Part of the mission of Assistance Dogs International (ADI) is to establish standards and guidelines for it members. By doing this, ADI is continually striving to improve the entire Assistance Dog industry in order to ensure that dogs are treated humanely, clients are treated with respect and dignity, and training is professional and of the highest standards Assistance Dog users trust their lives and safety to their dogs, so everything related to the training of both the dogs an people must meet extraordinary criteria.

Over several years, members of ADI worked on a procedure for accreditation of member programs and developed an accreditation manual to be used to evaluate Assistance Dog programs to see whether or not they were meeting the high standards needed to train and place these special dogs. The standards evaluated in the ADI accreditation process include virtually every aspect of properly running a program. Areas evaluated include: safety and cleanliness of the training facility, fair and ethical treatment of clients, proper health care for the dogs, humane training methods for the dogs, criteria for screening suitability of both dogs and clients, criteria for matching dogs and clients, and compliance with all legal regulations.

When a member program is ready for accreditation, a trained surveyor spends one to two days at the training facility. The surveyor interviews staff, clients, and applicants in addition to reviewing paperwork and files in order to make sure that all of ADI's high standards are being met. Currently approximately 60 ADI programs have been accredited (by ADI and/or IGDF). By 2010, all programs who want to be voting members will be required to be accredited in order to maintain their voting membership in ADI.

ADI Accreditation Process Steps (pdf)

Common Questions and Answers (pdf)

For more information contact: info@assistancedogsinternational.org