Certificates & Awards

Certificates & Awards is the page for everything others gave your profile: awards (from a competition, a show, a business or a school), badges and certificates. It’s on every kind of profile: a person, a business or a place.

An award is only proof when whoever gave it agrees. So every award on United Pet Club has a status:

An award you add and say who gave it: if the giver is on United Pet Club, they’re asked to confirm it.
An award a business gives you: you accept it (or decline it) before it shows on your profile.

Where

In the Dashboard, open My Profile → Certificates & Awards (on a business, My Business; on a place, My Place). The page is at /dashboard/awards. It comes right after Work samples in the section, and the section’s overview page has a Certificates & Awards tile too (Awards, badges and certificates given to this profile.).

The page shows Awards, badges and certificates that others and UPC gave this profile. under its title, an Add award button, and these tabs:

Tab	What’s in it	Who sees the tab
Received	Every award on your profile, grouped by where it stands	Everyone
Requests	Awards other members added that name your profile as the giver, waiting for you	Only while there is a request (the tab shows how many)
Given	Awards your business gave to others	Business profiles
Badges	Your Helper badges and UPC recognitions	Everyone
Certificates	Your course certificates, and the way to your pets’ certificates	Everyone

A link from a notification opens the right tab.

What the statuses mean

Status	What it means	Who sees it
Confirmed	Whoever gave the award confirmed it (or you accepted an award a business gave you).	Everyone who can see your awards, with a Confirmed mark
Not confirmed	You added it, and the giver hasn’t confirmed it: the giver isn’t on United Pet Club, or nobody was asked yet.	Everyone who can see your awards, marked Not confirmed
Pending	Waiting for a decision: the giver’s, on an award you added, or yours, on an award a business gave you.	Only you (and the giver)
Declined	The giver didn’t confirm an award you added, or you declined an award a business gave you.	Only you (and the giver)
Withdrawn	A business took back an award it gave you.	Only you (and the business)

Next to each status, the page says who has to act or who decided, for example Waiting for Groom Expo to confirm, Waiting for you to accept, or Groom Expo declined it.

The Received tab

The Received tab groups your awards:

Group	What’s in it
Pending	Awards waiting for a decision: yours to accept, or the giver’s to confirm. Awards a business gave you come first.
Confirmed	The giver confirmed these. Visitors see them with a Confirmed mark.
Not confirmed	Awards you added. Visitors see them marked Not confirmed until the giver confirms.
Declined and withdrawn	Only you can see these.

Each award shows its title, who gave it (a link when the giver is on United Pet Club), its type and month, its status, and any details.

If you have no awards yet, the tab says No awards yet and offers Add award.

Add an award and ask the giver to confirm it

Select Add award at the top of the page (or Add on the Awards and competitions card of your career portfolio: it’s the same list).
Fill in the Award, for example Best in Show, Groom Expo 2025 (up to 200 characters).
Under Awarded by, start typing who gave it:
- If they’re on United Pet Club, pick their profile from the list. A note says {name} is asked to confirm this award. Only you can see it until they do.
- If they aren’t, choose Use “…” as text. A note says A giver who isn’t on UPC can’t confirm awards, so this one shows as Not confirmed.
Choose the Type and, if you like, the Date and Details (optional) (up to 1,000 characters).
Select Add. You’ll see Award added.

An award whose giver is on United Pet Club starts as Pending, and the giver gets a notification. Visitors don’t see it until the giver confirms it. An award with a text-only giver is saved as Not confirmed and shows on your profile straight away, marked that way.

Ask to confirm an older award

Awards you added before awards could be confirmed are Not confirmed, and nobody was asked. If the giver is a United Pet Club profile, the award has an Ask to confirm button: select it and the award becomes Pending while the giver decides. You’ll see Request sent.

Change or remove an award you added

Edit opens the award. If you change the title, type, giver, date or details of a Confirmed award, the giver is asked to confirm it again, and it’s Pending until they do. The window warns you first: This award is confirmed. If you change it, {name} is asked to confirm it again.
Changing the giver to a text name makes the award Not confirmed.
An award the giver declined can’t be edited. You can only remove it.
To delete an award, select Remove in its Edit window. An award you can’t edit (one the giver declined, or one a business gave you) has its own Remove button, which asks first (“{title}” is removed from your profile. This can’t be undone.). If the award was waiting for the giver, the request goes with it.

When the giver declines, the award moves to Declined and withdrawn, with their note if they left one: Note from {name}: …

Accept or decline an award a business gave you

When a business on United Pet Club gives you an award, it appears at the top of Pending with {business} wants to give you this award. and you get a notification.

Accept: the award becomes Confirmed and shows on your profile with a Confirmed mark. The business is told.
Decline: you’re asked Decline this award? ({business} is told you declined “{title}”. It won’t show on your profile.). Select Decline award. The award leaves your list; the business still sees it as declined.

You can’t edit an award a business gave you: it’s the business’s wording. Once you’ve accepted it, you can Remove it from your profile at any time.

If the business later changes an award you accepted, you’re asked to accept it again. If the business withdraws it, it leaves your public profile and moves to Declined and withdrawn ({business} withdrew it).

Confirm or decline an award that names you

When a member adds an award and picks your profile as the giver, the Requests tab appears with a count, and you get a notification. The tab is titled Waiting for your confirmation: These members say this profile gave them an award. Confirm the ones you gave, and they show as Confirmed on their profile. Each request says who added it (Added by {name}).

Confirm: the award shows as Confirmed on the member’s profile, and they’re told.
Decline: the window asks Decline this award? ({name} is told you didn’t confirm “{title}”. It stays off their public profile.). You can add a Note to {name} (optional), up to 300 characters, for example we have no record of this award. Select Decline award.

A decision can’t be changed afterwards. On a business, anyone on the team who can edit the business profile can confirm or decline for it.

Give an award (businesses)

A business can recognize a member, another business or a place on United Pet Club. Open the Given tab (Awards you gave: Each award waits for the recipient to accept it, then shows on their profile.).

Select Give an award.
Under Give it to, search by name or @handle and pick the profile. Only United Pet Club profiles can receive an award (someone has to accept it), and not your own.
Fill in the Award, the Type, and if you like the Date and Details (optional).
Select Give award. You’ll see Award given.

The award is Pending until the recipient accepts it. They get a notification, and you get one when they accept or decline.

Edit changes the title, type, date or details (the recipient stays the same). Changing an award they already accepted asks them to accept it again: Saving asks {name} to accept the award again.
Withdraw takes it back after you confirm. A pending award simply disappears ({name} is no longer asked to accept “{title}”.); an accepted one is removed from their profile (“{title}” is removed from {name}‘s profile.). The recipient isn’t notified.
A declined or withdrawn award stays in your list for your records, and can’t be changed.

Limits

A profile can hold up to 30 awards (declined and withdrawn ones don’t count).
A business can have up to 3 awards waiting for the same recipient’s answer.
You can’t give an award to a profile you also run (the same owners as your business).

Badges

The Badges tab has two cards:

Helper badges: Earned by watching ads that help animals in need. It shows how many ads you’ve watched and your badges, from First Helper to Legend. See Help animals by watching an ad.
UPC recognitions: Recognitions and credentials UPC has verified for this profile. For example Recognized Shelter / Rescue, Veterinary License or Business Verified, each with the date it applies from and, if it has one, Valid until a date. Until you hold one, the card says No UPC recognitions yet.

Certificates

The Certificates tab has your Course certificates (Certificates for courses this profile completed on UPC.): each shows the course, who issued it and the date. View opens it full size and Download PDF saves it. See Taking a course.

Below it, Pet certificates (Keepsake certificates that businesses gave your pets stay with them under Pets.) and Open pet certificates take you to your pets’ certificates.

What visitors see

Visitors only ever see Confirmed and Not confirmed awards. Pending, declined and withdrawn awards are private to you and the giver.
Confirmed has a check mark; pointing at it says The giver confirmed this award on UPC. Not confirmed says Added by the member. The giver hasn’t confirmed it.
On a personal profile, your awards show in the Awards and competitions section of your career portfolio, for whoever that section is shared with.
If a giver’s profile closes while your award is still pending, visitors see it as Not confirmed.

Notifications

Award notifications arrive in the bell of the profile they’re for, and open the right tab of this page:

You see	When	Bell tab	Opens
Please confirm an award: {title}	A member added an award naming your profile	Focused	Requests
You received an award: {title}	A business gave you an award	Focused	Received
Your award was confirmed: {title}	The giver confirmed an award you added	Other	Received
Your award was not confirmed: {title}	The giver declined it, with Note from the issuer: … if they left one	Other	Received
The award you gave was accepted: {title}	The recipient accepted your business’s award	Other	Given
The award you gave was declined: {title}	The recipient declined it	Other	Given

There is no notification when a business withdraws an award.

If something went wrong

If a step can’t be done, the change is undone and a message says it didn’t save. The usual reasons:

The award changed in the meantime, for example the giver answered while you had the page open. Reload the page and look again.
Your profile already has 30 awards. Remove one you no longer need.
The giver isn’t on United Pet Club, or their profile is closed: there’s nobody to ask, so the award stays Not confirmed.
You run both profiles: you can’t confirm your own award, or give one to a profile you also run.
A business already has 3 awards waiting for you to accept: answer those first.