Dog daycare vaccine policy: your staff checklist

What should your dog daycare vaccine policy tell staff?

Your dog daycare vaccine policy should tell staff which evidence you require, who reviews it, and who decides whether a dog can attend when something is unresolved.

Use this worksheet as your proposed operating template, not as universal medical or legal requirements. Before adopting it, confirm required vaccines, timing, and applicable local rules with your veterinarian and licensing authority. Fill in the decisions for your facility, then give staff a dated version they can use at reception.

Keep the policy separate from instructions for uploading or reading documents. Your policy answers “Can this dog attend under our rules?” Your record procedure explains how staff gather and check the evidence for that decision.

Who should decide which vaccines you require?

You should set your facility’s admission requirements with veterinary input and confirmation of applicable rules from your licensing authority.

The American Animal Hospital Association’s canine vaccination guidelines list Leptospira among core vaccines. Its core and noncore recommendations describe noncore choices as depending on lifestyle, geography, and exposure risk, and characterize the guidance as general rather than universally prescriptive. Use that guidance for your veterinary discussion; do not turn a category label into an automatic daycare admission rule.

For each requirement, record where the decision came from: an applicable rule, veterinary advice, or your facility’s admission policy. Keep the source, date checked, and person consulted beside the requirement. Ask your veterinarian about clinical questions and your licensing authority about regulatory questions before finalizing the wording.

What belongs in your policy decision table?

Your table should pair every admission decision with accepted evidence, a responsible person, and a clear action when evidence is missing.

Copy this proposed operating template into your policy document. Complete the blanks before staff use it; none of the rows sets a vaccine schedule or authorizes an exemption.

Keep the completed table beside your full policy. Add a backup reviewer so the escalation path still works when the usual manager is away.

How should your staff resolve due-date questions?

Your staff should compare the evidence with your written policy and send ambiguous clinical dates to the clinic for clarification.

Give reviewers specific questions to ask: Which vaccine does this date refer to? Is it an administration date, a due date, or a future appointment? Does the record address the planned attendance dates? What remains unclear?

Do not have reception invent a renewal interval or waiting period. Write the confirmed timing rule into your policy, including how staff handle a record that becomes due during a booked stay. If a parent says an appointment is scheduled, record that as an appointment rather than marking the missing evidence resolved.

For document handling details, use the vaccine-record processing guide. Keep this worksheet focused on the admission decision and who owns it.

Who handles an exception request at check-in?

Your named decision-maker should handle exception requests under your confirmed policy, while reception records the request and explains the pending status.

Define who may approve a permitted exception and what documentation they need. Do not let a verbal promise, a familiar customer, or an edited date stand in for that decision. Route any medical rationale to the veterinarian, and confirm legal questions with the appropriate authority.

Give reception wording they can use: “Your record needs review before we can confirm attendance. Please send [specific missing information]. [Role] will review it and contact you by [time].” Choose a response time your team can meet. If the decision-maker is unavailable, use the backup contact and leave the status pending.

What should your next shift receive in writing?

Your next shift should receive the admission status, the reason, the outstanding action, and the person responsible for finishing it.

Use this proposed handoff checklist for unresolved cases and permitted exceptions:

• Dog and parent: [identifiers]; planned attendance: [date/service].

• Policy version and requirement being reviewed: [reference].

• Evidence checked and question still open: [document/detail].

• Current admission decision: [pending/approved/declined], with reason.

• Decision-maker and decision time: [name/time], or [awaiting review].

• Any permitted exception: [authority, documentation, scope, and end or review date].

• Next action, owner, and deadline: [specific task].

• Parent update: [what was communicated, when, and by whom].

Before changing the status, have the responsible person check that the requested evidence or decision is actually recorded. At handoff, ask the incoming shift to identify the next action from the note alone.

How can you test this policy in Tato?

You can test the record-review part of your policy in Tato by asking staff to inspect document history, review available source files, and correct dates in the staff portal.

Keep your admission decision explicit: do not treat an upload or a filled date as medical approval. Ask how your team will record the decision and pass unresolved work to the next shift.

Book a demo and bring your draft policy plus a clear, an unclear, and an expired record you are allowed to share. Ask the team to walk through each case, show staff review and date correction, and demonstrate what the next shift would need to check before confirming attendance.