Home Dog Boarding Emergency Contact Form: What Details Should You Keep?

Keep the owner’s full contact record

Store postal address, telephone number and email address, plus any travel contact information the owner wants used during the stay. Do not assume the normal mobile will work when the owner is overseas.

Ask for a genuinely local contact

The local emergency contact should be someone who knows they have been nominated and can realistically help. Record their relationship to the owner or dog, phone number and any practical limits on what they can do, such as transport or collection.

Record the normal vet and out-of-hours route

Keep the dog’s normal veterinary contact and your business veterinary arrangements readily available. Where your procedure uses a different out-of-hours provider, make that visible instead of expecting staff to search the internet during an emergency.

Clarify decision-making expectations

Your owner consent and terms should explain how veterinary decisions and costs are handled when the owner cannot be reached. The contact record should point to that agreement rather than trying to contain complex legal wording itself.

Test contact details before long stays

For repeat clients, a quick “are these emergency details still current?” check before each significant booking catches changed phone numbers and moved relatives. Mark the review date so staff know the information was recently confirmed.

Keep emergency contacts accessible but protected

People responsible for the dogs need fast access, but other customers should never see another owner’s details. If you use secure digital consent links, make sure they expose only the specific form intended for that owner and not the wider business database.