The problem
It is the Friday before the August bank holiday. A car pulls up, a dog gets out, and the owner hands over a vaccination card. The kennel cough vaccination was given four days ago. Your policy is fourteen. The owner is going to the airport in two hours and did not know.
Nobody in that conversation is being unreasonable. The owner read your website, which said "all dogs must be fully vaccinated", and reasonably assumed a recent booster counted. The requirement existed. It just was not stated anywhere the owner would find it in time.
Every kennel and daycare has a version of this: the entire male turning up for a group daycare session, the puppy three weeks under your minimum age, the dog with no flea treatment, the vaccination card that has been left on the kitchen table. Each one costs a difficult doorstep conversation, sometimes a refused booking and a refund, and occasionally a review that says you were inflexible.
The requirements owners actually need spelled out
Write these out in your own words, then put them on the site.
Vaccinations. Which ones, and how many days before arrival. Say the timing explicitly, because that is the part that catches people. If you accept titre testing, say so. If you require kennel cough for daycare as well as boarding, say that too.
Neutering. Above what age, and whether the policy differs between daycare groups and boarding. If you take entire males in single accommodation but not in group play, say it in that many words.
Age. Minimum puppy age, and whether the vaccination course has to be complete first.
Parasite treatment. Flea and worm treatment, and how recently.
Temperament and history. What behaviour you cannot accommodate, honestly and without menace. Dogs that resource guard around other dogs. Dogs with a bite history. Dogs that cannot be left alone. It is kinder to say it than to assess and refuse.
Health. What you need to know about medication, diet, allergies, and dogs that are elderly or recovering.
Vet and emergency authority. Your policy if a dog needs treatment while the owner is unreachable, and the spending limit you will act up to.
Put them where they are read
Not in the terms and conditions. Requirements belong in three places: a short block on the daycare page, the same block on the boarding page, and a fuller version on the assessment page, which is where a first-time owner will be.
Write them as sentences, not as a wall of bullet points with the word "must" eleven times. "Kennel cough at least fourteen days before arrival, because the vaccine needs that long to work" reads as care. "Dogs MUST be vaccinated" reads as a sign on a gate.
Then collect them, in the booking flow
Stating them stops most of the surprises. Collecting them stops the rest.
Gingr, PetExec, Revelation Pets and Kennel Connection all hold vaccination records against the animal with expiry dates, and all of them can carry custom agreements and intake questions. Set them up so the first booking cannot complete without:
- The vaccination card uploaded, with the dates entered so the system knows when they expire.
- Neutering status and date of birth.
- Vet name and phone number.
- Emergency contact who is not the person going away.
- Feeding, medication and allergy notes.
- The consent and emergency treatment authority signed.
- Behaviour questions answered: how the dog is with other dogs, with being left, with being handled.
Where the platform supports it, turn on vaccination expiry checking so a stay that ends after a booster lapses is flagged at the point of booking rather than at the door.
The assessment is the safety net
For anything a form cannot tell you, the assessment day exists. That is where temperament is genuinely judged and where the paperwork is checked in person. Making the assessment the visible first step for new dogs means the requirements conversation happens with an owner who has time, not one with a taxi waiting.
Answer the questions the requirements create
Requirements generate their own questions, and every one you leave unanswered becomes a phone call. Put them in the FAQ. What if my dog had the vaccination last week. What is titre testing and do you accept it. My male is not neutered, can he still come to daycare. My puppy is fifteen weeks, when can she start. What if the booster expires halfway through the stay. What happens if my dog is ill while I am away.
What changes
The doorstep conversation mostly disappears. New owners arrive with the card, the dates and the signature already in your system, and the arrival is a handover rather than an admissions interview. The refusals that do happen happen weeks early, on a screen, when the owner still has time to see the vet. And your staff stop spending August explaining a policy that has been on the website all along, just not in a place anyone read.
Where this sits
Requirements stated in plain words on the pages owners actually read, and collected with the vaccination card and consent inside the booking flow, are two of the six must-haves on a dog daycare and boarding website as we build it, and the same pattern of collecting paperwork before arrival runs through the rest of our pet business websites. What packages include it is on pricing. Rules stated early read as competence. Rules stated at the door read as an ambush.