Dog Daycare Client Intake Checklist

Client Intake Checklist for Dog Daycares: What to Ask Before the First Visit

A dog daycare intake form should make the first visit safer and smoother. It should not be a generic marketing form. Staff need owner contact details, pet context, behaviour notes, health requirements, billing expectations, and permission to contact the client when plans change.

For broader software evaluation, read software for dog daycares.

Owner And Emergency Details

Collect:

• Owner name
• Phone number
• Email
• Address
• Preferred contact method
• Emergency contact name and phone
• Approved pickup people
• SMS reminder consent

Make emergency contact a required structured field. Do not leave it inside a free-text note.

Why "Friendly" Answers Mislead Daycare Staff

Owners answering intake questions about temperament are usually thinking about how their dog behaves at home or on walks, not how it reacts to the specific stressors of group daycare: being surrounded by unfamiliar dogs, competing for toys or attention, or navigating a loud, high-energy environment all day. That gap between "friendly in general" and "safe in group play" is one of the most common causes of an intake form quietly failing at the one job it exists to do.

A dog that is genuinely gentle with people and familiar dogs can still become overwhelmed, defensive, or overstimulated in a group daycare setting purely because that specific environment has never been part of its normal experience. An owner answering "very friendly, no issues" is being honest about what they've observed, not concealing anything, but the answer still leaves staff unprepared for a reaction that only shows up under group-play conditions. This is why daycare intake needs to ask about group settings by name, rather than trusting a general temperament question to surface a risk the owner may never have had reason to notice.

Pet Profile

Collect:

• Pet name
• Breed or type
• Age or date of birth
• Sex and neuter/spay status, if relevant
• Vet contact, if part of your process
• Identification notes, if used
• Photo, if the team uses one for check-in

Only collect fields staff will actually use. Long forms create noise when half the answers are ignored.

Behaviour And Group Play

Ask about:

• Separation anxiety
• Reactivity around dogs or people
• Food guarding
• Toy guarding
• Escape attempts
• Handling sensitivity
• Noise sensitivity
• Previous daycare or group-play experience
• Known bite or aggression history

Neutral wording matters. "What helps your dog feel comfortable in group settings?" gets better answers than "Is your dog aggressive?"

Trial Days Deserve Their Own Structured Assessment

A trial day is operationally distinct from a regular booking, since it's genuinely an evaluation, not just a service delivery, and treating it as just another appointment misses that. The trial exists specifically to answer a question a generic intake form can't fully answer on its own: does this particular dog handle group daycare well enough to become a regular attendee.

That means trial-day intake benefits from a specific, structured outcome field, accept, decline, or recommend a different service, rather than assuming every trial simply results in enrollment. Staff observing a trial should have a clear, quick way to record what they saw (any reactivity, how the dog settled in, any concerns) and connect that observation directly to a decision about ongoing enrollment, rather than relying on memory or an informal conversation after the fact.

Health, Food, And Policy

Ask:

• Vaccination or policy requirements
• Allergies or restrictions
• Medication notes, only if staff are prepared to review them
• Feeding instructions, if daycare provides meals or treats
• Emergency care permission, if part of your terms
• Cancellation/no-show policy acknowledgement
• Photo or social media permission, if used

If a health answer changes whether the dog can attend, route it for staff review before trial day.

Package Billing Confusion Is A Recurring, Avoidable Problem

Daycare businesses selling day packs or open-use memberships face a billing gap that shows up repeatedly at intake: nobody confirmed at the outset who's actually responsible for the ongoing package cost, especially for households where one parent brought the dog to the trial but a different family member handles the household budget and payment method.

Asking directly at intake who should be billed for ongoing packages, and confirming that person understands the package terms (session counting, renewal timing, cancellation rules), prevents a recurring source of billing disputes down the line that a vaguer "who dropped off the dog" assumption doesn't reliably resolve.

Trial Day And Billing

Ask:

• Requested first visit date
• Drop-off window
• Collection window
• Service type
• Package or membership interest
• Billing contact
• Deposit or prepayment acknowledgement, if used

Pair the form with dog daycare reminder templates so missing intake details are followed up before the client arrives.

Intake Workflow To Test

Before publishing a daycare form, test the path from answer to staff action:

• A new owner submits emergency contact details.
• A behaviour concern is easy for staff to find before trial day.
• A vaccination or policy answer is reviewed before confirmation.
• A package or billing preference is visible before payment discussion.
• A reminder can mention missing intake details without exposing sensitive notes.
• A returning client can update changed information before a new service period.

Tregovia can be evaluated when daycare intake needs to sit beside client records, appointments, reminders, billing context, online booking, and optional form submissions. Do not claim every form answer automatically becomes a live daycare care plan unless that exact workflow is verified.

Use dog daycare reminder templates, software for dog daycares, and EU data hosting and client data before collecting sensitive operational details.

Dog Daycare Intake Questions

What should a dog daycare intake form ask?

Ask for owner contact details, emergency contact, pet identity, behaviour notes, health or vaccination requirements, feeding restrictions, trial-day needs, package or billing preference, and reminder consent.

Should daycare intake ask about behaviour?

Yes, but phrase it neutrally. Ask about reactivity, separation anxiety, food guarding, escape risk, handling sensitivity, and group-play concerns so staff can prepare.

When should intake be completed?

First-time clients should complete intake before trial day or before the first confirmed booking. Repeat clients should confirm changes before each new service period.

Where does Tregovia fit?

Tregovia can be evaluated when daycare intake needs to sit beside client records, appointments, reminders, billing context, online booking, and optional form submissions.

What should be measured?

Track incomplete forms, missing emergency contacts, trial-day delays, staff follow-up calls, package billing disputes, and incidents caused by missing intake information.

Keeping The Form Short Enough To Actually Complete

Every question added to intake is a small tax on completion, and daycare forms in particular risk over-asking because so many behavioral details genuinely feel relevant to group play safety. The useful discipline is asking, for each candidate question, whether the answer changes whether the dog is accepted, how staff group it during play, or what gets watched for during the visit. If none of those apply, the question is probably better left for the trial-day observation than added to a form owners might otherwise abandon.

Intake Rule

Dog daycare intake should turn first-visit uncertainty into staff-ready context. Keep the form structured, collect only what staff use, and review high-risk answers before trial day.