The Pet Professional Accreditation Board

PPAB offers the only Accredited Training Technician and Professional Canine Trainer certification for professionals who believe there is no place for shock, choke, prong, fear or intimidation in canine training and behavior practices.

PPAB also offers the only psychometrically developed examination for Training & Behavior Consultants who also support these humane and scientific practices

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The Pet Professional Accreditation Board

Working Towards Professionalizing The Pet Industry -

Encouraging Pet Dog Trainers and Behavior Consultants to Demonstrate Competency!

How, Then, Does The Concept of Competence Impact The Work of Professional Dog Trainers and Pet Care Providers?

Professional competence is the “broad professional knowledge, attitude, and skills required in order to work in a specialized area or profession. Disciplinary knowledge and the application of concepts, processes and skills are required in a test of professional competence in any particular field.” (Reference, 2019). When speaking to the practice of counseling, Welfel (2009, p.81) points out that “professional competence is the most ethical obligation a professional has in their field of expertise.”

To be competent means a professional is knowledgeable, schooled in the theory and research of their industry, and has the necessary skills to apply that field of knowledge to a working situation with their clients (Tudge, 2010). Within the companion animal training and behavior field, “necessary skills” refers to the professional’s interviewing skills, their ability to use applied behavior analysis to functionally analyze behavior via a professional functional assessment, and possess the technical skills and ability to support pet owners in their goals of improving and changing a pet’s behavior (Tudge, 2010).

Furthermore, competence is “the measure of actual professional performance, not the level and amount of education the professional has achieved. The range of services offered by companion animal training and behavior professionals is referred to as ‘scope of practice.’ Competent professionals only work within the boundaries of their knowledge and skill body.” (Tudge, 2010).

In the pet industry, it is highly unlikely that any one training or behavior professional will be competent across all the entire range of pet industry services as there are so many specialties, ranging from dog sports, canine fitness, hobby activities, training disciplines and various areas of expertise regarding behavior change protocols. The latter encompasses issues such as separation anxiety, aggression, reactivity, resource guarding, fearful behavior, and phobias, all of which attract and demand specialized knowledge to ensure competency of the service provider within their scope.

Cited from Pet Training and Behavior Consulting: A Model for Raising the Bar to Protect Professionals, Pets and Their People (2019)

Why Become Credentialed?

Certifications recognize individuals for meeting specific criteria of skills and knowledge. They are a way for practitioners to seek self-promotion and differentiate themselves from their competitive set. Certifying organizations set standards of competency and their certification programs are designed to use these predetermined competencies as benchmarks for pass or failure performances. Consumers draw inference from certifications that a professional has met a specific standard of competency and/or carries a particular body or depth of pertinent knowledge. Along with a number of other industries, however, including the pet industry, there is currently no legal requirement to be certified and no legal mechanism in place to protect the consumer from negative or injurious consequence that transpires as the result of an individual’s lack of certification.

Stand up for what you believe in!

Join an organization that provides a credential with an ethical compass to support it
Demonstrate your knowledge, skills and people training expertise
Show clients that you are serious about your profession
Help mentor others and shape our industry by being a great professional ambassador
Utilize the three levels of credential to progress through the industry
Transfer in another well earned credential from previous years

How The Credentials Were Developed

For each of the credentialing levels a team of subject matter experts developed a Job Task Analysis
From the Job Task Analysis experts determined the skills and knowledge that each level should have as a minimum competency across knowledge and skills.
Examinations were then developed and reviewed with help of NOCTI Business Solutions (PCT-A and PCBC-A)
Examinations were then piloted to ensure the questions performed to the required level of competency and reliability.
The examinations were then fine tuned with the help of an Educational PHD, an expert in this subject matter
Skill competencies were established and video assessments developed
All skill videos are assessed against tangible and specific criteria. Pass or failure is not determined by the personal opinion of an assessor but whether the required criteria has been met.
Case Study submission are assessed against specific tangible and measurable criteria, again they are not assessed and deemed pass or fail by an individual assessor. Case studies are reviewed independently by a team and then are collated by the assessment coordinator.

The Examination Company NOCTI Business Solutions
NOCTI and Nocti Business Solutions have earned full accreditation from the International Certification Accreditation Council (ICAC). This recent accomplishment ensures that a neutral third party has properly evaluated both organizations and held them up to international standards. ICAC accreditation signifies that NOCTI's career and technical education (CTE) assessments and certifications, as well as Nocti Business Solutions' technical skill assessments, follow the best international industry practices and standards outlined in ISO 17024.