Saturday morning at the desk
It is the first Saturday of the school holidays. Fourteen dogs are due in between eight and eleven. Each owner hands over a vaccination card, some neat, some faded, some a folded printout from a vet's system with three pages of history. Your member of staff has to find the latest dates for the core vaccines and kennel cough, check they are in date according to your own policy, and write something in the booking record.
Two owners have forgotten the card. One has a photo on their phone of the wrong page. One card has a sticker that is half peeled off. Meanwhile the car park is full, dogs are barking at each other in reception and the next family is waiting in the doorway.
Why the check happens too late
The check is done at the worst possible moment because that is when the paperwork is physically in the building. Most booking forms say "please bring your vaccination card", and nothing asks for it earlier.
- Records exist only on paper cards or vet printouts that stay with the owner.
- Every stay means checking the same dog's card again, even for regulars.
- Vet printouts vary in layout, so finding the right date takes reading, not glancing.
- What is recorded after the check is often a tick, not the actual dates.
- If a card is missing, the only options are phoning the owner's vet or turning the dog away, both on the spot.
The price of the morning rush
The obvious cost is time on your busiest mornings, when you most need hands on the runs. The bigger one is the awkward conversation at the desk: telling a family with a car packed for the airport that you cannot take their dog because the card is missing or something is out of date according to your terms. Nobody wants that at eight in the morning.
There is also the record itself. Your licence conditions and your own policies expect you to keep evidence that you checked. A tick in a paper diary is thin evidence if anyone ever asks, and it is useless next year when the same dog comes back.
Records collected at booking, checked before arrival
What we build moves the check forward to when the booking is made and keeps the result on file for the pet.
- The booking confirmation asks the owner to upload a photo or PDF of the vaccination record through a simple link on their phone.
- Text extraction reads the card or vet printout and pulls out the vaccine names and dates. We use a vision-capable model through OpenAI or Anthropic Claude for this, because layouts vary so much.
- The extracted dates are stored against the dog or cat, not just the booking, alongside the original image.
- The system compares the dates with the rules you set and marks the booking green, amber (needs a person to look) or missing.
- A staff member reviews the amber and missing ones days before arrival and confirms or chases, so the owner has time to sort it out with their vet.
- Reminders go to owners who have not uploaded, at intervals you choose.
| Status before arrival | What happens |
|---|---|
| Uploaded and read clearly | Staff confirm with one click, record kept |
| Uploaded but unclear | Flagged for a person to read the original |
| Not uploaded | Reminder to owner, then a call list for staff |
| Regular pet, record on file | Only newer dates need checking |
The rules are yours and your vet adviser's. The system does not decide whether a dog is fit to board or what counts as adequately vaccinated. It shows the dates and your rule, and a person confirms.
What drop-off looks like instead
On arrival day the desk sees a list where almost every pet is already confirmed. The owner hands over the dog, the lead and the food, and the conversation is about the dog rather than paperwork. The one family whose upload was unclear has been spoken to earlier in the week.
Next year, when the same spaniel comes back, the record is already there. Only the newer booster date needs adding.
Does this sound familiar?
- Owners hand over paper vaccination cards at drop-off.
- Your record of the check is a tick or initials.
- You have had to turn away or delay a pet at the desk over paperwork.
- Regulars show you the same card every stay.
- Peak drop-off mornings create a queue in reception.