LEADing the way with JFJ – Training and Behaviour

Dog Training College Code of Conduct 2022

1. General

a. This Code of Conduct Policy sets out to establish and maintain the minimum standards of conduct with which Members and Employees are required to comply with.
“Members” can include Licensed Instructors, Certified Dog Trainers and Approved Dog Trainers of the Dog Training College (“herein known as the DTC”) “Employees” includes all staff who are employed by and work directly for DTC.

b. Our Code of Conduct Policy outlines our expectations regarding members and employees behavior. Members and Employees shall work ethically with integrity and shall recognise their responsibility to DTC, General Society, clients and their animals.

c. We promote freedom of expression and open communication. But we expect all members and employees to follow our community policy. They should avoid offending, participating in serious disputes and disrupting our workplace. We also expect them to foster a well-organized, respectful and collaborative environment.

d. This policy applies to all our members and employees of DTC.

2. Convention

a. We expect all Members and Employees to work with Animals and their Owners with honesty, integrity, transparency and always in the best interest of the animal.

b. All training services provided should be positive force free training. Negative training methods should always be discouraged.

c. Positive punishment should not be utilised as a method of training.

d. No equipment that could cause any harm or injury, whether mental or physical, to the animal should be used or promoted by members or employees of DTC.

e. Promotion and provision of proven dog training principles to a high professional standard.
f. Members agree to work within their professional limits and should the needs be out of scope of expertise refer on to another suitable member of DTC.

g. Privacy and confidentiality of any Clients should be maintained by members and employees.

Members and employees should maintain a professional positive approach to any Animals owned by them.

All members must hold public liability insurance for the purpose of their business.

Ethics PPN

Our code of ethics and guiding principles

1. To continue professional and personal development in all areas of marketing, practical skills and updating current knowledge of pet care, training and welfare legislations.

2. To actively provide and promote methods of training and handling that do not intentionally cause fear, means of force or put animals intentionally over threshold (known as *flooding). *Please refer to section 10 in particular for veterinary work/rescue work.

3. To reject training and/or handling methods that cause unnecessary discomfort, both physical or mental; This includes verbal and physical corrections and training tools or equipment used in training and everyday handling methods that are designed to startle, scare or be aversive to dogs through: intimidation, tightening, restricting to prevent pulling, pain, shock.

4. Tools and equipment we actively reject and do not promote the use of in training and everyday handling methods include but not exhaustive to are spray collars, pet correctors, physical or verbal corrections to intimidate or startle, choke or check chain collars, prong collars, shock collars and *slip leads. *Restricting head collars i.e. haltis or harnesses that tighten and restrict the dog to reduce pulling (i.e no pull harnesses). *These are all subject to individual cases so please see 8 and 9. Please note this is not an exhaustive list, is subject to change and individual situations are taken into account.

5. Special considerations Haltis/head harness – In some circumstances we understand that some of your clients may already use some of the above tools or equipment including haltis/head collars or without a halti the dog may become a danger to the owner or itself. We suggest a weaning off period or to introduce a harness where appropriate or in a combination with a head harness as above and re-educate/teach your clients into a more appropriate alternative. We are happy to help you through this process as we understand clients can be sensitive to changes so this needs to be approached in a tactful and professional manner.
PPN reserves the right to deny applications to those whom we feel do not reach our criteria, regarding our standards of ethics and of conduct. In some special circumstances we may also have a duty of care to inform our supporting organisations, or any charter/governing body, if we believe that there is an ethical reason to do so.

We cannot accept applications from anybody currently undergoing formal investigation, or those whom have been removed from our supporting organisations for breaching ethical standards. We also cannot accept applications from anybody found to display frequent inappropriate behaviour, or behaviour that could pose a risk to the safety of other members or undermine PPN and/or our supporting organisations.

We thank you for all your support and for continuing to raise the standards for animals and people.