Ask for each vaccine's name, date given and the expiry printed on the certificate, not a yes or no tick; the food, amount and times for every meal; each medication's dose, times and last dose given; and a signed vet authority with a spending limit. AI can draft the field list and logic, but staff must check certificates themselves.
Check expiry dates against the day the dog goes home, not the day it arrives, because a vaccine that lapses on night three is still a lapse. And settle which vaccines you require with your vet and insurer first: veterinary guidelines disagree on some of them, so a form that copies someone else's list may demand the wrong ones.
Vaccination fields: a date for every vaccine, not a yes or no
A single 'Vaccinations up to date?' tick fails twice. Owners answer it from memory or hope, and staff cannot check a tick. Replace it with one row per vaccine, plus the certificate itself.
Start with your required list, because the form is only as good as that decision, and veterinary guidance does not agree on all of it. The global WSAVA table for pet dogs (2024) treats distemper, parvovirus and adenovirus as core. It makes rabies and leptospirosis core where the disease is endemic, and for rabies wherever local rules require it. It lists Bordetella, parainfluenza, canine influenza and Lyme among the non-core vaccines, suggesting canine influenza for at-risk groups of co-housed dogs such as those in kennels or day care. Another widely used guideline, updated in 2024, lists leptospirosis as core for every dog. Your vet knows which diseases are a risk where you trade, and your insurer may set conditions of its own, so settle the list with both and write it into the form and your policy.
Expiry dates differ by vaccine, which is why one date field is not enough. In the same WSAVA table, distemper, parvovirus and adenovirus boosters come no more often than every three years once the puppy course and first booster are done. Rabies vaccines carry a one-year or three-year duration depending on the product, and timing is sometimes set by law. Bordetella and leptospirosis are annual for most products. A dog can be current on three vaccines and lapsed on the fourth.
| Field | Type | Why it is there and how staff verify it |
|---|---|---|
| Vaccination certificate | File upload (PDF or photo), required | The thing every check runs on. It must show the dog's name or microchip, the clinic, and each vaccine with its dates |
| Rabies, if you require it: date given and valid until | Two date pickers | Valid until is the date printed, never one you calculate. If none is printed, staff phone the clinic |
| Distemper, parvovirus, adenovirus: date given and valid until | Two date pickers | Usually one combined injection on the certificate, so record it as one row |
| Bordetella: date given and valid until | Two date pickers | Annual for most products, so this is the one most often out of date |
| Other vaccines you require, such as leptospirosis or canine influenza | The same pair, shown only if you require them | Do not ask for vaccines you will not check |
| Dog's identity on the certificate | Microchip number or a short description | Matches the paperwork to the dog at the desk |
| Vet clinic name and phone | Text | Lets staff phone when a date is missing or unclear |
| Vet exemption letter | Optional upload, shown on request | For dogs with a medical reason not to be vaccinated. Whether you accept one is a decision for you, your vet and your insurer |
| Declaration | Tick | 'These dates come from my dog's vet record' |
The proof check staff run on every certificate
The fields only help if somebody checks them against the original, the same way every time. Write these steps on a card by the desk.
- Open the upload and confirm the dog's name or microchip matches the booking. A certificate for a different dog is the most common innocent mistake.
- Confirm the clinic's name and a stamp or signature are present. No clinic, no proof.
- Compare each required vaccine's date given with the form entry. If they differ, the certificate wins and the form is corrected.
- Check that the valid-until date falls on or after the day the dog goes home, not the day it arrives.
- Check the lead time: the booster was given at least [your number] days before arrival.
- If a date is missing, unreadable or ambiguous, phone the clinic. Nobody guesses.
- Record the check with initials, the date and the words 'verified against original certificate'.
The departure-date rule matters more than it sounds. A dog booked for 20 to 27 December whose Bordetella is valid until 24 December passes an arrival-day check and lapses three days before the dog goes home. Catch it when the booking is made and the owner has weeks to book a booster. Catch it at the desk and you either turn the dog away or break your own rule.
A quick sum shows the stakes. A 20-kennel business with 40 peak-week bookings that checks every certificate at booking might find six with a vaccine expiring before departure, or something missing. Found three weeks ahead, those six owners fix it. Found at the desk, six dogs are refused, and with an illustrative booking value of $350 that is 6 × $350 = $2,100 of stays at risk. The peak-season cancellation policy tutorial has a clause for exactly this case, and the vaccination-check automation for a grooming salon shows how the reminders can run on their own.
An assistant can read a photographed certificate and put the dates into a table, which saves typing. Treat the result as a draft. Handwriting gets misread, and day and month get swapped. This illustrative extract comes from a certificate printed day-first that the assistant read month-first:
| Item | On the certificate | The assistant wrote | Correct reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bordetella given | 03/04/2026 | 4 March 2026 | 3 April 2026 |
| Bordetella valid until | 03/04/2027 | 4 March 2027 | 3 April 2027 |
A month's difference can pass or fail a dog on the margin. Ask for dates in year-month-day form with the original text beside each one, and have a person compare them with the certificate before anything is recorded as verified.
Read the attached vaccination certificate. For each vaccine, give: the
vaccine name as printed, date given, valid-until date, copied exactly as
written, then the same dates as YYYY-MM-DD. If a date could be day-first or
month-first, say so instead of choosing. If any field is missing or
unclear, write NOT READABLE. Do not infer an expiry date.Certificates usually carry the owner's name and address, so blank those before uploading to any AI chat. On business plans the vendors say they do not train on your content by default, but the safest document is one without personal details.
Feeding fields that prevent a stomach upset on night two
Boarding changes a dog's routine in ways you cannot control. Food is the part you can. Pet-food makers advise switching a dog's diet over 7 to 10 days, because a sudden change tends to bring loose stools or vomiting, and a boarding stay is far too short for a transition. The simplest rule is that dogs eat what they eat at home, and the form should make that easy to say and easy to check.
- Food type and brand. A dropdown for dry, wet, raw or home-cooked, plus the brand. For raw or home-cooked, decide in advance whether you accept it, and ask for a written recipe card if you do.
- Amount per meal. A number with a unit dropdown (cups, grams, scoops). Cups vary between owners, so ask for grams when they know them.
- Meals per day and times. Two time fields that appear only as needed.
- Who supplies the food. The owner brings it, or you supply your own brand. If yours differs from home, show a one-line note that a switch takes 7 to 10 days and ask the owner to agree to it.
- Meals packed. Let the form do the sum: stay length times meals per day, plus one spare day. An 8-day stay with two meals a day needs 16 meals and 2 spare, so the form says 'bring 18'.
- Treats and chews. Which are allowed, which are banned, and whether the dog may share them.
- Allergies and intolerances. Free text, plus a prompt: 'What happens if [dog name] eats it?' An itchy dog and a vomiting dog are different problems.
- Supplements and toppers. Name, amount and when.
- Eating habits. Fussy, very fast, or guards food from other dogs. The last decides where the dog eats.
- Current weight. The most recent weigh-in in kilograms or pounds. It sanity-checks portions and doses.
Staff do not want to read ten fields at feeding time. They want one line per dog. A kennel-card entry built from the answers, shown here with illustrative values, looks like this:
7:30am and 5:30pm: 1 cup [brand] adult dry plus 1 tsp [supplement], in a slow-feeder bowl (eats fast). No chicken (itching). Treats: plain biscuit only. Owner packed 18 meals for an 8-day stay (16 + 2 spare).
Medication fields and the consent sentence
Medication is where a small error does the most harm, so the form asks for more than a dose. Each of these fields is there to prevent a specific mistake.
- Name and strength exactly as on the label, with a photo of the label. A paraphrase invites confusion between similar products.
- Dose and form. Tablet, liquid, drops, cream or other, with the amount.
- Times, with or without food. Staff need the clock time, not 'twice a day'.
- How the dog takes it. Hidden in cheese, crushed in food, held in the mouth. The owner knows the trick that works.
- Start and stop dates, or 'ongoing'. A course that ends mid-stay must not be carried on by habit.
- Last dose given before drop-off, with date and time. This prevents a double dose on the first morning.
- Quantity supplied. Count the tablets with the owner at check-in, write the number on the card and both initial it.
- Prescribing vet and phone. Staff can then check an unclear instruction with the source.
- If the dog refuses it or vomits afterwards. The owner chooses: call me, call the vet, or skip and note it.
- Side effects to watch for, and flea, tick and worming dates.
Decide what you will give before the form asks. Tablets, liquids, drops and creams are a sensible starting point. Injections, such as insulin, need trained staff, so decide whether you offer them at all and, if you do, make it by prior arrangement. Add a field that shows your policy the moment someone chooses 'injection', so the owner finds out at booking rather than at the desk. Medication always arrives in its original labelled container, and staff never change a dose on their own authority.
The consent sentence ties the fields together. Illustrative wording, to be checked by your solicitor and insurer:
I authorise [business name] staff to give the medication listed above exactly as directed on the label or in my written instructions. I understand that staff are not veterinary professionals and will contact my vet, named below, if there is a problem. I confirm the medication supplied was prescribed for my dog and is in its original labelled container. I have counted the quantity supplied with a member of staff.
Vet contact and emergency authority, with a spending limit
When a dog is ill at 2am, nobody wants to find out that the owner is on a flight and the vet's number is a guess. These fields make sure the answers exist before the stay begins.
- Regular vet. Clinic name and phone.
- Emergency vet. Which clinic to use when the regular one is closed. If the owner has no preference, show the one you use.
- Owner's mobile and a second contact. The second person must not be travelling with the owner.
- When the owner can be reached. Flight times, time differences, and hours when the phone will be off. Staff should know on day one that nobody can answer between 2pm and 11pm on the 21st.
- Spending authority. A number field with a minimum you set, and the owner's initials beside it.
- Pet insurance, optional. Provider and policy number, so staff and the vet know where to start.
- Existing conditions. Tick boxes for seizures, heart conditions, diabetes, allergies including stings, breathing problems, joint pain or mobility limits, recent surgery and previous heatstroke, with a line for the owner's own instruction ('if [dog name] has a seizure, call my vet immediately').
The authority sentence needs a number and a rule for what happens above it. Illustrative wording, for your solicitor to check:
If [dog name] becomes ill or injured and I cannot be reached, I authorise [business name] to take [dog name] to my regular vet or, if it is closed, to [emergency vet], and to agree to examination and treatment the vet considers necessary to save life or relieve suffering, up to $[amount]. Above that amount, staff will keep trying to reach me and my second contact before agreeing further treatment, unless the vet advises that delay would put [dog name]'s life at risk. I will pay the vet's charges and any transport costs.
There is no standard figure for the limit. Ask your regular vet for realistic ranges for an out-of-hours examination and treatment, set a minimum you are comfortable with, say $500, and let owners enter a higher number if they wish. Say who pays the vet at the time, the owner by phone or a card on file, or the business with a receipt passed on. And re-confirm the vet details and the authority at least once a year, because vets close, merge and change numbers.
Turning the field list into a form-builder table with AI
An assistant is useful here for the dull parts: laying out fields, setting the show-if rules and writing help text in plain English. Give it your decisions and ask for a table you can paste into a form builder.
You are helping a dog boarding business build an online intake form.
Produce a field list as a table with the columns: section, field label,
field type (text, number, date picker, dropdown, tick, file upload),
required (yes/no), show-if condition, validation or limit, and one plain
sentence of help text for the owner.
Sections: Vaccines, Feeding, Medication, Vet and emergency.
Rules:
- Vaccines we require: [list]. One date-given and one valid-until date per
vaccine. Certificate upload required.
- Medication: tablets, liquids, drops and creams accepted; injections by
arrangement only (show that message if "injection" is chosen).
- Feeding: owners supply the food; show "bring [n] meals" from the stay dates.
- Emergency authority: a number field with a minimum of $[floor] and a box
for the owner's initials.
- Show the whole medication section only if the owner answers Yes to
"Does your dog take any medication?"
- Do not add fields I have not listed. Never ask for the owner's date of
birth, home address or employer.
Then write a one-page staff summary template that pulls the answers
together, ending with the line "Vaccines verified by / date".A first draft (illustrative) needed these changes:
| The draft included | The problem | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| 'Vaccinations up to date? Yes / No' | A tick staff cannot check | A date-given and valid-until pair per vaccine, plus the certificate |
| One 'Vaccination expiry date' field | A dog has several expiry dates | A valid-until date for each required vaccine |
| 'Date of last vaccination' as free text | 03/04 can mean two different dates | A date picker; the certificate decides |
| Owner date of birth and home address | Not needed for the stay | Delete both |
| Medication questions shown to every owner | Most owners have nothing to enter | Show only after 'Yes' to 'Does your dog take any medication?' |
| Spending limit as free text | Blank or unreadable answers | A number field with a minimum and initials |
What the draft left out matters as much. It had no 'last dose given' and no 'quantity supplied', the two fields that prevent double doses and miscounts, because the prompt named sections rather than fields. If the prompt does not name a field, assume the assistant will not think of it, and paste in the lists above.
If you already have a form, use a second prompt as an audit instead of rebuilding:
Here is our current intake form (questions only) and our boarding policy.
List: (1) questions that collect data we do not need; (2) things the
policy relies on that no question collects; (3) questions two staff could
read differently. Do not rewrite the form.Where to build it and what the uploads will cost
Any form tool can hold these fields. The differences are in file uploads, because the certificate is the one field that cannot be skipped.
- Google Forms. Free to use. Google's help page says respondents must be signed in to a Google account to answer a file-upload question, and uploaded files go into a new folder in the form owner's Drive. The question is not available if the form sits in a shared drive or an administrator has turned on data loss prevention. An owner without a Google account therefore cannot upload, so you need a fallback such as an emailed photo.
- Jotform. Its pricing page lists a free Starter plan with 5 forms, 100 submissions a month and 100 MB of space, and a Bronze plan at $39 a month or $34 a month billed yearly, with 25 forms, 1,000 submissions a month and 1 GB of space.
- Booking software. If your bookings already live in dedicated software, see whether its customer forms support a date pair per vaccine and an expiry flag. The dog boarding booking software comparison covers what the main options include.
Do the storage sum before you choose. A phone photo of a certificate can run 3 MB, so check the size of one of yours. At 3 MB, 100 MB holds about 33 photos, which is fewer than a busy kennel's boarders in a season, while Bronze's 1 GB holds about 330. Ask owners for a PDF or a smaller image, or budget for the paid plan. The Tally and Jotform comparison goes further if you are choosing a form tool from scratch.
Keep the data only as long as the booking relationship needs it. Decide a deletion date for forms of owners who never booked, and show staff only what they need for the stay: the kennel card, not the whole record.
Dry run: a puppy, a senior and a lapsed certificate
Before owners see the form, fill it in three times for made-up dogs and look at what the staff summary shows.
- Dog A is a seven-month-old puppy whose puppy vaccinations finished a few weeks ago, takes no medication, and has every vaccine valid beyond departure. Expect a clean summary and no medication section at all, and check that the lead-time rule reads the latest injection date, because a puppy's last booster is the one most likely to fall inside your waiting period.
- Dog B has a Bordetella vaccine valid until the day before departure. Expect the staff check to catch it, and the booking page to have told the owner about the departure-date rule.
- Dog C is a senior dog on a daily arthritis tablet and ear drops, with a seizure history, and the owner is on a flight on day two. Expect the medication section, the conditions flag and the second contact all to appear.
Dog C is the useful one, because it exercises every part of the form. This is the kennel card the staff summary should produce from it (illustrative):
Dog C. 9-year-old neutered Labrador, 32 kg. Stay 20 to 27 December (8 days).
Vaccines verified [initials] on [date]: rabies to [date], distemper, parvovirus and adenovirus to [date], Bordetella to [date] (after departure).
Feeding: 7:30am and 5:30pm, 2 cups [brand] senior dry plus a joint chew. Owner packed 18 meals (16 + 2 spare).
Medication: [arthritis tablet, name and strength], one tablet at 7:30am with food. Ear drops, 3 drops each ear at 5:30pm. Last doses before drop-off: [time]. Tablets supplied: 10, counted and initialled.
Conditions: seizure history. Owner's instruction: call [vet] straight away. Reachable: owner on a flight on day 2, 2pm to 11pm; second contact [mobile].
Vet: [name, phone]. Out of hours: [name, phone]. Spending authority up to $750, initialled.
Read the card as a night-shift member of staff would. Can you tell, in ten seconds, what the dog eats, what it takes, who to ring and how far you can go without asking? If not, the form is collecting data the card does not use, or the card is missing something the form asks for. Fix whichever it is, then open the form on a phone, because many owners will fill it in there. And if you want to see how the behaviour side of the profile can work, the dog daycare temperament test tutorial covers the observation and scoring step that sits beside this one.
Intake form questions boarders ask
Which vaccines should a boarding kennel require?
Set the list with your vet and insurer, because veterinary guidelines differ. The global WSAVA table treats distemper, parvovirus and adenovirus as core, rabies and leptospirosis as core where the disease is endemic or the law requires it, and Bordetella, parainfluenza and canine influenza as non-core. Another widely used guideline lists leptospirosis as core for every dog.
How long before arrival must a vaccine have been given?
That is your rule, not a published standard. Ask your vet how long after a booster you want to wait, check your insurance conditions, then show the lead time on the booking page as well as the form, so owners learn it when they book rather than the week before the stay.
Do I need a new form for every stay?
Keep one profile per dog and ask owners to review it at each booking. Vaccine dates, food and medication change from stay to stay, and the vet and emergency authority should be re-confirmed at least once a year. Store the confirmation date and show staff what changed since the last visit.
Further reads
- Cattery Booking Software: Pen Calendars, Vaccine Checks and AI Replies — The same vaccine-check problem for cats, with pen calendars.
- How Dog Groomers Can Use AI to Collect Pet Details Before Booking — Collecting pet details before a grooming booking.
- Gingr or MoeGo for a Pet Business? Plans, Costs and AI Compared — Pet business software compared if forms alone are not enough.
- Can AI Draft a Dog Grooming Consent Form? What to Cover — Consent wording for a neighbouring pet service.
- Dog Trainer Intake Form: Behaviour History Questions With AI — Behaviour history questions for a trainer's intake.
- Can AI Handle Vaccination and Check-Up Reminders for a Vet? — How vets send vaccination reminders, useful for renewals.
- Horse Feed Chart Template: Build Yard Feed Sheets With AI — How one livery yard turned messy owner messages into a master feed sheet, change log and whiteboard copy, with prompts and sample rows.
- Horse Livery Agreement: Full, Part and DIY Terms Drafted With AI — A four-stage method for drafting a livery agreement with AI: a duties schedule for each livery type, clause prompts, a gap check and a solicitor brief.
- Can AI Write Dog Daycare Report Cards for a Busy Room? A Worked Day — A worked day for a 25-dog room: staff tags in, owner-friendly report cards out, with the prompt, the accuracy checks and a card you can print.
- Can ChatGPT Write a Dog Walking Contract? Terms to Verify — A fact-sheet prompt, a gap-finding second pass and a table of who verifies each term: keys, emergencies, off-lead walks, insurance and cancellation.
- Pet Boarding Software: Can AI Forecast Holiday Demand and Staffing? — Turn three years of boarding bookings into a holiday forecast, a staffing sum and waitlist rules, with the checks that keep AI honest.
- Should a Dog Daycare Use AI to Write Incident Reports? — AI can tidy the wording of a daycare incident report but never its facts: a fact sheet, a locked prompt, a no-blame word list and a sign-off routine.
- AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.
Sources: WSAVA 2024 vaccination table for pet dogs (core and non-core vaccines, revaccination intervals); a second widely used canine vaccination guideline (updated in 2024 to make leptospirosis core for all dogs); Google Docs Editors Help (file upload questions in Forms); Jotform pricing page (Starter and Bronze forms, submissions and storage); pet-food maker guidance on switching diets over 7 to 10 days. Vaccine lists, limits and prices of your own are for you, your vet and your insurer to set.