A scuffle in group play
Two dogs in afternoon play have a brief scrap over a ball. One has a small nick on his ear. The member of staff separates them, cleans it up as your procedure says, and writes a line in the daybook. The next shift does not read the daybook. The owner is not told. At collection a week later, she spots the healing nick and asks what happened. Nobody on the desk knows.
Nothing about the incident was handled badly. Everything about how it was recorded and passed on was.
Recorded for the moment, not for later
Incidents are rare enough that nobody builds a proper process for them, and common enough that they happen every season.
- Incidents go in a daybook, on the run card or into a message to the owner of the kennels.
- Details vary: some entries have time, place and who saw it; many do not.
- Follow-up steps depend on who is on shift.
- Telling the owner is a judgement call, made differently by different people.
- Patterns, such as a particular gate or a pair of dogs, are never spotted.
Why inconsistency costs more than the incident
Owners are usually understanding about minor incidents when they are told promptly and honestly. What upsets them is finding out at collection, or from the state of their dog. That is when a small scrape becomes a complaint or a bad review.
A thin record also leaves you exposed. If an owner disputes what happened or asks for a vet bill to be covered, a vague daybook line is no help to anyone. Your insurer and your licence conditions may also expect proper records, and those are questions for them and your adviser.
An incident record with follow-through
What we build is a short incident form that captures the facts and runs your follow-up steps.
- Any member of staff opens an incident on a tablet or phone: pet, type (scuffle, injury, escape attempt, illness observed, other), time, place, who saw it, what happened and a photo.
- The form shows the follow-up steps from your own procedure for that type, such as informing a senior, a vet check or owner contact, and records each step as it is done.
- The incident attaches to the pet's stay and profile, and appears on the handover list for the next shift.
- A senior decides how and when the owner is told, using a template you approve, and the system records when the message was sent or the call made.
- Open incidents stay on a list until every step is complete.
- A quarterly view shows incidents by type, place and time, so you can spot a gate that sticks or a play group that does not work.
| Incident type | Typical steps from your procedure |
|---|---|
| Scuffle in play | Separate, check, inform senior, note for owner |
| Minor injury | Senior check, vet contact if your procedure says so, owner told |
| Escape attempt | Record route, check fencing or door, handling note on profile |
| Pet off food | Monitor per procedure, note in feeding record |
The steps and the owner messages are yours. We build them from your procedure. The system does not give veterinary advice or decide what is an emergency.
The same scuffle, recorded
The member of staff opens an incident on the kennel tablet, adds a photo of the ear and ticks the steps. The senior on shift sees it within minutes, checks the dog and sends the owner a short message that afternoon. The next shift sees the incident on the handover list. At collection, the owner thanks the desk for letting her know.
Is this how you record incidents?
- Incidents are written in a daybook or on a run card.
- Owners sometimes find out about incidents at collection.
- Follow-up depends on who is on shift.
- You could not produce a full record of last summer's incidents.
- Patterns in where and when incidents happen are not tracked.