What does a service dog trainer do?
A service dog trainer specializes in training dogs to perform service tasks for disabled handlers. They teach dogs to follow specialized commands and to be calm in stressful situations. The tasks that a service dog needs to carry out vary depending on the needs of their handler, so a service dog trainer may specialize in training service dogs for a specific set of tasks, such as being a seeing-eye dog.
Service dog trainer responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real service dog trainer resumes:
- Manage and calculate daily cash deposits and prepare daily payroll ledgers.
- Greet and assist guest in an upscale dining establishment with knowledgeable wine and dinner suggestions to ensure an exceptional dining experience.
- Increase restaurant profits by up-selling bottles of wine, wine pairings, cocktails, and after dinner dessert wines and cordials.
- Coordinate with doctors and register nurses to develop respiratory care plans for patients and provide necessary health education training.
- Assure proper annotation of administrative MWD utilization and training records used for legal reviews.
Service dog trainer skills and personality traits
We calculated that 11% of Service Dog Trainers are proficient in Customer Service, Safety Procedures, and Training Materials. They’re also known for soft skills such as Compassion, Reliability, and Patience.
We break down the percentage of Service Dog Trainers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Customer Service, 11%
Provided high quality customer service and promoted EBC by proactively promoting and retaining customers/partners across applicable product lines through customer/partner contacts.
- Safety Procedures, 11%
Trained new servers and floor staff on guest service expectations, safety procedures, proper food handling, and restaurant protocol.
- Training Materials, 11%
Prepared required manuals, training materials and demonstration instruments for training sessions.
- Training Sessions, 9%
Collaborated with hospital Point of Care representatives to organize training sessions for all nursing and laboratory staff.
- Food Safety, 8%
Ensured proper sanitation and food safety was practiced during residential mealtime.
- Training Programs, 7%
Identify unique training requirements and impact areas - conduct feasibility analysis in order to insure successful implementation of training programs.
Most service dog trainers use their skills in "customer service," "safety procedures," and "training materials" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential service dog trainer responsibilities here:
Compassion. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a service dog trainer to have is compassion. Their role and responsibilities require that "animal care and service workers must be compassionate when dealing with animals and their owners." Service dog trainers often use compassion in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "handle customer complaints in a compassionate and timely manner. "
Reliability. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling service dog trainer duties is reliability. The role rewards competence in this skill because "animal care and service workers need to care for animals on schedule and in a timely manner." According to a service dog trainer resume, here's how service dog trainers can utilize reliability in their job responsibilities: "focused on customer satisfaction and maintained positive interaction demonstrated honesty, reliability. "
Patience. This is an important skill for service dog trainers to perform their duties. For an example of how service dog trainer responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "all animal caretakers and animal trainers need to be patient when working with animals." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a service dog trainer: "helped increase restaurant sales skills used organization, knowledge of food and labor costs, training servers experience, patience and kindness".
Problem-solving skills. service dog trainer responsibilities often require "problem-solving skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "animal trainers must be able to assess whether animals are responding to teaching methods and to identify which methods are successful." This resume example shows what service dog trainers do with problem-solving skills on a typical day: "resolved guest complaints promptly and professionally. "
Detail oriented. Another crucial skill for a service dog trainer to carry out their responsibilities is "detail oriented." A big part of what service dog trainers relies on this skill, since "animal care and service workers are often responsible for maintaining records and monitoring changes in animals’ behavior." How this skill relates to service dog trainer duties can be seen in an example from a service dog trainer resume snippet: "obtained progressive promotions due to dedication to customer service, teamwork, innovation and attention to detail. "
Physical stamina. Another skill commonly found on service dog trainer job descriptions is "physical stamina." It can come up quite often in service dog trainer duties, since "animal care and service workers must be able to kneel, crawl, and lift heavy supplies, such as bags of food." Here's an example from a resume of how this skill fits into day-to-day service dog trainer responsibilities: "worked law enforcement duties, provided community law enforcement and physical security with patrol narcotic detector dog. "
The three companies that hire the most service dog trainers are:
- Los Angeles LGBT Center3 service dog trainers jobs
- Amazon1 service dog trainers jobs
- Conduent1 service dog trainers jobs
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Compare different service dog trainers
Service dog trainer vs. Pet handler
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a service dog trainer are more likely to require skills like "customer service," "safety procedures," "training materials," and "training sessions." On the other hand, a job as a pet handler requires skills like "pet," "check-in," "social interaction," and "verbal communication." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Pet handlers tend to reach lower levels of education than service dog trainers. In fact, pet handlers are 7.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.7% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Service dog trainer vs. Dog obedience instructor
Each career also uses different skills, according to real service dog trainer resumes. While service dog trainer responsibilities can utilize skills like "customer service," "safety procedures," "training materials," and "food safety," dog obedience instructors use skills like "behavior issues," "pet," "class teaching," and "training techniques."
Dog obedience instructors earn lower levels of education than service dog trainers in general. They're 5.7% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.7% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Service dog trainer vs. Equestrian
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a service dog trainer is likely to be skilled in "customer service," "safety procedures," "training materials," and "training sessions," while a typical equestrian is skilled in "tack," "lesson program," "horse care," and "trail maintenance."
Most equestrians achieve a similar degree level compared to service dog trainers. For example, they're 1.8% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.2% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Service dog trainer vs. Animal trainer supervisor
Types of service dog trainer
Updated January 8, 2025
