Can a Cane Corso Be a Service Dog?

In my life I’ve come across many different breeds trained to be service dogs and train for a variety of different purposes. And me being a life-long Cane Corso lover and owner, I’ve started to research if the Cane Corso breed has everything it takes to be a service dog and how good can they be at it. So…

Can a Cane Corso be a service dog? To put it simply, absolutely yes! Cane Corsos are working dogs by nature, highly intelligent and super focused on their owner. They are also quick learners, loyal and eager to please so they would make the perfect service dog.

Even though you don’t see a lot of Cane Corsos being trained to become service dogs, they do possess all the qualities that a service dog should have. They have unique qualities that make them incredible emotional support dogs, therapy dogs and service dogs.

Why Cane Corsos Are The Perfect Service Dogs

One of the biggest factors that decides if a dog would be a good service dog is their personality traits. Being super focused on their owner or handler, having a natural tendency to please and being extremely loyal and protective of their owners are not the only great characteristics of this breed.

Service dogs are often trained for different purposes and all of them require a different approach in training and require dogs with different abilities and capabilities. And yes, essentially Cane Corsos have all the traits, skills and intelligence levels to become any type of service dog.

Let’s see why Cane Corsos are the perfect service dog:

• Extremely loyal and dedicated
• Emotionally attached to their owners
• Calm and Friendly to other people
• Intelligent and fast learners
• Easily socialized and great around other people
• Natural guardians
• And they love to cuddle

As you can see, the Cane Corso is the perfect service dog (and that’s not just my biased opinion). The only negative quality is that some people assume that Cane Corsos won’t be good service dogs because they look big and scary, where in reality, they are one of the most loving and supportive dog breeds.

Proper Cane Corso Training

Every service dog needs to be properly trained for their service role. Training service dogs is not an easy task and is usually let to professionals in the field. One thing you can do yourself to give your Cane Corso an advantage and make it easier for him to become a service dog is do basic training with him.

Basic training is something you can do on your own and at home regardless if you have a Cane Corso puppy or a fully grown dog. I even recommend doing the basic training yourself because it’s a great bonding opportunity that will truly create a strong relationship between you and your dog.

It’s not hard to do, especially these days when you can find tons of training content online, watch YouTube videos or get the Cane Corso Training Book. It’s a great book that covers all the basic training your Cane Corso will ever need.

Now let me show you a few commands you should cover first with every Cane Corso:

Sitting on Command

This is one of the first commands your Cane Corso should learn. It’s easy to train and it’s the base of learning other commands and tricks.

You can even try an exercise right now!
Hold a treat above your dog’s nose until he puts his bottom on the floor. If he doesn’t do it on his own, gently push it down with your free hand so he knows what he needs to do. When he finally sits, give him the treat and pat him on the head. You can repeat the exercise a few times… It’s that easy to start!

Responding To Their Name When Called

It’s very important that you can grab your dog’s attention when you want to, especially with service dogs. This is crucial so you can pull their focus away from distractions, communicate with them or ask for assistance. Luckily, Cane Corsos are a working breed that are by nature always looking to please their owners.

Training a Cane Corso to respond to their name will be an easy task and you shouldn’t have any problems along the way.

Good Leash Walking

Proper leash walking is the third most important skill a Cane Corso service dog must learn. If you’ve mastered the previous two skills you shouldn’t have any problem mastering this one. Remember, the goal of good leash walking is for the dog to stay by your side and walk with you without getting distracted and go in it’s own direction, stop when you stop, and go when you go.

There are a few ways and levels of training leash walking, but when starting out, just keep in mind that you need to have a few treats with you, and reward your Corso whenever he does what he’s supposed to.

And if you’re interested in learning more about Cane Corso training and how you can do it easily on your own, make sure to check out this book: The Cane Corso Training Mastery.

Once you’ve successfully covered the basic training your dog will have a huge advantage in becoming a service Cane Corso. It will be able to go through that training with ease and learn the advanced skills he needs to help and serve you.

A trained Cane Corso does take a small commitment, but it creates a lifelong bond between you and your best friend.