Brain First Tested Award Standards™ explain the skill areas reviewed within the Crown & Collar Institute™ tested-award pathway.
These standards are original Crown & Collar Institute™ program standards. They are designed to recognize observed skill development, handler partnership, emotional regulation, public readiness, therapy-readiness foundations, service-dog candidate development, and documented working-team service.
These standards do not copy, replace, or represent AKC, therapy-dog organizations, legal service-dog certification, veterinary approval, school credit approval, or outside professional licensing.
How Testing Works
Brain First Tested Awards™ may be reviewed through live testing, approved video review, evaluator observation, supervised documentation, training logs, written readiness testing, service-hour logs, therapy-visit records, working-team records, specialist review, or review panel approval depending on the award level.
Possible review outcomes may include:
- Awarded
- Needs More Development
- Safety Stop / Review Required
- Documentation Pending
- Specialist Review Recommended
A dog or handler team may be asked to pause, practice, seek additional training, provide more documentation, or return for review later.
Required Across All Tested Awards
All Brain First Tested Awards™ are built around:
A dog may be stopped or redirected from testing if the dog appears unsafe, overwhelmed, injured, ill, aggressive, dangerously fearful, out of control, or not ready for the level being reviewed.
Brain First Manners Award™
PURPOSEThe Brain First Manners Award™ recognizes foundation manners, safe everyday behavior, handler connection, and beginner community readiness.
Skill areas may include:
- 01Calm greeting
The dog can remain reasonably calm while a friendly person approaches or speaks with the handler.
- 02Consent-aware touch and handling
The dog shows safe tolerance for appropriate handling, body awareness, and gentle touch without panic or threat behavior.
- 03Grooming and care cooperation
The dog can cooperate with simple care tasks such as looking at ears, paws, collar, coat, or basic grooming handling.
- 04Leash partnership
The dog can walk with the handler without constant pulling, dragging, lunging, or unsafe pressure.
- 05Handler focus
The dog can reconnect with the handler after mild distraction.
- 06Sit, down, wait, or settle foundation
The dog can respond to age-appropriate foundation cues or calm-position requests.
- 07Recall foundation
The dog can return toward the handler in a safe, age-appropriate setting.
- 08Neutral dog passing foundation
The dog can pass or observe another dog at a reasonable distance without unsafe escalation.
- 09Mild distraction recovery
The dog can recover after a mild sound, movement, object, or environmental change.
- 10Short supervised separation or distance confidence
The dog can tolerate a short, safe separation, distance exercise, or handler-position change appropriate to the dog's age and development.
Brain First Stability Award™
PURPOSEThe Brain First Stability Award™ recognizes emotional regulation, impulse control, recovery, calm waiting, and the ability to remain safe under mild real-world pressure.
Skill areas may include:
- 01Calm waiting
The dog can wait while the handler talks, fills out paperwork, sits, or pauses.
- 02Recovery after distraction
The dog can recover after a sound, movement, person, object, or environmental change.
- 03Neutral passing near people
The dog can move near people without unsafe jumping, lunging, crowding, or panic.
- 04Neutral passing near dogs
The dog can pass or remain near another dog at a safe distance without uncontrolled reaction.
- 05Leave-it foundation
The dog can avoid or disengage from a dropped item, food item, toy, or object when guided by the handler.
- 06Impulse control
The dog can pause before moving through a doorway, gate, threshold, or narrow space.
- 07Handler connection under pressure
The dog can reconnect with the handler after mild frustration, excitement, or uncertainty.
- 08Settling behavior
The dog can settle near the handler for a short period appropriate to the dog's age and training stage.
- 09Safe body language
The dog shows body language that supports safe participation or is appropriately supported by the handler if stress appears.
- 10Handler judgment
The handler shows the ability to recognize stress, prevent unsafe situations, and support the dog calmly.
Brain First Confidence Award™
PURPOSEThe Brain First Confidence Award™ recognizes a dog's ability to explore, recover, and remain connected to the handler around new or changing environments.
Skill areas may include:
- 01New surface confidence
The dog can move across or near safe novel surfaces such as mats, gravel, ramps, tile, grass, steps, or textured areas.
- 02Sound confidence
The dog can recover after reasonable everyday sounds.
- 03Object confidence
The dog can investigate or pass common objects such as signs, carts, bags, grooming tools, wheelchairs, umbrellas, or equipment.
- 04Movement confidence
The dog can remain safe around mild motion such as people walking, carts moving, doors opening, or objects being carried.
- 05Environmental change
The dog can move from one setting to another without unsafe shutdown or escalation.
- 06Trust in handler support
The dog can accept handler guidance without force, intimidation, or panic.
- 07Problem-solving
The dog can work through a simple age-appropriate challenge with encouragement.
- 08Recovery after startle
The dog can recover after a mild startle with handler support.
- 09Social neutrality
The dog can be near people or animals without needing to greet, flee, or react.
- 10Confidence without chaos
The dog shows curiosity, recovery, or calm effort rather than uncontrolled excitement or unsafe pressure.
Brain First Public Manners Award™
PURPOSEThe Brain First Public Manners Award™ recognizes advanced community behavior in public-style environments.
Skill areas may include:
- 01Controlled entry
The dog can enter a doorway, gate, building-style entrance, or public-style area under control.
- 02Controlled exit
The dog can leave calmly without rushing, dragging, barking, or disrupting the area.
- 03Sidewalk or pathway manners
The dog can walk on a public-style path without crowding others.
- 04Public waiting
The dog can wait near the handler in a line, lobby, seating area, check-in area, or public-style waiting space.
- 05Crowd awareness
The dog can remain safe near people moving around the team.
- 06Cart, stroller, wheelchair, or equipment neutrality
The dog can remain under control around common public objects and mobility-style equipment.
- 07Dropped-item refusal
The dog can ignore or disengage from dropped food, trash, toys, bags, or objects.
- 08Public settling
The dog can settle beside or near the handler in a public-style seating or standing area.
- 09Dog neutrality in public
The dog can remain safe and handler-connected when another dog is present at a reasonable distance.
- 10Public recovery
The dog can recover after a reasonable public distraction such as sound, movement, door noise, carts, people, or environmental pressure.
Brain First Therapy Readiness Award™
PURPOSEThe Brain First Therapy Readiness Award™ recognizes dogs and handlers preparing for therapy-style visiting, comfort, education, or facility support work.
This award does not replace certification, registration, screening, insurance, facility approval, or membership through an outside therapy-dog organization when such approval is required.
Skill and documentation areas may include:
- 01Gentle greeting
The dog can greet calmly without crowding, jumping, pawing, mouthing, or overwhelming a person.
- 02Consent-based interaction
The handler respects whether a person wants contact and whether the dog is comfortable participating.
- 03Calm touch tolerance
The dog can tolerate appropriate petting, gentle touch, and handler-guided interaction.
- 04Facility-style manners
The dog can move through hallways, waiting areas, rooms, or public-style spaces without disruption.
- 05Settling near people
The dog can settle near a chair, bed, table, wheelchair, or seated person when appropriate.
- 06Recovery after stimulation
The dog can recover after excitement, noise, movement, emotion, or increased attention.
- 07Handler awareness
The handler watches the dog, the person being visited, the environment, and safety boundaries.
- 08Cleanliness and care awareness
The handler understands grooming, sanitation, health, and visit-readiness expectations.
- 09Emotional suitability
The dog shows signs of enjoying or tolerating appropriate visiting work without being forced.
- 10Documentation readiness
The team may provide training notes, visit preparation notes, outside therapy organization records, or facility requirements when applicable.
Brain First Service Dog Candidate Award™
PURPOSEThe Brain First Service Dog Candidate Award™ recognizes a dog-and-handler team developing toward service-dog work.
This recognition is not legal service-dog certification. It does not prove disability, does not grant public-access rights, and does not require any public place, business, school, housing provider, transportation provider, or agency to accept the dog.
Skill and documentation areas may include:
- 01Public safety foundation
The dog can remain under control and safe around people, movement, objects, and public-style distractions.
- 02House-training and cleanliness readiness
The handler confirms appropriate house-training, health, grooming, and public cleanliness expectations.
- 03Handler control
The dog can remain under handler control through leash, harness, tether, voice, signal, or other appropriate control method.
- 04Neutral public behavior
The dog does not solicit attention, jump on strangers, steal food, threaten, lunge, bark repeatedly, or disrupt the public environment.
- 05Settle and stationing
The dog can settle beside, under, or near the handler without blocking traffic or interfering with others.
- 06Task-training foundation
The handler can describe task-training goals or trained behaviors connected to the handler's needs, without requiring public disclosure of private medical details.
- 07Recovery and resilience
The dog can recover from reasonable pressure, sound, movement, or environmental stress.
- 08Handler education
The handler understands service-dog responsibilities, public etiquette, dog welfare, and the difference between training recognition and legal access.
- 09Training records
The team may provide logs, notes, videos, instructor records, task-development notes, or progress documentation.
- 10Ethical clarity
The handler agrees not to use Crown & Collar recognition to mislead the public, bypass laws, or claim legal certification.
Brain First Working Team Recognition™
PURPOSEBrain First Working Team Recognition™ recognizes documented dog-and-handler teams that are actively contributing through therapy visits, service-dog task work, school or facility support, public education, youth education, community service, ambassador work, or other approved working-team roles.
Documentation areas may include:
- 01Description of working-team role
The team provides a clear explanation of the dog's role and setting.
- 02Handler responsibility
The handler demonstrates appropriate safety, control, care, documentation, and ethical judgment.
- 03Dog welfare
The dog's physical and emotional welfare are protected during work.
- 04Public benefit
The work provides educational, therapeutic, service, support, safety, or community benefit.
- 05Visit or service records
The team may provide visit logs, service-hour logs, facility notes, instructor notes, supervisor signatures, or other approved documentation.
- 06Continued suitability
The dog remains safe, willing, appropriate, and supported in the work.
- 07Community conduct
The team represents Crown & Collar, Brain First, LCTSD, Ruff Ruff Ranch, or related programs with respectful public behavior.
- 08Safety and emergency awareness
The handler understands safety planning, emergency reporting, and appropriate response boundaries.
- 09Review panel option
Complex cases may be reviewed by a specialist reviewer or review panel.
- 10Recognition record
Approved teams may be recognized through Crown & Collar profiles, award records, medallions, certificates, or other approved recognition materials.
Important Testing Notes
These standards are not intended to force every dog into the same role. A companion dog, therapy prospect, service-dog candidate, youth ambassador dog, senior dog, puppy, retired dog, or community education dog may each be reviewed according to the appropriate level, age, health, purpose, and developmental stage.
A dog may be excellent in one area and not appropriate for another. Therapy readiness does not automatically mean service-dog readiness. Service-dog candidate recognition does not automatically mean therapy suitability. Public manners do not automatically mean a dog should work in every environment.
Brain First means the dog's brain, body, emotions, safety, purpose, and partnership matter.
Brain First™, Brain First Tested Awards™, Brain First Tested Award Standards™, Brain First Manners Award™, Brain First Stability Award™, Brain First Confidence Award™, Brain First Public Manners Award™, Brain First Therapy Readiness Award™, Brain First Service Dog Candidate Award™, Brain First Working Team Recognition™, Crown & Collar Institute™, Crown & Collar Youth Ambassador™, Ruff Ruff Ranch™, Brain First Dog Training™, DogsNU™, and Lewis & Clark Therapy/Service Dogs™ are program names used within the L. Athena "Charity" Knowles educational and recognition ecosystem.