REGULATE impact pillar

Focus

Drive regulatory and legislative change in how companion pets are defined within local and state laws and hold pet-focused businesses to higher levels of transparency, care and safety expectations through regulatory standards and guidelines.

Key Outputs & Activities

Contacting and meeting with city and state elected officials that can influence legislation.
Collecting stories from Austinites that have been impacted by lax boarding/training/daycare regulations or safety standards.
Evolving the definition of companion pets (dog, cats) from “property” to reflect that the pet is a living being and considered a part of families.
Advocating for mandatory reporting for injuries and deaths at daycare, boarding or training facilities and the creation of a publicly accessible database for citizens to look up facilities.
Advocating for firm requirements to begin a boarding/ daycare/training facility, such as:
- Annual pet-safety inspections
- Safety gates
- Security cameras when dogs are on the grounds
- At least one vet tech on payroll and physically on site at facility
- Mandatory communication procedures for pet parents (sickness, behavioral, injury, death)
- Documentation of all injuries, sickness, behaviorist issues, deaths on premises

Time & Donation Allocation

Texas has a problem

Our friends at Pancho's Promise have been working since 2021 to create legislation that regulates and monitors business that profit by boarding, kenneling, walking or grooming dogs. Pancho's Promise is named in memory of their dog, Pancho, who died while under the care of a dog

daycare business in Dallas, Texas.

Below is a snapshot compiled by Pancho's Promise that shows the reality of the dog

industry in Texas:

Did you know that dog care businesses do not require any licensing, training, or monitoring from the state?

In Texas, there is little or no regulation or oversight for businesses such as:

Dog boarders
Dog walkers
Dog groomers
Dog trainers

This means that these businesses, the owners, and the employees are not required to be educated, trained, or licensed to do any of these jobs. The state does not have any oversight for these businesses.

In comparison, here’s a short list of other professions that require a license in Texas:

Auctioneers
Interior designers
High school sports coaches
Salvage vehicle dealers
Barbers, including manicurists, hair weavers, hair braiders
Cosmetology, for eyelash extensions and manicures
And many more (see them all at Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation)

Did you know that if something happens to your dog while under the care of one of these businesses, there is no licensing agency that you can report them to?

If a dog care business injures or kills your dog, there is no state department or office that you can report them to. Your dog is dead, injured, or missing and the business keeps operating as if nothing happened. Sadly, we have heard of many stories where the same businesses kept harming or killing dogs but continued to operate for years, sometimes just changing the company name. With proper regulation, this wouldn’t be possible and these businesses wouldn’t be able to keep hurting dogs and dog families.

Did you know that a person can open a dog care business without any experience, training, or licensing requirements?

There is no way of verifying if the person caring for your dog has the skills to do so. In addition, you have no way to verify if they have been reported for violations or other issues. Anyone can simply wake up one morning and decide to start a dog care business.

Find out more and learn about the incredible work they are doing, here: https://panchospromise.com/

progress & updates

Launched 'The Roland Foundation for Dog Advocacy"

In July 2023, we launched our new and distinct safety advocacy brand, “The Roland Foundation for Dog Advocacy”. RSGC isn’t going anywhere and will still remain front and center as our overall brand.

The Roland Foundation brand will be utilized solely in efforts pertaining to safety, regulation and/or lobbying and will ensure more transparency into the regulatory efforts driven by RSGC.

Dog Daycare & Boarding Safety Research Launch

The stories, experiences and perspectives you all share will help us create a recommendation that we will be sharing with our local and state reps. The stories are what bring the urgency to life. The stories make this real. The stories ensure the memory of our dogs live on.

We will also be using this information to create a set of voluntary safeguards called “The Roland Standard” that will be shared with local daycares and boarding facilities to encourage them to adopt and raise the bar when it comes to safety, communication and transparency.

The survey closed on October 31, 2023. If you missed the survey, but have a story you can share it with us here.

In progress

Partner with other advocacy partners to influence Texas Legislature

(next session is in 2025)

Our hope is that this guide will help dog parents across Austin become stronger advocates for the needs of their shy dogs. Roland was our first dog and it was so overwhelming trying to figure out what was best for him.

This should act as a resource to think through the ways you can continue to enrich the life of your shy silly goose and ensure that you are advocating for their needs out in the world. It can feel like you need your dog is “supposed to be” the extroverted life of the party, but just like people - every dog is different!