How we research

Every page on dogtrainingchicago.org starts from a sourced research sheet: city and county codes and agency pages for Chicago, the parks department, the certification bodies (CCPDT, KPA, IAABC) and trainers' own sites, and veterinary and extension sources for local hazards. Writing is assisted by AI and checked against those sources and an automated rules check before it is published. Pages name their sources in the text and list them at the end.

We list trainers only when their credential (such as CPDT-KA, KPA-CTP or IAABC) is shown on their own site or a certification directory. Listing is not a recommendation, and we do not rate trainers. We follow the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior's position on humane, reward-based training.

What we leave out

When a source does not state something, such as a price, a fee or a waitlist, we say so instead of estimating it. We do not claim expert review we have not had.