Frequently Asked Questions

A Holistic Therapy Dog is a dog recognised by this Association for the role it plays in the life of its household. The designation honours companionship, presence and constancy. It is not a measure of training, obedience or task performance.

No. Holistic Therapy Dogs are not therapy dogs and are not service dogs, and must not be represented as either. Clinical therapy animals and service animals are trained and certified by other organisations under entirely separate standards.

No. The certification confers no legal rights, privileges or protections whatsoever. It does not apply to air travel, housing, public accommodation, or any other setting governed by law. It is a novelty and commemorative product.

No. Airline access is governed by federal regulation and by each carrier's own policy. This credential has no bearing on either, and presenting it as though it does is a misuse of it.

No. Housing accommodations are a legal matter between a tenant, a landlord and, where applicable, a licensed healthcare provider. This certification plays no part in that process.

That a particular dog is central to a particular household. The registry records that recognition in a form that can be looked up, verified and kept.

The examination asks what your dog is to you rather than what it can be made to do. Owners who answer honestly find that their dog qualifies.

Any dog with a person who cares for it is eligible. There is no breed restriction, no age minimum, no size limit and no behavioural assessment.

It does not. The Association exists in large part for dogs that would not pass a conventional temperament assessment and are no less important to their households for it.

No. The registry holds no breed field. It is not relevant to what is being recognised.

Yes, and most owners of multiple dogs do. Each dog receives its own registry record and its own license number.

Complete the three-question credentialing examination, select your state of practice, enter your dog's registered name and city, upload a photograph, review the final preview and complete checkout. The registry record is created as soon as payment is confirmed.

No. Searching the registry and viewing dog profiles require no account. An account is created as part of registering a dog.

The state determines the prefix of the license number and is recorded on the public registry entry. Licenses are issued per state and per year.

Two letters for the state, two digits for the year, then a five-digit sequence number, for example CA26-01050. Numbers are issued in order and are never reused.

Immediately on confirmation of payment. The public profile is live before the diploma has been printed.

No. Registrations go live immediately. Listings can be reported for administrative review after the fact, and the Association removes entries that warrant removal.

A physical diploma with registration is $99.00. A digital-only registration is $19.00. Both include 2 years of licensure and the digital certificate.

Yes. The returning-customer discount is 25% off the base price of every additional dog, with no time limit and no code to enter: $99.00 becomes $74.25 and $19.00 becomes $14.25. It applies automatically at checkout.

Yes. A memorial record counts exactly as an active one does for discount eligibility. We are not going to charge a grieving owner full price on a technicality.

No. Renewals are $19.00 regardless of how many dogs you have registered.

Rush service is $30.00 and is available on physical orders only. It buys queue position and expedited shipping, not a different product. The diploma itself is identical.

No. The returning-customer discount applies to the base price only. Rush is a flat fee.

Payment is processed by Stripe and accepts major credit and debit cards. The Association does not see or store your card details.

Tax is calculated at checkout where applicable and is shown before you confirm payment.

A gold foil-stamped diploma bearing your dog's registered name and the date of issuance, in a protective holder.

No. The diploma carries the foil work, your dog's name and the date, and nothing else. Photographs are digital only: they appear on the public profile, in the registry gallery and on your account dashboard.

A digital-only registration is $19.00 and includes the same 2 years of licensure, the same registry entry and the same certificate PDF. Nothing ships. The option appears as a checkbox at the name preview step.

Registering the same dog again is not the intended path. Contact the Association and we will sort it out directly.

Yes. Every registration, physical or digital, includes a certificate PDF available from your account at any time. It always reflects your dog's current registered name.

Your confirmation email and your order tracker both carry a specific estimated delivery date, calculated from the current production schedule. They will always show the same date.

Diplomas are produced in batches, foil-stamped and assembled by hand. Your change window stays open for part of that time so the record is right before anything is printed.

The Association contacts you before the promised date passes, with a revised date. You should never learn about a delay by noticing it.

The order tracker in your account dashboard shows the current stage of production and, once your diploma ships, the tracking number.

Not at present. Shipping is domestic only.

The registry record and your PDF can be updated at any time, for any reason. What cannot change is a diploma that has already been printed.

12 days from the date of purchase for a standard order, and 24 hours for a rush order. The Request Changes link is live from the moment of checkout and disappears when the window closes.

The order locks and enters the next production batch. Changes are refused after that point, including by our own staff, because the print run has been committed.

Yes, at any time, from your account. Since the photograph is never printed, changing it has no bearing on the diploma.

JPEG, PNG, WebP and HEIC or HEIF, up to 25 megabytes. Photographs taken on an iPhone work without conversion.

A 4:5 portrait frame, used identically in the positioning tool, on the public profile, in the gallery and on your dashboard card. Images are stored at 300px and 1200px wide. What you frame is what everyone sees.

Yes. EXIF metadata, including GPS coordinates, is stripped on upload. The registry is publicly searchable and photographs should not carry a home address in them.

New photographs are reviewed before they join the homepage gallery. They appear on your dog's own profile page immediately.

2 years. For physical orders the term begins when your diploma ships, so no time is lost waiting on production. Digital registrations begin on the date of purchase.

$19.00 extends your dog's licensure by another 2 years and keeps the registry record current and publicly verifiable.

Yes. A reminder is sent roughly one month before expiry and again three days before.

The record remains in the registry and is marked expired. Nothing is deleted and the entry stays searchable.

No. A dog marked as a memorial remains in the registry permanently and without charge, and never expires.

From your account dashboard. The change is permanent and cannot be reversed, so the dashboard asks you to confirm it.

The status badge changes, the expiration date is removed, renewal notices stop, and the entry remains publicly searchable for good.

Your dog's registered name, city, state, license number, activation and expiration dates, status and photograph. Your own name, email address and shipping address are never published.

Yes. Marking a dog private removes it from search results and from the public profile page entirely while keeping it visible in your own account.

No. Dog profiles are view-only and carry no contact feature of any kind. Nobody is solicited through this registry.

Yes. Write to the Association and we will delete your account record. Public dog records and the underlying transaction records are retained.

With Google, with Facebook, or with an email address and password. There is no separate sign-up page: entering an email we do not recognise begins account creation.

Every order confirmation, change reminder, shipping notice and renewal notice goes to that address. An unverified account cannot complete checkout.

Use the forgot-password link on the sign-in page. The emailed link is valid for 24 hours and can be used once.

Through the preferences centre in your account settings, or the unsubscribe link on any message. Transactional notices about an order you have placed are still sent.

Yes. Deactivating your account prevents sign-in and renewal while preserving your dogs' public registry entries.

Yes. You pay, and your recipient receives an activation link, creates their own account and registers their own dog.

No. A gift covers the registration; the recipient completes it themselves. This is deliberate.

To the recipient, who provides the shipping address when they redeem the gift. The purchaser is never asked for it.

Registrations are non-refundable as a matter of policy. In practice, if something has gone wrong, write to the Association before your order is printed and we will deal with it sensibly.

Contact the Association through the contact page, quoting your order number, before the change window closes.

Tell us and we will reprint it. There is no second charge and your dog's license number does not change.

The checkout page shows the reason given by your bank and lets you try again immediately. No registration is created until payment is confirmed.

Payment confirmation can take a moment. The success page waits for it and, if something has genuinely gone wrong, gives you a reference number to quote when you contact us.

Use Verify a License. Search by first name, last name, or both. State is optional and never required.

Add a state or a last name. The registry caps results at two pages and asks you to refine rather than paging endlessly.

Verifying a license is a records lookup. Photographs appear on the individual profile page, the same way verifying a contractor or a therapist does not show you a face.

Every public profile carries a report button. Reports go to an administrative review queue and are looked at by a person.