Friday afternoon with a marker pen
Tomorrow twenty-two dogs arrive and eighteen go home. Your head kennel hand stands in front of the whiteboard working out who goes where. The two Springers from the same house share a double run. The German Shepherd needs a large run and cannot be next to other big males. The nervous rescue greyhound goes in the quiet block at the far end. The puppy needs to be near the kitchen so she is checked often. Three runs are down for a deep clean after a long stay.
Just as the plan is finished, the phone rings: a family is extending by two days, which means the run you gave to Saturday's Labrador is still occupied. The board gets rubbed out and redrawn.
The rules live in one person's head
Run allocation is a puzzle with a lot of constraints, and in most kennels only one or two people know them all. The booking software knows dates and maybe a run number. It does not know that the end run in block A floods in heavy rain or that two particular dogs from different families always bark at each other.
- Run sizes and which dogs fit which runs.
- Which dogs from the same household can share and which cannot.
- Dogs that need the quiet block, or must not be next to certain others.
- Runs out of use for cleaning, repairs or seasonal reasons.
- Changeover time between one dog leaving and the next arriving.
When that person is off, allocation takes twice as long and mistakes creep in. When bookings change mid-week, the board is always slightly behind reality.
The cost of a bad plan
A poor allocation shows up as stressed dogs, noise and extra work. Moving a dog mid-stay because the run was wrong unsettles the dog and means an extra clean. A double booking of a run discovered at drop-off leads to a scramble while an owner waits.
It also costs capacity. If the plan is done by hand, it is easy to turn away a booking because the whiteboard looks full, when a bit of reshuffling would have fitted it in.
A run planner that knows your rules
What we build is a run planner connected to your bookings, holding the rules your best person carries in their head.
- Your runs are set up with size, block, whether they can take a pair, and any notes such as heating or proximity to the kitchen.
- Each dog's profile holds size, sharing permissions, placement preferences and any dogs it must not be next to, built up from staff notes over time.
- For any day, the planner suggests an allocation for dogs arriving, respecting your rules and changeover time.
- Clashes, such as an extension that collides with a new arrival, are highlighted as soon as the booking changes, not on the morning.
- Staff can drag a dog to a different run, and the planner warns if that breaks a rule, but the person's decision wins.
- The plan prints as a block-by-block sheet or shows on a screen in the kitchen.
| Change | On the whiteboard | In the planner |
|---|---|---|
| Family extends a stay | Found when the next dog arrives | Clash flagged when the extension is booked |
| Run taken out for repair | Remembered, hopefully | Marked unavailable, bookings moved |
| New dog with a size note | Judged on the day | Offered only runs that fit |
| Head kennel hand on holiday | Slow, error-prone | Same rules applied |
The same approach works for a cattery: pens, chalets, family pens, heated units and cats that should be on the ground level.
Arrival day with a plan that holds
On Friday afternoon the plan for Saturday is already there, built from the bookings. Your head kennel hand checks it, moves one dog she knows will settle better in the quiet block, and prints it. The extension phone call on Friday evening shows a clash immediately, and the planner offers two alternative runs for Saturday's Labrador.
Is your run plan a whiteboard?
- Allocation is redone by hand whenever bookings change.
- Only one or two people really know how to do it.
- Run clashes are found on arrival day.
- Dogs have been moved mid-stay because the run was wrong.
- You are not sure whether a reshuffle would fit in another booking.