Ethics

Our code of ethics and guiding principles

1. To provide the best long term/follow up support for clients.
2. To respect the privacy and confidentiality of clients and other members.
3. To carry the appropriate insurance for your services, including public liability.
4. To continue professional and personal development in all areas of marketing, practical skills and updating current knowledge of pet care, training and welfare legislations.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. Special considerations slip leads – In the case of slip leads, in some instances, particularly in rescue work, slip leads may need to be used when other methods of handling cannot. This is particularly understandable in cases where dogs are lead shy/collar shy. For gun dog training, please get in touch for more information.
10. Special considerations flooding – In some cases particularly rescue work or veterinary work, animals are put over threshold in order to be retrained or caught. We support ‘fear free’ procedures where possible but in some cases realise this is not always achievable.
11. To only take on clients and their pets with whom you can work within your professional limits. If these go beyond the following you must either:
    • Agree to refer the client on to another professional, who has the appropriate skills or knowledge.
    • Continue professional development to enhance this skillset or knowledge.
    • Seek appropriate assessments or mentoring opportunities to further your knowledge.
12. To not spam other members with unsolicited emails or messages, of your services or products, unless they have requested your help.
13. You will not use other professionals’ images/infographics without prior consent.
14. You will not copy and paste another professionals’ content and use it as your own. All blogs written on you pages/website should be in your own words or if using someone else’s material quoted and referenced.
15. You will not block management or team members in our support group or block management via email.

Membership assessment – special considerations

• Labels and ethics

Labels can often be confusing. However, PPN has a high standard of ethics and this is a group which stands for training without pain or fear.

• Individual ethical standards

PPN has it’s own code of ethics and expects all members to be supportive of and abide by them. We evaluate membership applications by the practices of the individual, regardless of other affiliations or the providers of courses undertaken. If there are any concerns, regarding the particular practices of other members, there is a formal complaints reporting procedure that members can follow.

• Supporting organisations

You will find a list of our supporting organisations, who share a similar code of ethics, at the footer of our website. We only promote and support these organistaions, through PPN, as they have gone through a formal assessment. Our code of ethics is continuously evaluated and we liase with our supporting organisations to maintain our high standards.

• Discrimination policy

PPN does not accept any form of discrimination toward other members and/or third parties. Our code of ethics extends to the way in which we treat other humans and our marketing methods. We do not accept defamation in any form and ask that any concerns be reported, via the complaints reporting procedure, in the first instance – rather than a potential issue being discussed openly in the group without any due diligence into the validity of the claim/s.

• Applications and non-approval

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 cannot accept applications to Members or organisations who are not transparent about where they have obtained qualifications from or any past issues that we may feel could compromise the safety and welfare of our Members or Team.

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

For any ethics issues please read our complaints policy and contact our Ethics Team:

support@www.petpronetwork.com