We strive to provide the most accurate resources available to support the longest, healthiest working life for mobility dog teams.
PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO TAKE OUR SURVEY!
Service/Assistance dogs providing mobility* assistance for balance and stability perform physically demanding work; we must thoughtfully consider the dog’s health and well-being to minimize any potential negative impacts on the dog’s physical and mental health.
The goal of this collaboration is to ensure dogs are thoroughly vetted and well-suited to the demands of service dog work so they may lead long, healthy lives as service/assistance dogs.
The Guidelines and Best Practices page describes our Minimum and Reasonable Mobility Dog Guidelines, the most important considerations for dogs that provide mobility and stability assistance. The remaining pages on this website will help explain the reasoning and research behind these recommendations.
*Mobility in this context refers to dogs that perform tasks to physically assist with balance and stability, where work includes any load-bearing activity such as guiding, pulling, counterbalance, and bracing. Bracing refers to the application of downwards pressure onto the dog’s body and is specifically a weight-bearing activity that deserves additional considerations for the dog’s safety.
Atlas Assistance Dogs has partnered with Mobility Dog Resource Group.
Receive special discounts on their Mobility Disability Task Training, Fitness Training and Fitness Training Essentials courses as well as explore their ADI Accredited owner trainer Certification program.
Courses and Certifications
Mobility Disability Task Training
You can expand your mobility task knowledge with this very comprehensive Atlas Assistance Dogs Mobility Disability Skills Course at a discount! We saw a lot of requests for this information on the MDRG survey responses.
Available for visitors to our website at $250 (Regular price $325).
ADI Accredited Owner Trainer Certification Program
Benefit from one-on-one support and guidance in training your own dog as a service dog. This program supports disabled people wanting full participation in the training of their service dog.
This program gives you ADI Certification and access to a $250 harness scholarship.
Fitness Training
This course goes over basic dog anatomy and internal systems as well as dog movement and alignment. It covers many areas of fitness and exercise for dogs to increase flexibility, balance, strength, stamina and endurance.
Available for visitors to our website at $250 (Regular price $325).
Fitness Essentials
This condensed Dog Fitness Course delivers the most essential tools from our full Dog Fitness course in a focused, easy-to-follow format.
Available for visitors to our website at $150 (regular price $195).
To receive the discounted price on the Mobility Disability Task Training, Fitness Training, and Dog Fitness Essentials courses, mention you were “Referred from MDRG” in the Discount Code field!
Check out how consulting a sports medicine/canine rehab veterinarian can benefit your mobility dog!
Guidelines & Best Practices
Read more
Guidelines & Best Practices
Types of Mobility Dogs
Read more
Types of Mobility Dogs
Harness Tasks
Read more
Harness Tasks
Our Co-founders
With the combined knowledge and expertise of Katrina and Jane’s desire to make this information as widely available as possible, the Mobility Dog Resource Group was formed. It is our hope that by sharing these resources, you will have a longer, healthier working life with your mobility dog partner.
Katrina Boldry
Uniquely positioned in the service dog world, Katrina has become the go-to person in the service dog community for mobility dog related information simply because there is not a lot of information currently available on the topic. Because of this gap in knowledge, few people are aware of the physical demands being placed on mobility dogs, and there is a lot of misinformation about dog harnesses in the service dog community. She frequently sees and hears of dogs being asked to do unreasonable tasks, including being started in harness too young, bearing too much weight, and dogs in poor body condition. The prevalence of these concerns has motivated Katrina to find better ways to disseminate accurate information to the service dog community.
Personal Goals
Katrina would like to see more collaboration in the service dog community, and more awareness of the impact service assistance work has on the dogs, and more research on the long-term impact on working dog’s bodies. She wants to see the science and best practices of other sectors of the working dog world carried over to the service dog community.
Jane Schappell
Jane had a long term dream to breed a fully health-tested golden, whelp and care for the pups, and then donate several to veterans assistance dog organizations in honor of her father who was in two units that both received the Congressional Gold Medal for their contributions in WWII. She was aware of the importance of healthy, structurally sound dogs for service dog work. Her dream came to fruition in January 2022 when her golden, Ginger, had a litter of 8 healthy pups.
After Jane had donated 3 of her golden’s pups to service dog organizations, she was concerned to discover that tasks were being taught without following best practices for weight-bearing mobility work. While writing an article on mobility dogs for the Atlas Assistance Dog blog, she was connected to Katrina, who reviewed and edited the content. When she was forming a group for a brainstorming call on this topic, Katrina, as well as a diverse group of service dog dog professionals, including service dog organization founders, trainers, breeders, and puppy raisers, agreed to join. With their combined knowledge and expertise, the Mobility Dog Resource Group was formed. It is my hope that by sharing these resources, you will have a longer, healthier working life with your mobility dog partner.
This website is dedicated to Pauley, one of those donated pups, who was named after Jane’s father, and is now a service dog for a veteran.