Certification

(This post is part of the April A to Z blogging challenge.)

There's a lot of talk about certification of service dogs, and it varies by country. In Japan, a team certified by an ADI (Assistance Dogs International) member program might still need to pass a monthly test. ADI, in turn, is trying very hard to become the international standard for service dog programs. The problem with this is their membership requirements preclude a lot of good programs and private trainers. ADI fees are larger than most non-profits can spare-$1000 or more. ADI also refuses to allow for-profit programs and private trainers, and puts pressure on their member programs to exclude owner-trained dogs from evaluation and certification.

I'm an owner-trainer, but when I take my dogs out, I'm not just the dog handler, I am the trainer, the puppy raiser, the evaluator, and the client. The dogs I train and work with must be to my standard. I've seen some very nice program dogs, some very nice owner-trained dogs, and some dogs with program labeled gear getting dragged by the harness into place. Thankfully, I have not yet run into a poorly trained "service" animal, though I'm sure that too will come.

A certification is a piece of paper, not legally required (as of April 2014) in the USA. That means I can find dogs I like, of breeds I like, train them how I like, to the cues I like, and they work in a manner I like until I retire them or rehome them for not meeting my standards. I do not "certify" my dogs, though I could print off paperwork. I work with them, and am fortunate federal law currently allows me to use them in public without presenting a piece of paper to do so. (A satirical look at this issue from Grumpy Ol' Fred http://www.xenosoft.com/dogears/DIYcert.html)

There's some talk of national, federal certification, but there's no good talk about how to keep it from being a burden on the handler, either of time or expense that someone with a disability might not be able to manage.

In the abstract, I like the idea of a nation-wide, free to the handler, comes-to-where-the-handler-lives sort of oversight. The thing is, that's an expensive option. If not to the handler, then to the taxpayer. I personally like going to dog shows and competing because I like outside feedback... but not everyone would welcome that kind of performance stress in their lives.

Other difficulties include the sheer range of disabilities dogs can be trained to help with, and the behaviors related to their tasks. A mobility dog for one person might walk in perfect heel with their wheelchair, and do snappy retrieves delivered to hand or lap, whereas my mobility dogs forge ahead, pulling into their harnesses, watching for things that might trip me, or checking in by bumping or nudging me. One person with PTSD might have a dog who creates space by running in circles around the handler, another might have a dog lay quietly between them and the crowd, a third dog might lead the handler out of the crowd and back to the car, and those would all be tasks for the same scenario, the same diagnosis. If a dog jumps up or licks to alert, it may look untrained but be doing vital or life-saving alerts. Without knowing how the dog was trained, without knowing what the handler needs, how do you send someone out to evaluate a team?

I think certification from programs is a bit of a crock- through no fault of their own for the good programs. Of course they'll say they trained the dog, they did! But the dog doesn't live with a trainer anymore. If a handler is pulling a dog out of a walkway, if the handler is using the harness to slide a dog across a floor to move the dog into heel, if the dog is being shoved around like a suitcase after being ignored, then the dog's training has not been maintained. That's still a "certified" program team, wearing that program's name on their gear. By the same measure, an owner-trainer who knows how to train is always there to work on the day-to-day behaviors. A private trainer who sees the team every 3 or 6 or 12 months and helps them brush up their skills can turn out teams who work flawlessly.

If certification becomes a national thing, then I want it to apply to every team. No free passes for the programs, because they are more likely to have handlers who don't know how to maintain training. But mostly, I want people to have high standards for their dogs and the work their dogs do, so that external certification never becomes a law.