• The dog must show excellent manners in public.
• Zero aggressive behavior toward people or other animals such as biting, snapping, snarling, growling or lunging and barking when working on or off the public property.
• No soliciting food or petting from other people while on duty and working.
• No sniffing merchandise or people or intruding into another dog’s space while on duty and working.
• Ignores food items on the floor or dropped in the dog’s vicinity while working outside the home in public areas.
• Works calmly, comfortable, relaxed and focused on leash with no unruly behavior or unnecessary vocalizations in all public settings.
• Zero tolerance for urinating, defecating or marking behaviors in public areas with opportunity to urinate and defecate in appropriate areas.
• Any training that arouses a dog’s prey drive or fear related behaviors to elicit a display of aggression or reactivity for guard or defense purposes is strictly prohibited. Non aggressive barking as a trained behavior is permitted in a very few and very select situations.
• The dog must be individually trained to perform identifiable tasks on cue for the benefit of the human partner with a disability. This includes alerting to sounds, medical problems, anxiety and PTSD alert, certain scents such as allergies, service dog-controlled retrieve or any and all situations when a service dog task is involved.
• Your service dog demonstrates that they are safe to be in public, and the handler or trainer demonstrates full control of the dog at all times.

The dog trainer or handler is the representative for the dog. A handler or owner can be the person with the disability, a able bodied partner friend or facilitator helping to keep up with the service dogs training, the owner trainer or a care provider such as a volunteer.

• Aware and knowledgeable of the public access and on leash or off leash laws of the area.
• Certify the dog is healthy, free of pain, up to date with their Veterinary requested vaccines including Rabies.
• Verify the dogs is well groomed, free of excessive matting and odor, nails are trimmed.
• Be respectful and considerate of other people including children and other visitors in the public access area.
• Be prepared for clean up of any messes including feces, urine and vomit that may occur in any public area.
• Be patient, polite and willing to answer any and all questions the public may have about service dogs and public access training.
• Use only positive reinforcement training, provide the dog with decompressing time and breaks when required with an increase of stress level from the service dog.