Why the Alphabet Soup Confuses Everyone
When a new handler passes their first instinct evaluation, the next question is almost always the same: what is this certificate actually called, and who issued it? The confusion is understandable. Three different organizations run herding programs in North America, each uses its own abbreviations, and they all overlap at the entry level.
This article is a credential map. It explains who awards what, why you keep seeing the same letters in different orders, and which path makes sense depending on your goals. It is deliberately different from our comparison of the instinct test versus a full herding trial — that piece compares the evaluation to competition. This one compares the awarding bodies and the titles they hand out.
The Three Organizations You Will Encounter
The AKC (American Kennel Club) runs the largest herding program by volume. Its entry-level credentials are the Herding Tested (HT) and Pre-Trial Tested (PT) titles. These are pass/fail evaluations that sit below the competitive trial classes (Started, Intermediate, Advanced). The AKC also hosts instinct tests at many of its events, but these are frequently administered by the breed parent clubs rather than the AKC itself.
The AHBA (American Herding Breed Association) is the organization most associated with the pure instinct evaluation. Its Herding Capability Test (HCT) is the classic “does this dog have it?” assessment, and the Junior Herding Dog (JHD) is a basic guided-course test one step up. The AHBA is also more generous about which breeds and mixes it will register, which matters if you own a non-AKC herding breed.
ASCA (Australian Shepherd Club of America) runs its own complete program. Originally built around the Aussie, it is open to all herding breeds. ASCA’s trial titles read as combinations like STDs, STDd, and STDc (Started Trial Dog on sheep, ducks, or cattle), and the club runs its own instinct and ranch-dog testing.
What “HIC” and “IT” Actually Mean
Here is the single most useful clarification for a newcomer. “HIC” — Herding Instinct Certified — is not, strictly speaking, an AKC title. It originated with breed parent clubs (the German Shepherd Dog Club of America popularized the term decades ago), and many clubs still award an instinct certificate after a dog passes a single supervised evaluation with stock.
So when you see “AKC HIC” advertised at a testing day, what is usually happening is that a breed club is running its instinct test at an AKC-sanctioned event. The certificate comes from the club; the venue is AKC. That distinction trips up a lot of people.
“IT” on a pedigree or record simply means “Instinct Tested” — a notation that the dog demonstrated working instinct in a supervised setting. It is a foundation marker, not a competition result. Seeing “IT” in front of a dog’s registered name tells you the dog showed instinct, nothing about trained skill. If you want to understand how that foundation translates into a meaningful evaluation, our guide on what test results actually mean breaks down the difference between a pass and a strong performance.
Why Two Judges and Two Legs Keep Coming Up
Once you move past the single-pass instinct certificate into a titled program, the rules tighten. Most titled credentials — AKC’s HT and PT, for example — require two qualifying legs under two different judges. A “leg” is one qualifying run; you need two of them, and they cannot both come from the same judge.
The reasoning is sound. A single evaluation can be skewed by a generous judge, a perfect set of stock, or pure luck. Requiring two judges on two separate days filters out flukes and confirms the result is repeatable. The instinct certificate, by contrast, usually needs only one supervised pass, because it is measuring presence of instinct rather than trained reliability. If you are aiming for a title rather than just a certificate, budget for at least two test days from the start.
Which Path Should You Choose?
Match the program to your actual goal rather than to whichever testing day appears first on the calendar.
- You just want to know if your dog has instinct. Start with an AHBA HCT or a breed-club instinct certificate. One day, one pass, a clear answer.
- You own a non-AKC breed or a registered mix. Lean toward AHBA. Its registration is the most inclusive, and it will recognize dogs the AKC program will not.
- You own an Australian Shepherd or want a ranch-style ladder. ASCA’s program was built for exactly this and progresses cleanly from instinct through started and beyond.
- You plan to compete seriously inside the AKC system. Begin with HT and PT, knowing each needs two legs under two judges, then move into the Started trial classes.
The good news is that these paths are not mutually exclusive. Plenty of dogs carry an AHBA instinct certificate, an AKC HT, and ASCA started legs all at once. Instinct is instinct; the organizations simply document it with different stationery.
Reading Across the Programs Without Getting Lost
A practical habit: whenever you see a string of letters after a dog’s name, separate them into two buckets — instinct markers (HIC, IT, HCT, JHD) and trial titles (HT, PT, Started/Intermediate/Advanced, ASCA’s STD series). The first bucket tells you the dog has natural ability. The second tells you the dog and handler have trained that ability into controlled work.
Before you commit to any program, confirm one thing with the evaluator running your test day: which organization’s paperwork you will actually receive. It is genuinely common for handlers to leave a testing day unsure whether they earned an AKC notation, an AHBA leg, or a breed-club certificate. Asking up front saves a frustrating phone call later. If you are still deciding whether your dog is ready for any of this, start with the fundamentals in what a herding instinct test is and work forward from there.
The Bottom Line
There is no single “official” herding instinct title, and that is the root of all the confusion. The AKC, AHBA, and ASCA each run legitimate programs with their own entry points. “HIC” is usually a breed-club certificate, “IT” means instinct tested, and titled credentials add the two-judge, two-leg requirement to weed out flukes. Pick the organization whose path matches your breed and your ambition, confirm the paperwork before you test, and the alphabet stops being intimidating very quickly.