Frequently Asked Questions
About Kids Best Friends

Kids Best Friends facilitates the placement of specialized security canines and handlers at K-12 school campuses for daily safety, prevention, and protection. Our dual-purpose dogs will proactively detect unauthorized firearms, and should a shooting-related crisis take place, they will respond on the scene in a matter of seconds, which will save lives.

Studies show that having a trained dog on campus serves as a double deterrent to potential harm to innocent students while also keeping unwanted and illegal substances from being distributed. Hospitals and schools with working dogs (detection and protection) report that the presence of their dogs and handlers is inextricably correlated with de-escalation of incidents situationally. (1)

Our dogs will alert their handlers if a threat is present. Different alerts apply to different situations. For example, a Kids Best Friends dog will know the difference between a moment of detection and an active shooter crisis and respond accordingly. The purpose of Kids Best Friends on your campus is to create a safer environment for everyone and that is achieved primarily through prevention and de-escalation.

Kids Best Friends' handlers are former marines that are highly trained, experienced, and unwaveringly capable in crisis situations. They have been vetted by Kids Best Friends and undergone extensive background checks, support, and training to become integral members of this mission and invested in the schools and communities they protect with their safety dog partners.

An average day for our Kids Best Friends teams will be determined by the customized security plan we create for each school. Generally, the day would consist of greeting students as they arrive at the start of the day, patrolling the campus, locker and classroom checks, lunchtime and recess patrol, exterior campus patrol, and overseeing sporting and special events.

Kids Best Friends carefully matches our dog and handler security teams with the school's needs. A custom onboarding will take place where the specialized security and training team will create a program and protocol designed to maximize campus and community safety.

Our dogs are predominantly working dog breeds such as German Shepherd Dogs, Dutch Shepherds, and Czech Shepherds. However, the program is not breed-specific; but rather about finding the right dogs for this job that have the aptitude, sociability, and discipline to work in schools.

Due to the large number of people who own animals, and dogs specifically, allergens from these animals can easily find their way onto a school campus through people's clothing and belongings. In fact, dog allergens are already found in almost every indoor facility. Our dogs will be bathed regularly and held to a high standard of allergen-aware cleanliness. They will not be regularly pet by students, reducing the transfer of hair further. Children with dog-specific allergies will be taken into consideration, and our teams will follow allergy-specific protocol to keep everyone happy and healthy.