Industry Standards

We believe that standards need to be set for working dogs in order to protect the general public, those with whom the dogs work, and the dogs themselves.

These standards must afford us the best opportunity to accurately predict how safe the dog is in public, how functional the dog will be in a given role, and his/her overall wellbeing. 

Traditionally obedience to human directives has been used to make such predictions.  We believe the idea that obedience to human mandates is synonymous with or predictive of safety, functionality, or wellbeing (the basis for most certification evaluations currently used) is dangerously inaccurate.

We believe that a dog’s behavior within the framework of a secure relationship with his/her human partner but absent overt directives (obedience commands or cues) is the best possible indicator of safety in public, functionality in a given role, and overall wellbeing. 

Therefore, our evaluation criteria for accreditation for working teams of service and community service dogs focuses largely on the human partner’s overall understanding of dogs, the attachment between dog and person, and the dog’s ability to control his/her own behavior within a given set of circumstances relevant to the his/her intended function.