This PPG position statement relates directly to the Strategic Direction set in August 2026.

The Pet Professional Guild Position Statement:

Standardizing Professional Accreditation, Competency Verification, and Humane Standards Across the Animal Behavior and Pet Care Sectors

The pet behavior and pet care consulting industry requires a unified, legally defensible, and humane framework to protect consumers and safeguard animal welfare. Currently, the industry has three models.

1. The Educational Certificate (Model 1): Focuses on teaching and curriculum completion. While valuable for skill acquisition, it cannot serve as an impartial regulatory benchmark because the entity grading the student has a direct financial interest in their passing.
2. The Association Credential (Model 2): Designed to foster community and member identity. However, when an association bundles education, membership dues, and testing under one roof, it creates structural conflicts that weaken its legal defensibility and eligibility for third-party accreditation.
3. The Independent Accreditation Board (Model 3): Focuses solely on assessment without skin in the training game. By auditing declarative theory through secure psychometrics and procedural execution through objective criteria, this model provides the legal defensibility, impartiality, and consumer protection necessary for statutory licensing.

As a prerequisite and legal bedrock for statutory licensing, professional competency must be verified through independent third-party accreditation rather than through self-serving proprietary course completion certificates or individual associations and organizations.

Phase 1: Core Standard for Canine Trainers & Behavior Consultants

1. Independent Governance and Structural Firewalls

• Autonomous Nonprofit Oversight: Credentialing programs must operate under an independent 501(c)(6) nonprofit structure governed by an autonomous Board of Directors, free from financial ties to commercial schools, training academies, or trade associations.
• Separation of Education and Assessment: Aligned with international standards (ISO/IEC 17024 and NCCA guidelines), the certifying body must maintain a strict firewall—evaluating competence without designing, selling, or profiting from preparatory curricula.

2. Dual-Component Competency Verification: To ensure practitioners are safe and effective in the field, credentials must evaluate two distinct dimensions of competence:

a). Declarative Knowledge (Third-Party Psychometrics): Assessed through independently administered, psychometrically validated, and securely proctored exams covering:

◦ Learning and Behavior

◦ Biology and Anatomy

◦ Ethology and Social Behavior

◦ Health and Development

◦ Business and Consulting Skills ◦ Best Practices, Scientific and Practical Methods.

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