Every serious standard that touches a dog.

Maintained by the intergovernmental body representing well over a hundred countries, this code sets international reference standards for animal health and welfare, with specific chapters on humane stray-dog population control and rabies prevention. Member countries are expected to align their national rules with it, making it the closest thing to a global baseline for how dogs are treated.

The principal animal welfare law for England and Wales. It places a legal duty of care on anyone responsible for a dog, requiring them to meet its needs for diet, environment, company, normal behaviour and protection from suffering. Causing unnecessary suffering, or failing that duty, is a criminal offence, enforced through the courts, the police and bodies such as the RSPCA.

The federal animal welfare statute in the United States, enforced by the Department of Agriculture’s inspection service. It licenses and inspects commercial dog breeders, dealers, exhibitors and research facilities, setting minimum standards for housing, handling, feeding and veterinary care. Inspectors carry out unannounced visits, and breaches can bring civil and criminal penalties, making it the backbone of commercial animal regulation nationwide.

Under these regulations, anyone breeding dogs as a business in England must hold a licence from their local authority. A licence follows a vet-led inspection against standards for housing, health screening, staffing and early socialisation, and results in a public one-to-five star rating. It is the main statutory check on commercial breeding, replacing an older patchwork of licensing law.

Named after a badly treated breeding dog, Lucy’s Law bans the commercial third-party sale of puppies in England. Anyone buying a puppy must deal directly with the breeder, at the premises where it was raised, with its mother present. The aim is to shut down the puppy-dealing supply chain and force the conditions a dog is bred in into plain view of the buyer.

Run by the Kennel Club, this scheme sets standards for responsible dog breeding covering health testing, record-keeping and puppy rearing, with member breeders assessed against them. For years it was the rare breeder certification carried under UKAS national accreditation; since 2024 the Kennel Club has run it on its own assessment model, built around the ISO/IEC 17065 certification standard. New applications are currently paused while the scheme is reviewed.

The FCI is the international canine federation whose member organisations span roughly a hundred countries. It maintains the official breed standards describing each recognised breed’s structure, movement and temperament, and governs pedigrees and competition across its members. Though voluntary, it is the central reference for purebred dogs internationally and underpins most national kennel clubs outside the United States.

The American Kennel Club is the dominant breed registry in the United States, maintaining the breed standards and pedigree records for recognised breeds. Each standard defines the ideal conformation and temperament a breed is judged against in the show ring. Membership and registration are voluntary, but the AKC’s standards carry significant weight with breeders, judges and buyers across the American dog world.

Microchipping has been compulsory for dogs in England since 2016. Every dog must be chipped and recorded on a compliant database, with the keeper’s details kept current; the duty now sits in the 2023 regulations, which replaced the original 2015 dog rules and extended chipping to cats. Owners who fail to comply can be served notice and fined. It is the mechanism that links a dog to a responsible person and aids both reunion and traceability.

The Practice Standards Scheme is the RCVS’s voluntary accreditation for veterinary practices in the UK. It assesses practices against detailed requirements covering hygiene, staffing, equipment, medicines handling and out-of-hours cover, verified by periodic inspection. Although joining is optional, accreditation is widely held and recognised, giving owners independent assurance about premises they could never inspect for themselves.

The AAHA runs North America’s leading voluntary accreditation for companion-animal practices. Hospitals are evaluated on-site against several hundred standards spanning anaesthesia, surgery, dentistry, pain management, imaging and pharmacy. Because accreditation is earned rather than required, the AAHA mark is treated as a premier quality signal, and many of the continent’s most respected practices choose to be assessed against it.

The WSAVA is the global body for companion-animal vets, federating associations from dozens of countries. Rather than certify practices, it issues clinical guidelines that harmonise care worldwide, covering vaccination, nutrition, dental health and pain management. In regions without strong national schemes these guidelines often serve as the working standard, raising the floor of veterinary care for dogs internationally.

The AAFCO brings together US state and federal feed regulators to write model standards for animal food. Its nutrient profiles and feeding-trial protocols define exactly what a product must contain before it may be sold as “complete and balanced” for a given life stage. Individual states adopt these models into law, making AAFCO the practical backbone of pet-food regulation across America.

FEDIAF publishes the nutritional guidelines that serve as Europe’s reference for what a complete dog food must provide across life stages, alongside guidance on feed hygiene and labelling. Though industry-set and not law in themselves, they are the working standard manufacturers across the continent formulate to, sitting alongside EU feed law. They are the European counterpart to AAFCO.

These are food-safety management certifications applied to pet-food manufacturing plants, governing hazard control, hygiene and contamination prevention from raw material to finished bag. Factories are audited by independent certification bodies that themselves hold national accreditation, and the scheme is recognised globally under the Global Food Safety Initiative, placing it firmly inside the formal accreditation chain.

The ABTC is the UK body that sets and maintains standards for animal trainers and behaviourists. It defines the knowledge and practical skills each role requires and holds a public register of practitioners who meet them, with a firm commitment to humane, non-aversive methods. Backed by major welfare charities, it is the closest thing the UK has to a recognised benchmark in an otherwise unregulated field.

The IAABC certifies behaviour professionals through peer-reviewed assessment of real case work, written examination and ongoing continuing education, covering learning theory, consulting ethics and species-specific behaviour. Held internationally, its credentials are respected as evidence that a consultant works to a defined, science-based standard rather than relying on reputation or self-description alone.

The CCPDT runs the most widely held trainer certifications in North America. Candidates must log substantial hands-on experience and pass examinations covering canine husbandry, learning theory, training technique and humane practice, then maintain the credential through continuing education. Because dog training is otherwise unlicensed, a CCPDT credential is one of the few independent signals that a trainer meets a tested standard.

Published as RDRS-01, this is an open standard defining what it means for a home to genuinely welcome a dog rather than merely tolerate one. Its fourteen requirements span fair and transparent terms, with no breed or size bans and fees disclosed up front, alongside welfare and provision within the building. The text is free to read and adopt, and certification is granted only after assessment by the body’s licensed officers.

The iPET Network is an awarding body whose dog-grooming qualifications are regulated in the UK by Ofqual, placing them within the national framework of recognised vocational standards. Its diplomas cover health checking, biosecurity, safe handling and canine first aid as well as styling, reflecting grooming’s shift from a purely cosmetic trade toward animal welfare. Holding one is the baseline many salons and insurers now expect.

City & Guilds is a long-established vocational awarding organisation whose dog-grooming diplomas have certified competence for decades. Their qualifications combine written theory with assessed practical work in coat care, handling and styling, and are widely recognised across the trade. As with all grooming qualifications they are voluntary: there is no statutory licence to groom dogs, so these diplomas function as the trade’s own measure of skill.

The same 2018 licensing regime that governs breeding also covers commercial boarding kennels, home boarders and dog day care in England. Operators must be licensed and inspected against standards for housing, supervision, hygiene and exercise, and display a one-to-five star rating that sets how long their licence lasts. Running such a service without a licence is an offence, giving owners a statutory floor of care.

The IBPSA is a trade body, strongest in the United States, that publishes voluntary operational standards for boarding and pet-care businesses. They cover sanitation, animal handling, emergency procedures and staff training in a sector with little federal regulation. Adoption is a business choice rather than a legal duty, but the standards give operators a recognised framework and customers a marker of professionalism.

The Pet Industry Federation is a leading UK trade association whose codes of practice cover boarding and animal-care operators. The codes address enclosure standards, health management, contracts and staff competence, and serve as a sector reference for good practice. Membership and compliance are voluntary, sitting on top of statutory licensing as an additional, industry-set marker of quality.

Assistance Dogs International is the worldwide coalition that accredits assistance-dog programmes. Members are assessed by peer review against standards covering humane training, the dog’s tasks, handler education and ethical breeding, and must be re-assessed on a multi-year cycle to keep their status. Its accreditation is recognised by transport networks and public bodies internationally as evidence of an audited training standard.

The International Guide Dog Federation sets and assesses the global standards for guide-dog organisations. Its peer-led accreditation covers breeding, training, mobility instruction and the long-term support of the guide-dog partnership. Recognised as the definitive benchmark in its field, IGDF membership tells funders and the public that an organisation trains guide dogs to a consistent international standard rather than its own private one.

The Americans with Disabilities Act defines service animals in US federal law and guarantees their handlers access to public spaces and businesses. It sets what qualifies as a service animal, principally a dog trained to perform tasks for a person with a disability, and what establishments may and may not ask. Enforced through the courts, it makes access a civil right rather than a courtesy.

Published as RDFS-02, this is a structured standard defining what “dog friendly” means in hotels and accommodation, a term the industry had long used without a shared definition. Seven mandatory requirements form a floor a hotel must clear, covering published policy, in-room provision, shared-space access and transparency of fees; beyond that floor the hotel is graded from A+ to F across the whole of a guest’s stay, under its own framework and published in multiple languages. Certified properties are assessed and publicly listed.

Published as RDWS-01, this is an open standard defining what it means for a workplace to genuinely welcome a dog, for the dog and the people who share the room. Its fifteen requirements span fair and transparent terms with no breed or size bans, the dog’s welfare through the day, and protection for colleagues who cannot share a room with one. The text is free to read, and certification follows only after assessment by the body’s licensed assessors.

IATA’s Live Animals Regulations are the rules airlines worldwide apply to carrying animals by air. They specify how a travel container must be built, sized and ventilated so a dog can stand, turn and lie naturally, along with handling, labelling and density requirements. Adopted into the conditions of carriage by most major airlines, they are the de facto global standard for flying a dog safely.

Crossing a border with a dog is governed by statutory biosecurity rules, principally to prevent the spread of rabies and certain parasites. In the EU and UK these require microchipping, rabies vaccination and official health certification, checked by veterinary officials at the point of entry. The documents must be issued by an authorised vet, and failure to comply can mean refusal of entry or quarantine.

Bringing a dog into the United States is led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, whose rabies-focused import rule was substantially tightened in 2024, while the Department of Agriculture’s inspection service regulates commercial import and transport. For entry a dog needs a microchip, a minimum age and valid rabies vaccination, with checks at the port of entry; a dog that does not comply can be refused. It is the federal framework controlling how dogs enter and move commercially around the US.

The Association of Shelter Veterinarians publishes the international clinical benchmark for sheltering organisations. It covers intake and capacity management, sanitation, disease control, behavioural welfare and humane outcomes, structured as graded expectations from unacceptable through to ideal. Voluntary but widely endorsed, it gives shelters, rescues and foster networks a common reference for what adequate and good care actually require.

The ADCH is the umbrella body for rescue and rehoming organisations across the UK and Ireland. Its minimum standards govern kennelling, veterinary care, rehoming and record-keeping, and prospective members are checked by inspection before joining. Membership is voluntary, but because it carries the backing of the major animal charities it functions as a recognised mark of a responsibly run rescue.

The Greyhound Board of Great Britain regulates licensed greyhound racing and sets welfare standards for the dogs and the kennels that house them. Licensed trainers’ kennels are audited against a published specification by an independent certification body holding UKAS national accreditation, while stewards make their own visits. It is an unusual case of a sporting welfare code brought inside the formal accreditation chain.

The Kennel Club sets the regulations governing licensed dog shows in the UK, including Crufts. These cover entry, veterinary inspection, handling and the welfare and housing of dogs while at an event, and bind everyone who competes under Kennel Club rules. Participation is voluntary, but for anyone showing a dog the regulations are the binding framework defining acceptable conduct and care in the ring.

This Act controls the use of animals, including dogs, in scientific research in the UK. It operates a triple-licensing system for the researcher, the project and the establishment, and requires a harm-benefit assessment justifying any potential suffering before work can proceed. Enforced by Home Office inspectors, it is widely regarded as among the most stringent laboratory-animal regimes anywhere in the world.

AAALAC International runs a voluntary, performance-based accreditation programme for institutions that house and use laboratory animals. Assessment teams evaluate veterinary care, housing, environmental enrichment and institutional oversight on-site, against both international guidelines and the relevant national law, on a recurring cycle. Used by institutions across dozens of countries, its accreditation is treated as the global gold standard for laboratory-animal care.

ISO/IEC 17065 is the international standard that certification bodies must meet in order to certify products, processes and services credibly. It demands demonstrable competence, structural impartiality, freedom from conflicts of interest and a proper appeals process. In effect it is the dividing line between an organisation qualified to issue meaningful certificates and one simply awarding its own badge, and it underpins every credible certification on this site.

Bodies such as UKAS in the United Kingdom and ANAB in the United States are the national authorities that accredit certification bodies and hold them to standards like ISO/IEC 17065. They do not certify dogs, hotels or breeders themselves; they vouch for the organisations that do. This is the top of the chain that turns a certificate into something an owner, a regulator or a court can rely on.