Sherlock Hounds Assistance Dogs advocate for responsible and ethical animal training and ownership, this means we promote and remind all members that they have a duty of care for their working dog.
As part of the Animal Welfare Act (2006), the concept of a 'duty of care' (DOC) refers to the legal obligation of anyone responsible for an animal to take reasonable steps to ensure that the animal's needs are met. Accordingly, they need to look after the animal's welfare, as well as ensure that it does not suffer. Dogs should have freedom from pain, injury and disease – animals should be inspected regularly to make sure they are well. Any that appear to be ill, diseased or injured must be cared for without delay. If they do not respond to that care, professional advice must be sought without delay. Sherlock Hounds Assistance Dogs believes in meeting your dog's hierarchy of needs as well as the practise of ethical dog welfare.

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Feeding

• Make sure your dog eats a balanced diet suitable for their individual needs and maintains a stable weight that is neither over nor underweight for their age, level of activity, sex, breed and state of health. Do not let your dog overeat or they will become obese, and do not feed too little or your dog will be underweight. Remember not all dogs like the same food and you may need to try a few brands before you find one that your dog enjoys and gives them a balance nutritional diet.  Seek veterinarian advice if you are unsure.

Shelter & Water

• It is your responsibility to provide your dog with a safe, clean, quiet environment. Make sure that you provide adequate protection from hazards and ensure your dog has a suitably dry place to rest, this could be inside your home or outside.  Your dog must also be able to find shade in the summer and warm during winter. Water should be available for your dog at all times, this includes when you go out.  To do this you should ensure that you have a portable method for giving your dog water before they become thirsty or overheat.  There are many different products on the market including, portable and collapsible bowls, water bottles with drinking trough, roller ball drinking bottles etc.

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Exercise

• All dog’s need to be exercised with their breed, temperament and workload in mind.  When exercising a puppy, you should be mindful of their developing bodies, especially in larger breeds as over exercise could pose an increased risk of joint problems later in life including if your puppy likes to jump. It is advisable that when exercising a puppy you allow for 5 minutes exercise per month in age, so if your puppy is 8 months old you should look to exercise your puppy for 40 minutes at a time.  All dog’s require daily exercise even if this means a play in your garden.  If you are unable to exercise your dog daily you may wish to consider a professional dog walker.  Please ensure that they are properly licenced and insured.

Training

• Sherlock Hounds Assistance Dogs does not condone or approve of items including but not exclusively, prong collars, shock collars, choke chains, retractable leads (while on duty), or chain leads, sherlock hounds. Training which includes physical punishment may cause pain, suffering and distress. These techniques can compromise dog welfare, lead to behavioural suppression and worsen the problems they aim to address. It is the recommendation of Sherlock Hounds Assistance Dogs, that you should train your dog using a mixture of Reward Based Learning and Extinction methods. There are 4 quadrants to operant conditioning when training a dog these are as well as one method for extinction based learning:
   

• Positive reinforcement (R+) which means that something is ADDED to INCREASE the future likelihood of a behaviour.  For example, you give the dog a treat after he sits to make it more likely that they will sit again in the future.
   

• Negative reinforcement (R-) which means that something is REMOVED to INCREASE the future likelihood of a behaviour.  For example, in the forced retrieve, a dog’s ear is pinched to force it to open its mouth to take the item.  When the dog opens its mouth – which is what you are wanting – the ear pinch is released.  This way the dog is more likely to open its mouth for an item in the future.
   

• Positive punishment (P+) which means that something is ADDED to DECREASE the future likelihood of a behaviour.  For example, a squirt of water is applied to discourage a dog from jumping up.

• Negative punishment (P-) which means that something is REMOVED to DECREASE the future likelihood of a behaviour.  For example, a dog jumps on you to get attention.  When your dog jumps, you turn away, removing your attention.  Your dog will then be less likely to jump for attention.
   

• Extinction which means that NOTHING is added or removed to increase or decrease the future likelihood of a behaviour.  For example, if you want your dog to sit, you cue a sit and your dog does it, click and treat, if on the other hand your dog does not give a sit, you do nothing, no click, no reward, no vocal or physical response.  Move onto another cue.  Your dog will learn that what they did got them no reward and so is less likely to offer the behaviour it did again to the cue used.
   

• All dogs have the right to be trained in a method that is consistent and compassionate, your main thought when training should be for the welfare of your dog and Sherlock Hounds therefore recommends the main use of positive reinforcement methods.