Information for Consumers

Ensuring that specific health and welfare standards have been met.

Want to do your part to ensure the welfare of dogs and puppies? Ask any breeder or seller you are working with whether they participate in the Canine Care Certified™ program. Asking them encourages them to become certified and encourages certified breeders to continue. You have the power to create a circle of protection for dogs. Asking about Canine Care Certified™ sends a message to the marketplace.

Be an Informed Consumer

Adding a furry member to the family is a big decision that impacts not only your life, but the life of the dog. It’s important to educate yourself about the type of dog you want before you bring it home. This means researching what the dog needs for a healthy, happy life and determining if you’re able to meet those needs. To learn more about choosing a dog for your family, visit our Canine Welfare Science website.

What to Ask the Breeder

If you want to purchase a puppy or dog that has been raised to the rigorous standards of the Canine Care Certified™ program, be sure to ask the breeder for proof of current certification.

Not sure if a breeder is Canine Care Certified™?

Contact us to verify the breeder’s status.
View a list of participating breeders from our auditing partner, Validus.
If you have the breeder certification number, click here to verify the breeder's status.

Canine Care Certified™ certifies dog breeders and their kennels; the program does not certify distributors, transporters, pet stores, or online platforms that sell puppies.

Choosing Love, Choosing Care

Choosing a puppy from a Canine Care Certified™ breeder is a commitment to support a community dedicated to the highest standards of care. Canine Care Certified empowers you to make an informed decision by identifying breeders who meet rigorous, science-based welfare standards.

A Foundation Built on Science and Compassion

Animal scientists and veterinarians know that physical health is only one measure of the welfare of a dog or puppy. When choosing a dog or puppy raised by a breeder, you have a right to expect that the dog’s physical, social and behavioral needs were all prioritized. The Canine Care Certified™ program goes beyond minimum legal requirements to ensure dogs receive the highest level of care, ethics, and well-being.

Choosing a Canine Care Certified™ breeder means choosing a partner who sees beyond the kennel. Our breeders understand the importance of socialization, positive social interactions, and opportunities for puppies and their parents to experience happiness. You can also trust that certified breeders are required to have ongoing education in all of these areas as well as the role of genetics on the health and welfare of dogs.

How Canine Care Certified™ Addresses Puppy Mills

While there is no consensus on the definition of a “puppy mill”, we define puppy mills as a dog breeding facility that:

Clearly prioritizes profit over the well-being of the dogs
Demonstrates no interest or effort toward prioritizing animal welfare

Ensuring that puppy mills cannot thrive requires approaching the problem from multiple angles:

Equipping people with tools to recognize and avoid puppy mills and to identify welfare-oriented breeders.
Providing assurance that breeders are consistently meeting the welfare needs of dogs in their care.
Connecting responsible breeders to high quality, evidence-based resources to help meet public demands for a sustainable supply of healthy, ethically raised dogs and puppies.

Canine Care Certified™ addresses all of these areas by giving you a way to identify dogs raised under stringent welfare standards.

Higher Standards, Better Care

Because Canine Care Certified™ is a voluntary program, we can require standards that align with the belief and expectation that dogs deserve far more than minimum care and welfare. Even better, it helps breeders demonstrate ethics-in-action by choosing to go above and beyond what the law requires in caring for their dogs and puppies.

Licensed commercial breeders must, at minimum, be inspected by the USDA and comply with state and federal requirements for dog care and well-being. To learn more about the welfare of dogs kept at commercial breeding kennels, check out the studies conducted by the Croney Research Group.

Choosing a Canine Care Certified™ breeder

When you choose a Canine Care Certified™ breeder, you can be assured they raise their puppies and dogs under an independently audited program that ensures that specific health and welfare standards have been met. Breeders must complete certification annually to maintain their status in the program. Dogs from certified breeders may be sold privately or commercially.

This designation provides an added measure of assurance that certified breeders are attending to their dogs’ physical, genetic, and behavioral health. It also demonstrates their commitment to continuously raising the bar on the standard of care and attention they offer to their dogs.

Photos From Canine Care Certified™

Kennel Design

Woman in pink jacket stands at the front of an indoor kennel enclosure. The enclosure has tile floors and walls and a metal gate across the front. There are steps up to an elevated resting area that leads to the door to the exterior run. There are three dogs in the pen.

Photo shows the view of the exterior of the kennel from the building through the fenced exterior run to the play yard. The exterior run has a concrete floor, modern metal roof supported by posts, and is fenced. The fenced play yard is grass with a shade structure over a playhouse structure.

Photo shows the interior of a kennel with modern, clean, tiled, kennels surrounding a tile walled play area with toys in the center of the room. The tile walls block the view of the play area from dogs that might be in individual kennels, however, they are low enough for caregivers to see the entire kennel space. It is clean, colorful, well lit, and well ventilated.

This photo shows the exterior kennel runs on the left with an elevated play structure featured predominantly in a gravel play area in the center . The runs can be opened directly onto the play area. There are both ramps and steps to the elevated play structure. About 10 dogs are outside socializing in the fenced gravel area.

Enrichment

Three golden retrievers play in an indoor play yard. There is an A-frame ramp structure, varied dog toys, and a kiddie pool with balls and toys.

Brown and white adult dog lays in the grass and chews on an orange enrichment chew toy.

Two poodle dogs eagerly interact with a dog play puzzle in the indoor play area of the kennel while a third poodle looks on.

Exercise and Play

An Amish woman walks an older golden retriever on a leash at sunset in the water along the edge of a lake.

An Amish woman exercises with 3 varied breed dogs along a snowy, plowed driveway on a sunny winter day.

Here is an example of a fenced outdoor play area with both grass and gravel surfaces. There are three raised play platforms with ramps on two sides and a kiddy pool. Centered in the frame is small white curly dog standing on the center raised platform looking at the camera.

Male caretaker helps a group of dachshunds slide down the slide from an elevated children's playhouse one at a time in a tree shaded, outdoor, pea-gravel, play area. The playhouse has a ramp for the dogs to access the upper level so they can come down the slide.

Socialization

A young boy in a red shirt is seated on a platform with his hands folded in his lap. He looks fondly down at a small curly brown dog standing next to him on the platform while the little brown dog looks back.

Little boy in winter clothing is holding a golden retriever puppy on a leash and closing the front door as they head out for a walk.

puppies on the lap of a female caretaker

Positive Caretaker Interactions

Caretaker looks over fence to indoor play area with 6 puppies at her feet watching her and hoping for a treat.

Photo shows well-kept grass and gravel outdoor play yard with elevated ramps, chairs for caretakers, and other play structures. Centered is a caretaker with 6 dogs gathered around his feet as he leans over and pets them. This example shows both an enriching play area and positive caretaker interactions with dogs.

Man in jeans and ball cap squats down to rub 3 dalmatian dogs gathered in front of him in a grassy fenced area. There is a black and white dog walking in another grassy fenced area behind them.

Retirement and Rehoming