Forty dogs, one secure field
You have one secure field, a woodland walk and forty dogs in. Some can go out in groups, some only with their housemates, some must go out alone. Two owners paid for extra solo walks. One older dog should only have gentle short walks, as her owner asked. The field can take one group at a time.
The whiteboard in the kitchen has a grid of names and ticks. By 2pm it is covered in ticks, crossings out and arrows. Someone asks whether the Husky in block C has been out. Two people think the other one took him.
Exercise run on a whiteboard
Exercise is one of the most valued parts of a stay and one of the least tracked. The whiteboard is quick to use and impossible to check.
- Walk types and group rules are remembered, not written down.
- Field time is allocated by whoever gets there first.
- Extra walks bought by owners are not listed separately.
- Ticks do not say who walked the dog or for how long.
- Nothing warns when a dog has been missed.
Missed walks and unhappy owners
A dog that misses exercise is a more stressed, noisier dog, and the whole block feels it. Owners who paid for extra walks and suspect they did not happen will ask, and a whiteboard that has been wiped cannot answer them.
Staff time suffers too. When the field is not scheduled, people wait for it or double up, and the day's exercise stretches into the afternoon feed.
And because nothing is recorded, you cannot see patterns: whether the field is the bottleneck, whether solo walkers need more staff time on busy days, or whether a second secure area would be worth the money.
An exercise planner with a walk log
What we build plans exercise from each dog's needs and records what actually happened.
- Each dog's profile holds its walk type (group, household only, solo), any limits from the owner, and extras paid for.
- Your exercise areas are set up with capacity and session length.
- Each morning the planner builds a schedule of field slots and walks, grouping dogs by compatibility from staff notes.
- Staff see the schedule on a tablet and tap to log each walk or session with their name and time.
- By a time you choose, any dog without logged exercise appears on a list for the senior on shift.
- Extra walks bought by owners show separately, so they are done and billed.
- Owner updates can include the day's walks from the log.
| Dog | Walk type | Today |
|---|---|---|
| Husky, block C | Solo | Field 10.30, logged |
| Two Springers | Household only | Woodland walk 9.00, logged |
| Older Retriever | Gentle, short | Two short walks, second due |
| Beagle, extra walk paid | Group plus solo | Solo walk not yet logged |
What exercise suits a particular dog is for the owner and your staff to decide. The planner schedules and records what you set.
A day where every dog gets out
At 8.30 the schedule for the day is on the kitchen tablet. Field slots run every half hour with named groups. By noon, the missed list shows one dog, a new arrival whose profile was set up late, and the senior fits him into the next field slot. When the Husky's owner asks later how much exercise he had, the log shows every session.
Do you know who has been walked?
- Walks and field time are tracked on a whiteboard.
- Staff are unsure whether a particular dog has been out.
- Field time goes to whoever gets there first.
- Paid-for extra walks are hard to prove.
- Nobody is warned when a dog has been missed.