs to people in need by supporting volunteer trainers to prepare service dogs for themselves or for a family member or friend.

ELLAS Animals INC specializes in three categories of dogs (not just service dog training):

  • Service Dogs (SD) are individually trained to perform tasks or work for people with disabilities that allow them to fully participate in everyday life. Service Dogs can perform these tasks or work for people with mobility issues or psychological/neurological issues. Typically, disabled people must be 12 years of age or older to qualify for a Service Dog unless they are children with autism. Examples of such tasks or work include but are not limited to assisting with balance or picking up items, buffering to maintain personal space, checking for threats or turning on lights, providing deep pressure therapy, disrupting self-harming behaviors, and alerting to allergens or blood sugar changes. (ELLAS Animals INC does not train guide dogs for the seeing impaired nor hearing dogs for the hearing impaired but they do provide a foundational training that prepares dogs for this advanced training. ELLAS Animals INC does not train working dogs for personal or property protection or police/military purposes like drug or explosive detection dogs.) For more on the definitions and laws surrounding Service Dogs, visit this link to the ADA requirements https://www.ada.gov/service_animals_2010.htm and FAQ https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/service_animal_qa.html
  • Emotional Support Animals (ESA) are companions who provide therapeutic benefit to their owners with emotional disabilities through comfort and focus, although they need not be individually trained to perform tasks.
  • Therapy Dogs (TD), like ESAs, provide comfort, affection, and emotional support to people. However, unlike ESAs, Therapy Dogs do not provide this merely for their owners but rather for people outside of their family, such as people in hospitals, retirement homes, schools, libraries, and hospices.

ELLAS Animals INC’s program is also perfectly suited to train pets who are well behaved and easy to live with. We even have a Puppy Basics course to develop good roommates that covers topics like potty training, crate training, socialization, and bite inhibition.

Where our dogs come from

Most of our program animals come from shelters, rescues, or private citizens who need to rehome their pets or strays. The animals are carefully evaluated for suitability of temperament and training to become service animals. They are typically between six months and two years old when they begin their training and no breeds or size are automatically excluded. Our dogs live in homes with families and other pets and receive formal and informal training daily. They participate in many extracurricular activities like hiking, bike riding, and kayaking. They experience regular public access field trips. Our dogs receive a minimum of 120 hours of formal training over at least eight to eighteen months and pass a public access test. Typically roughly twenty percent of rescue dogs will make it all the way to Service Dog. For dogs who communicate that they would prefer a less challenging lifestyle (we call this “ringing out” like the Navy Seals who decide the training is too much for them), they may still be well suited to be ESAs or Therapy Dogs or they could simply be the most well-behaved pets on the block.

Remote/Online Courses

All of our courses, live individual support, and assessments are remote or online so can be accessed from anywhere. Look where all of the owner/trainers working through our program are located!

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ELLAS Animals INC has owner/trainers located in 35 states and DC!
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ELLAS Animals INC proudly supports the exceptional training standards and mission statement of the International Association of Assistance Dog Partners (IAADP)

Entire website: Copyright ELLAS Animals INC 2022