It received permission from Maritime New Zealand (MNZ), with conditions attached, on Tuesday.
The adventure tourism company had voluntarily suspended its activities on September 25 to allow MNZ to audit its activities.
This followed Black Sheep Adventures Ltd, Mad Dog's parent company, being fined $66,000 and ordered to pay $80,000 in reparation to the family of British tourist Emily Jordan after the company admitted two charges in August relating to her death in April last year.
Mad Dog was subject to a safety inspection by MNZ, held over two days last week, which also involved a company representative travelling to Wellington to meet senior MNZ staff.
MNZ Maritime Services general manager Sharyn Forsyth said in a statement yesterday a safety inspector and independent white-water expert examined the company's operational plan, hazard management system, equipment and on-river techniques.
She said the inspection highlighted some areas of the company's operational plan which needed improvement, "primarily relating to its safety briefings and hazard-identification system".
All those issues had now been resolved to MNZ's satisfaction, she said.
"We asked Mad Dog to revise the sections of the [ operational plan] that the inspectors had identified as requiring improvement. The company has done this, and the director has approved the amended [plan]."
Ms Forsyth said the MNZ director had imposed a condition on the company that it continue to operate according to the approved plan.
Any future changes had to be approved by the MNZ director before the company could implement them.
The director had also imposed a second condition, requiring the company to use personal flotation devices which met the standard set by white-water safety guidelines introduced by MNZ in February.
The condition effectively made voluntary compliance with the personal flotation device standards set by the guidelines compulsory.
In a statement yesterday, Mad Dog director Brad McLeod said his company had worked with MNZ to ensure the inspection was thorough.
"We are committed to working with MNZ to ensure the ongoing development and improvement of standards for Mad Dog and the river-boarding industry. We are pleased to implement the improvements MNZ has proposed," he said.
Mad Dog would now seek an independent external audit by the Register of Outdoor Safety Auditors and an independent peer review by the rafting industry.
"We welcome the input of MNZ and look forward to operating under agreed guidelines. We are committed to ensuring we operate to the highest possible standards."
Ms Forsyth said it was pleasing to see Mad Dog was seeking an independent review of its operation on top of the MNZ inspection.
MNZ would continue to monitor the river-boarding industry, working with operators to ensure they reached the standards set by the white-water-boarding safety guidelines, she said.
"This is a two-way relationship."
