WDDO is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization……a group of scent detection canine handlers and trainers with a goal.…to improve the field of canine scent detection. We are police officers, fire fighters, public and private investigators, pest control professionals, mold inspectors, search and rescue personnel and others. But one important thing we all have in common is we depend on canine scent detection as a part of our livelihood.

...is to improve the accuracy, dependability and performance of detector dog teams and to improve the legal defensibility of detector dog team performance. We will achieve these goals through quality training, education and focused evaluation of detector dog teams and trainers. It is further our mission to help member owners and handlers be the best in the industry. In addition, we are a resource center, bringing inspector K-9 teams together for the purpose of better networking and communication.

There seems to be some confusion about World Detector Dog Organization and its mission and purpose. I think it’s time to clear the air about a couple of issues.

So let’s talk about the mission and why WDDO was formed in the first place. WDDO’s original mission was to support the profession of K9 scent detection by offering a standardized and scientifically defensible means of testing K9 scent detection teams. This mission would be accomplished through strict adherence to demanding performance standards that could evolve with advances in the science of K9 scent detection. To further clarify, WDDO’s mission, it is about performance, not methodology.

Minimum performance standards, required for certification are set within WDDO based on the advice of veterinary professionals and the consensus of member professional trainers. In order to achieve certification as a WDDO handler, a person and a dog, as a team, must demonstrate that they can do two basic things; One, find a target odor when it is present in an area and Two, show that they can reliably determine when no such odor exists in a given area.

One more thing that is important to state here is that there is no such thing as a certified dog or a certified handler, there are only certified teams consisting of a human handler and a K9. It is indicative of a trainer’s lack of professionalism and technical knowledge for him or her to advertise that he or she has “certified dogs”.

As for trainers, if a trainer can teach a dog and handler to perform at a level acceptable to WDDO, and the handler and dog can then successfully challenge a WDDO performance test, the trainer can earn a certification from WDDO. This certification is not meant as an endorsement of that trainer’s business or training methodology nor is it meant to allow that trainer to claim a credential by association with other trainers within WDDO. What it does mean is that such a trainer has demonstrated his or her ability to train a dog and a human partner to detect some specific odor. I want to reiterate here such a certification does not give a trainer license to associate him or herself with the credentials obtained by other WDDO trainers or to market themselves as having credentials or experience based on experience and training not their own.

Finally, here’s what WDDO is not - a K9 training organization. WDDO does not endorse nor promote any dog training methodology or dog trainer. Therefore, qualifying as a member trainer does not represent a WDDO endorsement of a training methodology. If a trainer claims to use “WDDO methods” to train dogs, there is a problem; no such methodology exists. The methods used by member trainers (most of them anyway) were developed through the hard work of the individual trainers during many years of training and field experience, working and training military, police and other dogs.

The bottom line is that WDDO was not formed to enhance or further the careers of aspiring dog trainers. Member trainers who claim such an endorsement either of WDDO or of other WDDO trainers through association or inference are not being completely honest with their customers.

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