Service Dog Trainers are Barely Regulated, leading to Incompetence and Fraud

​All the counseling, therapy and medication did little to ease 9-year-old Sobie Cummings’ crippling anxiety and feelings of isolation. And so a psychiatrist suggested that a service dog might help the autistic child connect with other kids. To Glenn and Rachel Cummings, Mark Mathis seemed like a dream come true. His kennel, Ry-Con Service Dogs, was just a couple of hours away, and he, too, had a child with autism. But what clinched the decision were Mathis’ credentials. “Is Ry-Con a certified program? Yes,” stated an online brochure. “In 2013, Mark was certified as a North Carolina state-approved service dog trainer with a specialty in autism service dogs for children.”

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