# What are the licensing or certifications required for a protection dog trainer?



## ristakrat

I know that in the U.S. dog trainers are not required to be licensed or certified. 
Is the same true for schutzhund or personal protection dog trainers? If so, are certs and licensing even available in these fields?
Also,
I saw on my local news the other night that the police force's K-9 handler had just been certified to train bomb dogs through a 75 hour program. What other types of certs and courses are out there for dog training?


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## KZoppa

trainers who train drug search dogs have to be certified.


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## Butch Cappel

In the U.S. for Protection training, it's pretty much every man for himself and that can mean a big dose of buyer beware, if your looking for a trainer. It works pretty much this way. In the bite or "grip" sports if you train SchH or Ring, their associations may have a trainer cert program, but the associations that govern them would be the place to find out. A lot of the sport trainers will have schools that they claim to be police dog schools, but their experience is always in SchH or another sport so I don't know where they got their "police" or "protection" dog experience

In the Police & Security dog world about 95% of all dogs used are imported already trained. Some brokers (those that buy, import and sell these dogs) have schools set up to teach the handlers how to work with the dog, and though one or two of these brokers are also good dog men most are "Handler" trainers. Certifications are usually earned for the dog, Bomb, Narcotics, Patrol, etc. certified, and these certs are given out by police associations and are usually restricted to police and government licensed security dogs. 

Now the world of Personal Protection is wide open. A few states require security companies to be licensed and may require security dog trainers to be licensed as well. As far as I know Texas may be the only one that requires a state license for "_Personal Protection dog training or to train any dog used in protection of a person or property are for discovery of a crime" _To be licensed or "certified" as a Security dog trainer in Texas you must have two years of verifiable experience from a legal entity, police dept, military, licensed guard dog company etc.

So a "Personal Protection" trainer almost anywhere else in the U.S. is any one that can buy a sleeve, pop a whip, and ask you to join his club or pay a training fee. SchH is the most widely known and best organized bite, "grip" sport in the world and has the most participation and training material written about it. The vast majority of people doing any sort of bite work will actually be using some form of SchH techniques for training, which actually has little to do with a protection system you would teach your dog for fighting on the streets.

So if you are looking for a trainer actually experienced in Personal Protection, with verifiable street experience, you almost have to come to Texas. I have been licensed for over twenty years and if you go through my Apprentice program I can register you as Guard Dog trainer and after the required time for experience you could get your own license to train. Or you can train and compete in K9Pro Sports which is Protection dog certrification system, with active duty Police, Military or Security dog trainers as judges, that sign off on your certification. 

After that in the good ol U.S.A. it's buyer beware.


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