Service Paws certifications are only as credible as the people administering them. This chapter defines who may train and assess, how Service Paws oversees assessments, and what records are kept.
14.1 Registered trainers
To train dogs for Service Paws certification, a trainer registers with Service Paws by providing:
- Name, business name (if any), and contact details.
- Competence evidence: a minimum of 2 years of documented dog-training experience, or completion of a recognized training program, or an equivalent mentored arrangement approved by Service Paws — plus, for detection disciplines, demonstrable scent-work experience.
- Two professional references (waivable when the trainer's work is already known to Service Paws first-hand).
- Agreement in writing to this manual: methods (§0.6), documentation duties, and the oversight model below.
Service Paws maintains the trainer register; registration may be refused, suspended, or withdrawn under §14.5.
14.2 Training methods commitment
Consistent with §0.6: reward-based methods; no prong, electronic, or choke equipment in any program work; no flooding, physical corrections, or intimidation. A trainer's methods are part of every assessment — video or in-person observation showing prohibited methods fails the assessment and triggers §14.5 review.
14.3 The oversight model (how assessments are valid)
Every certifying assessment (standards assessment, task test, PAT) follows the same rule:
The registered trainer administers the assessment; a Service Paws team member oversees it — in person, by live video, or by review of continuous unedited video.
Requirements:
- Scheduling: assessments are booked with Service Paws in advance; unannounced submissions are not scored.
- Video standard (when not in person): continuous, unedited footage covering the full assessed exercise, with the dog and relevant environment visible; cuts, speed changes, or missing segments invalidate the affected items.
- Scoring: the Service Paws overseer confirms or rejects the trainer's scoresheet item-by-item. Disagreements resolve to the stricter score.
- Identity: the assessed dog is confirmed against its registry photo/description at the start of each session.
14.4 Conflict of interest
- A trainer may not solely assess their own dog or a household member's dog: Service Paws conducts that assessment directly (Service Paws administers and scores, rather than only overseeing).
- A trainer with a financial stake beyond normal training fees (e.g., selling the dog contingent on certification) must disclose it; Service Paws then applies direct assessment.
14.5 Trainer conduct, suspension, and removal
Grounds for suspension or removal from the register: prohibited methods; falsified records or staged/edited evidence; repeated assessment quality failures; welfare violations; conduct that damages the integrity of the registry. Process: written notice, opportunity to respond within 14 days, decision by Service Paws; removal is recorded and the trainer's pending assessments are re-verified.
14.6 Records and retention
- Trainers submit scoresheets, task sheets, logs, and video links within 14 days of each assessment.
- Service Paws retains assessment records and video for a minimum of 24 months and the certification decision record for the life of the registration.
- Handlers may request a summary of their own dog's assessment records at any time.
14.7 Current register
The operational trainer register (names, disciplines, status) is maintained by Service Paws administration, outside this manual. As of v1.0 the register is administered by the CEO.