Senior Service Dog Trainer
Senior Service Dog Trainer — year-2 SD specialty. 30-day in-person residential. Prerequisites: Service Dog T1 ≥24 months prior, 5+ teams placed (graduated to working handler) across at least 2 distinct disability categories. Curriculum: advanced task work (seizure, diabetic alert, full mobility, advanced psych), scent imprinting at depth, owner-trainer pipeline management, breeder partnerships, washout management, succession dogs, retired service dog conversion, nonprofit SD program ops, insurance.
30 days · in person at HQ · 80% to pass · valid 12 months
Who can sit this program
This is an advanced credential. Admission requires:
- Prior-level certification: Certified Service Dog Trainer (CSDT)
- 1,000 logged training hours
- 5 coached cases
- 24 months at the lower level
- Teams graduated to working handler
- Distinct disability categories represented in placed teams
The 30 days, in full
This is the actual syllabus for SSDT — 73 topics across 30 days, 155h 15m of scheduled instruction. Not a sample, not a summary.
Orientation to senior scope. The legal and clinical frame that separates a trained task from emotional support, and how every SSDT decision flows from disability mitigation.
- What separates senior from T1 — the disability-mitigation contractlecture
- Public-access reliability standard and the senior failure thresholdslecture
- Caseload audit lab — grade your own five placed teamslab
Twice the kennel, a real team, and the authority to lead and mentor.
- Lead-instructor authority at a Buck’s location
- Mentoring authority over junior candidates
- Double your kennel ceiling — up to 10 dogs at a time
Your certification level sets the maximum number of dogs your kennel may hold at once — 5 at L1, 10 at L2, 20 at L3. You tell us how many you actually want to run within that ceiling. The number is a capacity limit set by your level, not a guarantee that a set number of dogs will be provided or booked.
How you're tested
Two stages: an online theory gate (three written finals) that earns your cohort invitation, then the in-person four-modality exam you sit at HQ — you pass all four to certify.
Stage 1 · before your cohort
Online theory gate
Once you're invited, you complete a self-paced online course and pass three written finals. Passing all three is the prerequisite that unlocks your cohort — it proves you're theory-ready. It is not a substitute for the in-person exam.
- 1Dog Theory final
- 2Business Operations final
- 3Advanced Trainer Knowledge final
Pass all three → you earn your cohort invitation.
Renewal
Valid 12 months from issuance with a 30-day grace period. Renewal is the same four-modality battery — there is no lighter annual recert.
Apply for SSDT
Admissions run like a real hire: resume, questionnaire, personality assessment, background check, and an interview before acceptance.
Start your application