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Dog Trainer Partnerships
Work with PAL CIC to make assistance dogs accessible to all

Assistance-dog teams need more than specialist task training.

They may need puppy support, everyday life skills, confidence-building, behaviour support, public-access preparation, and accessible training delivered close to where they live.

PAL CIC is developing a network of ethical, inclusive and welfare-focused dog trainers who can support different parts of an assistance-dog partnership’s journey.

You do not need to be an assistance dog specialist to express interest.

To enquire about working with PAL CIC, email contact@palcic.org.

Why We Are Building a Trainer Network

Cost, location, inaccessible training environments and a shortage of suitable professionals can make assistance-dog training difficult to access.

PAL CIC cannot, and should not, attempt to provide every type of training in every location.

Instead, we want to connect disabled people with appropriate independent trainers while providing a shared pathway around areas such as:

  • Initial guidance
  • Individual support planning
  • Temperament and suitability
  • Trainer matching
  • Reasonable adjustments
  • Assistance-dog task guidance
  • Progress reviews
  • Public-access preparation
  • Public Access Tests
  • Advocacy and continuing support

This allows each professional to work within their competence while the service user receives more joined-up support.

Who We Want to Hear From

We welcome enquiries from trainers who can support areas including:

  • Puppy preparation and development
  • Socialisation and environmental exposure
  • Everyday life skills
  • Loose-lead walking
  • Recall and handler engagement
  • Calm settling
  • Confidence building
  • Behaviour support
  • Cooperative care
  • Task training
  • Public-access preparation
  • Remote training and handler education
  • Ongoing maintenance training

We are interested in trainers covering Leeds, Yorkshire and other areas of the UK as the pathway develops.

You do not need to offer every service listed. Knowing your strengths and working within your competence are important parts of ethical practice.

Our Partnership Standards

Trainers working with PAL CIC are expected to:

  • Use reward-based, welfare-centred training methods
  • Avoid methods intended to cause pain, fear or intimidation
  • Not use electronic collars, prong collars or other deliberately aversive equipment
  • Understand canine body language and signs of stress
  • Put the dog’s welfare alongside the handler’s needs
  • Work honestly within their skills and experience
  • Refer to another professional when a case falls outside their competence
  • Hold appropriate insurance and a DBS if applicable
  • Operate as a legitimate independent business or professional
  • Provide clear prices, terms and cancellation information
  • Maintain appropriate training records
  • Respect confidentiality and data protection
  • Follow appropriate safeguarding practices
  • Respect disabled, neurodivergent and LGBTQ+ people
  • Provide reasonable adjustments wherever practicable
  • Use clear, accessible and non-judgemental communication
  • Avoid misleading claims about assistance-dog registration or certification
  • Report significant welfare or safety concerns appropriately
  • Cooperate with agreed pathway reviews

Membership of a particular professional organisation will not automatically guarantee acceptance, and the absence of one membership will not automatically exclude a trainer.

PAL CIC will consider the trainer’s overall experience, education, methods, professional conduct and suitability for the work they wish to undertake.

Disability-Inclusive Practice

Many PAL CIC service users experience barriers within mainstream services.

These may relate to:

  • Physical access
  • Mobility
  • Fatigue or chronic pain
  • Sensory needs
  • Communication
  • Processing time
  • Memory and executive functioning
  • Anxiety or trauma
  • Unpredictable health
  • Financial circumstances
  • Previous discrimination
  • LGBTQ+ inclusion

We do not expect trainers to be experts in every disability.

We do expect partners to listen, avoid assumptions and discuss reasonable adjustments with the individual.

Adjustments might include:

  • Providing written information
  • Giving clear notice of session plans
  • Allowing additional processing time
  • Offering rest breaks
  • Using accessible venues
  • Providing remote sessions where appropriate
  • Adjusting communication methods
  • Breaking training into manageable stages
  • Working with a support person where agreed
  • Remaining flexible when someone’s health changes

PAL CIC may help identify and communicate agreed adjustments as part of the service user’s support plan.

How Referrals Work

1. PAL CIC Receives an Enquiry

PAL CIC speaks with the service user to understand their circumstances, goals, location, accessibility needs and the type of training support they may require.

2. We Identify Suitable Options

We consider trainers whose:

  • Skills match the work required
  • Location or delivery method is appropriate
  • Availability may meet the service user’s needs
  • Methods meet PAL CIC’s standards
  • Experience is relevant to the dog and the handler
  • Service appears financially and practically accessible

Where appropriate options are available, PAL CIC may introduce more than one trainer.

3. The Service User Chooses

The service user decides whether to contact or work with a suggested trainer.

Being recommended by PAL CIC does not oblige a service user to book.

Service users can also choose an appropriate trainer whom they have found independently.

4. The Trainer Decides Whether to Accept

Trainers remain free to:

  • Accept or decline a referral
  • Decide whether the work is within their competence
  • Discuss their availability directly
  • Set their own prices
  • Apply their own reasonable terms
  • Recommend a different professional where appropriate

PAL CIC cannot guarantee that a trainer will receive referrals or that any referral will become a paying client.

5. The Trainer and Service User Contract Directly

Unless another arrangement is explicitly agreed in writing, the trainer provides their service directly to the client.

The trainer is responsible for:

  • Their assessment of whether to accept the work
  • The training they provide
  • Their prices and payment arrangements
  • Their terms and cancellations
  • Their insurance
  • Health and safety during their sessions
  • Their professional records
  • Complaints relating to their service

PAL CIC is responsible for the guidance, coordination, assessment, advocacy or other services that PAL CIC provides.

Shared Assistance Dog Pathways

Some service users may receive support through a shared PAL Assistance Dog Pathway.

This does not mean that PAL CIC controls every training session or that the independent trainer becomes a PAL CIC employee.

A shared pathway may include:

  • An Assistance Dog Support Plan
  • Agreed training priorities
  • The handler’s accessibility requirements
  • Clear professional roles
  • Relevant progress updates
  • Welfare reviews
  • Public-access preparation
  • Assessment planning
  • Support where the pathway needs to change

PAL CIC, the trainer and the service user should understand who is responsible for each part of the support.

Records and Information Sharing

Joining the network does not automatically grant a trainer access to PAL CIC’s client records.

Where information needs to be shared, PAL CIC will aim to ensure that:

  • The service user knows which trainer will receive it
  • The purpose of sharing is clear
  • Only relevant information is shared
  • Appropriate consent or another lawful basis is identified
  • The trainer stores information securely
  • Each organisation’s responsibilities are understood
  • Information is not used for unrelated marketing

Trainers may need to maintain their own records for their service. This should be explained directly to the client through the trainer’s privacy information.

Where a trainer provides a progress update to PAL CIC, it should be relevant, factual and proportionate.

Progress Updates and Professional Communication

Depending on the pathway, PAL CIC may ask a trainer to provide brief updates covering:

  • Skills being developed
  • Progress against agreed goals
  • Areas requiring further work
  • Changes to the training plan
  • Accessibility adjustments
  • Behavioural concerns
  • Health or welfare concerns
  • Whether specialist support may be needed
  • Readiness for a progress review or assessment

Updates should not include unnecessary medical, personal or speculative information.

Concerns should be communicated respectfully and, wherever appropriate, discussed with the service user rather than being raised behind their back.

The 5% Referral Fee

Where PAL CIC introduces a client to an independent trainer, the trainer pays PAL CIC a referral fee equal to 5% of the fees received for the referred work.

The detailed calculation, reporting and payment arrangements will be set out in the written agreement between PAL CIC and the trainer.

The referral fee:

  • Applies to work arising from a PAL CIC referral
  • Is paid by the trainer to PAL CIC
  • Is not an additional 5% charge collected from the client by PAL CIC
  • Does not purchase priority or favourable treatment
  • Does not guarantee future referrals
  • Does not affect assessment outcomes
  • Supports PAL CIC’s not-for-profit community work

PAL CIC can provide appropriate invoices or receipts for payments received.

Trainers are responsible for obtaining their own accounting or tax advice about how the payment should be treated within their business.

How PAL CIC Uses the Referral Fee

Referral-fee income contributes towards:

  • Responding to enquiries
  • Referral administration
  • Trainer matching
  • Accessible communication
  • Reasonable-adjustment planning
  • Assistance Dog Support Plans
  • CRM and record management
  • Progress and welfare reviews
  • Maintaining the trainer network
  • Advocacy and community education
  • Subsidised support where funding allows

All referral-fee income is recorded in PAL CIC’s accounts.

As a Community Interest Company, any surplus is reinvested into PAL CIC’s organisation and community purpose rather than being distributed as private profit.

Further information is available through our Financial Transparency information.

Fair Recommendations and Conflicts of Interest

Recommendations should reflect the service user’s needs, not which trainer may generate the most income for PAL CIC.

To support fair decisions:

  • The same referral-fee principle will apply to participating trainers
  • Trainers cannot pay for a higher ranking
  • Payment does not guarantee a recommendation
  • Service users retain freedom of choice
  • Personal or business connections should be declared
  • Recommendations should be based on relevant and recorded factors
  • Assessment decisions should remain separate from referral income
  • PAL CIC may recommend a trainer outside the network where this is more appropriate

Where PAL CIC cannot identify a suitable trainer, we will be honest about that rather than make an unsuitable referral.

Complaints and Concerns

A clear distinction will be maintained between complaints about PAL CIC and complaints about an independent trainer.

Complaints About PAL CIC

PAL CIC is responsible for complaints relating to:

  • The referral process
  • PAL CIC’s communication
  • PAL CIC’s assessments
  • PAL CIC’s advocacy or coordination
  • How PAL CIC has used or shared information
  • Decisions about network participation

These will be considered under PAL CIC’s complaints procedure.

Complaints About a Trainer

The trainer is responsible for handling complaints relating to:

  • Their training advice
  • Their conduct
  • Their prices or payments
  • Their cancellations
  • Their service delivery
  • Their records
  • Incidents occurring during their sessions

A service user should normally use the trainer’s complaints process first.

However, PAL CIC may separately review whether the concern affects the trainer’s continued participation in the network.

Welfare, Safety and Safeguarding Concerns

Trainers must raise significant concerns through the appropriate process.

This may include concerns involving:

  • Pain or untreated health problems
  • Significant stress or fear
  • Aggression or a risk of injury
  • Unsafe proposed tasks
  • Inappropriate training methods
  • Neglect or mistreatment
  • Risk to a child or vulnerable adult
  • A dog being pressured to continue unsuitable work

PAL CIC will not expect trainers to ignore a genuine concern to preserve a referral relationship.

Concerns must be reported factually, proportionately, and in accordance with safeguarding, confidentiality, and data protection responsibilities.

Network Review and Removal

PAL CIC may review, pause or end a trainer’s participation where there are concerns about:

  • Dog welfare
  • Training methods
  • Safety
  • Insurance
  • Safeguarding
  • Discrimination
  • Professional conduct
  • Confidentiality or data protection
  • Misleading claims
  • Repeated client complaints
  • Failure to pay or report referral fees
  • Failure to follow the written agreement
  • Conduct that could seriously damage trust in PAL CIC or the pathway

Suspension or removal from the network does not necessarily determine the outcome of a client’s separate complaint or legal dispute.

Where appropriate, the trainer will be told the concern and given an opportunity to respond.

What the Partnership Does Not Mean

Joining the PAL CIC trainer network does not:

  • Make the trainer an employee of PAL CIC
  • Make the trainer a director or representative of PAL CIC
  • Guarantee referrals or income
  • Accredit every service the trainer provides
  • Certify the trainer as an assistance-dog specialist
  • Give automatic permission to use PAL CIC’s branding
  • Allow the trainer to issue PAL CIC assessments or certificates
  • Allow the trainer to describe clients as approved assistance-dog teams
  • Transfer responsibility for the trainer’s work to PAL CIC
  • Guarantee acceptance of every client
  • Prevent PAL CIC or the client from working with another professional

Any use of PAL CIC’s name, logo or partnership status must follow the written agreement.

Why Work With PAL CIC?

Working with PAL CIC can offer trainers:

  • Referrals suited to their location and areas of work
  • Clearer information about the support being requested
  • An individual pathway around the dog and handler
  • Support understanding accessibility needs
  • Opportunities to contribute to better assistance-dog access
  • Collaboration with other appropriate professionals
  • A way to support owner-trained assistance-dog teams without claiming expertise they do not hold
  • Connection with a disabled-led, welfare-centred social mission

The purpose is not to build the largest directory of trainers. It is to develop a trusted, diverse network capable of meeting real needs responsibly.

Express Your Interest

To enquire about working with PAL CIC, email contact@palcic.org and include:

  • Your name
  • Your business name
  • Your location and areas covered
  • Whether you offer online support
  • The services you provide
  • Your qualifications, education and experience
  • Your professional memberships, if applicable
  • Your insurance details
  • A link to your website or professional social media
  • The types of clients or training you particularly enjoy
  • Any relevant lived or professional experience
  • Your approach to training and dog welfare
  • Your experience supporting disabled or neurodivergent people
  • Any accessibility information about your services

An initial enquiry does not guarantee acceptance into the network. PAL CIC may request further information, evidence, references or a conversation before making a decision.

Email contact@palcic.org to introduce yourself.

Independent trainers. Shared values. More accessible support.