At minimum, you should be able to tell who gave the consent, which dog it covers, what was agreed and when. For time-sensitive arrangements, linking the consent to a booking makes later inspection and dispute resolution far clearer.

Current guidance includes written consent around dogs from different households boarding together, dogs from the same household sharing a designated room, and specific exercise arrangements. Crate use also depends on the dog's normal routine and owner consent. Your exact wording should reflect your service and licence conditions.

If an owner needs to decide whether their dog may be walked with dogs from another household or exercised off lead, make the choice readable. Good consent UX is explicit. It should be easier to understand the answer than to blindly click “I agree.”

Keep owner instructions separate from operator decisions

The owner can give information and consent; the boarder still has professional and licence responsibilities. A signed form does not make an unsafe arrangement acceptable.

Preserve the submitted version

Once a form is submitted, keep the answers and submission date as a record. If your template changes later, the historical stay should still show what the owner actually agreed to at the time.

Separate information from permission

A good form distinguishes facts the owner is giving you from decisions they are authorising. “My dog eats twice a day” is information. “I consent to my dog being walked off lead” is permission. Keeping those concepts visually separate makes the form easier for owners to understand and later makes it clearer what was actually agreed.

Broad wording such as “I consent to all normal boarding activities” may be convenient but can hide the exact choices that matter. Use separate, plain-language questions for mixing dogs from different households, sharing designated rooms where relevant, exercise outside the home or garden, off-lead exercise, walking with other dogs and crate use. Your own licence and procedures may require additional choices.

Review when circumstances change

A consent form should not become permanent simply because it was once signed. A new resident dog, a changed health condition, a new exercise restriction or a different boarding mix can make an old answer less useful. Build a quick consent review into the booking process and collect a fresh submission when a material arrangement has changed.

Give the owner a clear confirmation

After submission, show or send a readable summary of the important choices. This reduces disputes and gives the owner a chance to correct a mistaken answer before the stay. Internally, preserve the submitted version rather than allowing later edits to rewrite history.

Keep your own licence in charge.

BoardingReady helps organise records and evidence. It does not provide legal advice or guarantee licence compliance. Check the conditions on your licence and current local authority requirements.