Why the Working Dogs of Nevada Case Is a Wake-Up Call for Dog Training Laws

Before John Johnstone and Tabitha Berube were arrested for animal cruelty at Working Dogs of Nevada, they were licensed to operate a business in Las Vegas. That is it.

There was no trainer certification required, no competency test, no inspection of their methods, and no state body with the authority to pull their credentials if something went wrong.

That is not an oversight in how the Working Dogs case was handled. It is how Nevada works for every dog trainer operating in this state right now.

Nevada does not license dog trainers.

Anyone can open a facility, call themselves a professional, charge owners hundreds or thousands of dollars, and take custody of their dogs without demonstrating a single qualification. I

f a trainer boards dogs overnight they may need a local kennel permit, but that permit covers sanitation and housing standards, not whether the person holding the leash knows what they are doing or is doing it humanely.

The families who brought their dogs to Working Dogs of Nevada did so because they trusted that the business was what it said it was.

They had no way to verify training credentials because there are no mandatory credentials to verify. Nevada gave them nothing to check.

This is not an argument against professional dog trainers in Las Vegas, the vast majority of whom are skilled, ethical, and certified through voluntary bodies like the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers or the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants.

It is an argument that the good ones deserve a system that distinguishes them from the bad ones, and that dog owners deserve the same protection in a training facility that they get from a hair salon, a tattoo parlour, or a childcare provider.

All of those professions require state licensing in Nevada. A dog trainer does not.

The Working Dogs case is moving through the courts, and the two defendants face serious animal cruelty charges that carry real consequences if proven. But criminal prosecution after the fact is not a system.

It is a last resort.

35 dogs had to suffer before anyone with authority could intervene, and even now the 31 remaining under a legal hold at The Animal Foundation are stuck in limbo while the courts move at the pace courts move.

Licensing would not have guaranteed that none of this happened.

But it would have created a mechanism for oversight before animals were harmed, a body to receive complaints, a standard against which conduct could be measured, and a credential that could be revoked.

Nevada has shown it can move quickly on animal welfare when it wants to.

Las Vegas banned pet store sales. Henderson passed Reba’s Law. Clark County mandated microchipping. These were not easy votes and they happened because advocates pushed and lawmakers listened.

Mandatory licensing for professional dog trainers is the next logical step. The Working Dogs of Nevada case has given the Nevada Legislature every reason it needs to act.

The question is whether anyone is paying attention.