Acceptance

These Terms & Conditions, together with the Privacy Policy incorporated here by reference, are a binding agreement between you and K9 Night Watch. You accept them by accessing, browsing or using any part of k9nightwatch.org or k9nightwatch.com — both of which serve this site — by running a team lookup, or by sending any form on the site — whether or not you have read them, and whether or not you register or identify yourself. Each visit renews your acceptance of the version then in force. If you do not agree to every term, your only remedy is to stop using the site.

Who we are

“K9 Night Watch,” “we” and “the program” mean K9 Night Watch, the organisation that owns and operates k9nightwatch.org and k9nightwatch.com (together, “the site”), operating at k9nightwatch.org. “Handler” means a person partnered with a K9 Night Watch dog. “Team” means a handler and dog together. “Record” means a team record published under Verify a team.

What this site is, and is not

This site publishes the law on service dogs as written in the primary sources, the published research on psychiatric service dogs, and the program’s own team records. It is information. It is not legal advice, it is not medical advice, and no attorney–client or clinician–patient relationship arises from reading it or writing to us. Statutes, regulations and agency guidance change; we quote them with the date we read them and do not warrant that they remain current.

Team records

A record confirms one fact: that a named dog and its handler completed this program, with the graduation date and current status. Every dog listed is a certified service dog of this program. A record is published for the benefit of the team. It exists so that a handler can show, where a program certificate carries legal weight — recognition by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs under 38 CFR 17.148(c)(1), Canadian carriers under the ATPDR, Mexican law under the LGIPD — that the team trained here.

No one may use a record, or the absence of one, to deny, delay, condition or question a handler’s access to anything. Under 28 CFR 36.302(c)(6) and 35.136(f) no U.S. business or public entity may require documentation that a service animal has been certified, trained or licensed. A business that asks for a record as a condition of entry is violating federal law, and we will say so to the regulator.

Prohibited conduct

You may not: (a) represent any dog as a K9 Night Watch dog, or any person as a K9 Night Watch handler, that is not; (b) fabricate, alter, guess at or circulate team numbers; (c) scrape, enumerate, mirror or bulk-query the record lookup; (d) use any information on this site to locate, contact, surveil or harass a handler; (e) interfere with, distract, feed, photograph for purposes of identification, or harm a K9 Night Watch dog; (f) impersonate the program, its staff or its volunteers; (g) reproduce the program’s name, logo or team numbers on any certificate, vest, tag or document.

Misrepresenting a service dog is a criminal offence in more than half of U.S. states and under provincial law in Canada. Interfering with or injuring a service dog is a crime in forty-six U.S. states and under provincial statutes. Where a person engages in any conduct in this section, we will support the handler’s criminal complaint, file our own where we have standing, and pursue every civil remedy available to us.

Our dogs

A K9 Night Watch dog’s status as a certified service dog continues for the life of the dog unless withdrawn by the program under its written standards. No third party acquires any right in, to, or over a K9 Night Watch dog through this site, through a record, or through any dealing with a handler. A dog is never surrendered, seized or re-homed at the demand of a landlord, business, carrier or agency; any such demand will be treated as a refusal of access and reported accordingly.

Reports of refusal

When a handler reports a refusal through this site we may: record it; transmit it to the regulator with jurisdiction — the Department of Justice, HUD, the Department of Transportation, the Canadian Transportation Agency, the Canadian Human Rights Commission, a provincial tribunal, CONAPRED, PROFECO or a state commission; share it with counsel for the handler or the program; and publish the name of a business or agency and the substance of the refusal once the refusal has been confirmed by the business’s own written statement or by a regulator’s finding. We never publish the handler’s name. We may pursue, support, fund or assign claims arising from a refusal to the fullest extent the law allows.

What you send us

By sending anything through a form on this site you grant the program a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free licence to use it for the purposes of advocacy, enforcement, program operations, aggregate statistics and the defence of the program and its teams. You confirm it is true and yours to send. We may decline, delete or act on any submission at our discretion.

Intellectual property

The site’s text, design, code, team-number scheme, the K9 Night Watch name and the K9 Night Watch mark are the program’s. Statutes and regulations quoted on the site are public records. Government emblems displayed on the site belong to their respective governments and are displayed to identify the services whose members we serve; no endorsement by any government is claimed or implied. Nothing on this site may be used to suggest that any government, agency or service endorses the program.

No warranty; limitation of liability

The site is provided as is. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the program, its directors, staff, volunteers, trainers and partners disclaim all warranties and all liability for any loss arising from the site, its content, a record, a lookup result, a form submission, or reliance on any of them, including indirect, consequential, special and punitive damages and lost profits. Where liability cannot be excluded it is limited to the greater of one hundred U.S. dollars or the minimum the law permits. Nothing in these terms limits liability for fraud or for anything that cannot be limited by law.

Indemnity

If you breach section 4, you will indemnify and hold harmless the program, its people and its handlers against every claim, loss, fine, penalty and cost, including legal fees, arising from the breach.

Governing law and disputes — any and all apply

These terms, and every dealing with the program, a handler or a K9 Night Watch dog, are governed by the laws of every jurisdiction that applies: the federal and state law of the United States, the federal and provincial law of Canada, the federal and state law of México, and the law of any other place where the program operates, a handler lives, or a dog is present. Where those laws differ, the one that gives the greatest protection to the dog, the handler and the program governs. The program may invoke any of them, and may bring a claim to protect a dog, a handler or itself in any court or tribunal of competent jurisdiction, anywhere, including for injunctive relief without posting bond, and may pursue the same conduct under more than one body of law at once.

Any claim against the program must be brought individually — not as a class, collective or representative action — within one year of the event giving rise to it, failing which it is barred, and you consent to the jurisdiction of whichever court the program designates among those with competent jurisdiction. Where mandatory law in your country of residence gives you rights that cannot be waived, those rights are unaffected.

Changes

We may revise these terms. The effective date at the top changes when we do, and continued use is acceptance. Material changes affecting handlers will be announced on the site.

Contact

Questions about these terms go through the contact page. Legal notices to K9 Night Watch must be sent to legal@k9nightwatch.org and are effective on receipt.