Trainer attestation for air travel: a template your trainer can complete
When you fly in Canada, the airline may ask for a document issued by the organisation or person who trained your dog. The regulation describes it in one sentence; the Canadian Transportation Agency has said, in a decision, what it expects the document to contain. This page turns that into a template your trainer can fill in on their own letterhead.
Three things first. We do not issue this document, sign it, or sell it — the whole point is that it comes from the trainer, not from a registry. It is for federal transportation (air, and interprovincial rail, ferry and bus); a shop, a landlord or a provincial program has its own rules, province by province. And a trainer should write only what is true: an attestation the trainer cannot stand behind is worse than none, because the Agency has already shown it will look through paperwork to the process that produced it.
Where the four parts come from
Section 51(2)(b) of the Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations lets a carrier require "an identification card or other document that is issued by an organization or person specializing in service dog training that identifies the person with a disability and attests that the service dog has been individually trained by the organization or person to perform a task to assist the person with a disability with a need related to their disability."
In Tinkess v Air Canada, Decision No. 90-AT-A-2022, the Agency listed what it "would be expected" to receive: a card or document identifying both the person and the dog, and an attestation by the trainer covering that the dog was individually trained by that trainer for the person's need; "a clear description of the task(s)"; "the credentials of the trainer(s), including any qualifications, certifications and affiliations with professional service dog organizations such as Canadian Association of Service Dog Trainers and the Canadian Association of Guide & Assistance Dog Schools"; and "a clear description of the specific content of the training program(s) completed by the dog, including the duration of the program, the goals to be achieved by the dog, the involvement of the handler, the assessment methods used and the assessment results achieved by the dog and its handler."
The template below has exactly those parts, in that order, and nothing else.
The template
Give this to your trainer. They complete it on their own letterhead, sign it, and give it back to you; you keep it with your other documents and attach it to the airline's form.
SERVICE DOG TRAINING ATTESTATION
Issued by an organisation or person specialising in service dog training, for the purposes of the Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations, SOR/2019-244, s.51(2)(b).
1. The people and the dog
Handler (person with a disability): [full name] Dog: [call name], [breed], [date of birth or age], [microchip number, if the trainer records it] This document identifies both the handler and the dog named above.
2. Attestation of individual training
I, [trainer's name], of [organisation, if any], attest that the dog named above has been individually trained by [me / this organisation] to perform the task or tasks listed below to assist the handler named above with a need related to the handler's disability. The handler's diagnosis is not stated here and is not required.
3. The tasks
For each task: what the dog does, what cues it, and what it achieves for the handler.
- [Task 1 — cue, action, result]
- [Task 2 — cue, action, result]
- [Task 3 — cue, action, result]
4. The trainer's credentials
Qualifications: [certifications, courses, years in service dog training] Affiliations: [membership or accreditation — for example, Canadian Association of Service Dog Trainers; Canadian Association of Guide & Assistance Dog Schools; Assistance Dogs International; International Guide Dog Federation — or "none"] Contact: [address, phone, email, website]
5. The training program
Duration: [start date to end date; total hours with the trainer; total hours logged by the handler] Goals: [what the program set out to achieve for this team] Handler's involvement: [what the handler did — sessions attended, homework, public-access practice] Assessment: [how the team was assessed — method, date, setting] Result: [what the assessment found — for example, tasks performed reliably on cue in public settings on (date)]
6. Signature
[Trainer's signature] · [printed name] · [date]
How to use it
Ask early. The airline may ask for this before departure, and the regulation allows up to 96 hours where it needs documents to assess a request; a trainer's letter is not written in an afternoon. If the trainer worked with you for months, part 5 is mostly a matter of copying dates and hours from a training log — which is what the Taskbook is for. Give your trainer access to it, or export it, and the letter writes itself.
Keep the original. Section 51(3) says the document condition is met if you provided it for an earlier request and the carrier kept an electronic copy, so one good letter can serve many flights — but the copy that counts is yours.
What this is not
It is not a certificate, and it does not make your dog a service dog; the training did that, and the regulation's definition decides the rest. It is not a document for a shop, a landlord or a provincial assessment. And it is not something we can produce for you: a registry is not "an organization or person specializing in service dog training," and in Tinkess a registry's "registration certificate" was given "no weight" for exactly that reason. What we hold is the record your trainer will draw on, and the folder the finished letter lives in.
Last reviewed: 9 September 2026. This is general information, not legal advice. The template is offered as a convenience; whether any particular document satisfies a carrier is for the carrier, and ultimately the Agency, to decide.