What should a pet sitting intake form include?

At minimum: owner contact details and a second number, the regular vet and nearest emergency vet, written authorisation to seek treatment with a spending limit, all medications with doses and timing, allergies, feeding amounts and times, the normal walk and toilet routine, honest behaviour notes including any bite history, home access details such as keys and alarm codes, and the agreed rate and cancellation policy. The vet authorisation and the access details are the two people most often skip and most often need.

Do I need an intake form if I already have a contract?

Yes, they do different jobs. The contract sets the terms between you and the client: services, pricing, cancellation, liability. The intake form captures the operational detail you need to actually look after the animal, such as medication timing, the alarm code, and how the dog reacts to other dogs. A contract will not tell you where the food is kept.

Should clients fill in the intake form themselves?

Mostly yes, because they know the answers and it saves you a long phone call. The exception is behaviour, which is worth talking through in person at the meet and greet. Owners tend to understate reactivity in writing because they are worried about being turned down, and a conversation gets you a more honest picture than a text box does.

How often should intake details be updated?

Check them at least once a year, and any time something changes: a new medication, a house move, a new alarm code, a new vet, or a behavioural change after an incident. Out of date access codes and expired vaccination records are the two that cause real problems.

Free checklist · 7 min read

Pet sitting client intake form

Everything worth collecting before the first visit, and why each one matters. Copy it into a document, a form builder, or a notebook. It works the same either way.

Use this free. No sign up, nothing gated. If it saves you one phone call at 6am it has done its job, whether or not you ever look at our software.

Why intake is the part that bites

Clients arrive from everywhere. A marketplace like Rover, a referral from a groomer, a neighbour on Nextdoor, a comment on your Instagram, someone your best client told about you. Where they come from varies enormously. What happens next almost never does.

You get a message. You reply. Somewhere across the next few days you collect a phone number from one thread, a vet name from another, the alarm code in a text, and the bit about the dog hating bicycles in a conversation on the doorstep that you meant to write down. By the first visit it lives in four places, and the one you need at the worst moment is the one you cannot find.

Fixing your lead sources does not fix that. Only having one place the answers land does.

The checklist

Eight sections. Take the ones that fit how you work and ignore the rest.

1. The owner

Obvious, until the one time you need to reach somebody at 6am on a Sunday.

Full name, mobile, and a second number that is not their mobile
Email, because photos and invoices go there
Service address, plus buzzer or gate details if they are not the same thing
Who else is allowed to give you instructions about this pet, and who is not
Where they will be while you are sitting, and whether they will have signal

2. Vet and emergency authority

The one section you will be glad you took slowly. Fill it in before you need it, because you will not be filling it in calmly.

Regular vet: practice name, phone, address
Nearest 24 hour emergency vet, which is often a different practice entirely
Written authorisation to seek treatment if the owner cannot be reached
A spending limit they are comfortable with before you must reach them first
An emergency contact who can physically collect the pet, ideally local
Whether the pet is microchipped, and the chip number

3. Medical

Get this in writing rather than in conversation. Doses said out loud get misremembered.

Every medication, with dose, timing, and how it is given
Allergies, including food
Ongoing conditions, past surgeries, anything that changes how they move
Vaccination records, and the expiry dates
Spayed or neutered, and if not, whether they are in season
Anything that would send you to the vet rather than waiting it out

4. Feeding

The most common source of a panicked mid visit phone call.

What food, how much, and at what times
Where the food is kept, and where the scoop is
Treats allowed, and daily limit
Anything they must not be given, including human food and other pets' food
Water arrangements, and whether the bowl needs refilling or a fountain refilled

5. Routine and exercise

Routine is most of what keeps an anxious animal settled while their person is away.

Normal walk or visit times, and how long
Lead, harness, or head collar, and where it lives
Where they usually walk, and anywhere to avoid
Whether off lead is permitted, and your own position on that
Toilet habits, including any signal they give
Crate, bed, or room at night, and whether doors are open or shut

6. Behaviour, honestly

Ask directly and give permission to be blunt. Owners routinely understate this because they are worried you will say no.

Reaction to other dogs, to strangers, to children, to bikes and post
Resource guarding around food, toys, or a person
Escape habits: door dashing, fence jumping, slipping a collar
Separation anxiety, and what it looks like
Bite history, in plain terms
Commands they actually know, and the words used for them

7. Access and the home

Write down the awkward details now. Nobody wants a first visit that starts with a locked door.

Key, lockbox code, smart lock, or a neighbour who holds one
Alarm code, and the exact disarm and rearm sequence
Parking: permit, driveway, or the street that gets ticketed
Who else may enter while you are sitting, such as a cleaner or family
Rooms that are off limits
Bins, post, plants, thermostat, and anything else they expect done

8. The business part

Agree it in writing before the first visit, not after the first awkward invoice.

Service, frequency, and the rate you have agreed
Additional pet rate, if there is more than one animal
Cancellation policy, and what counts as late notice
How and when they pay
Signed service agreement. A contract template is linked below
Permission to use photos of their pet, or a clear no

Two ways to run it

Both work. They fail differently.

On paper, or a PDF you email

Cheap, instant, and yours. Fine at five clients. The trouble starts when a code changes, because the version in your inbox and the version on the fridge quietly stop agreeing, and you will not know which is right until you are standing at a door.

A link that collects it for you

You send one link. They fill it in once, from their phone, whenever suits them. The request arrives with their details and their pets attached instead of scattered across a conversation. When something changes you change it in one place.

That is what Nuzzo's booking link does. Being straight about the split: the link itself collects the client, their contact details, their pets and the visit they are asking for. The deeper material, feeding notes, medical notes, behaviour notes, photos and vaccination records, lives on the pet's profile in the app, where you or the client can fill it in after the first contact. There is no dedicated box labelled vet phone number or alarm code today, so those go in the notes, and we would rather tell you that here than have you find out on day one.

The point is not that a link is clever. It is that the lead can come from anywhere and still end up in the same place.

Common questions

What should a pet sitting intake form include?: At minimum: owner contact details and a second number, the regular vet and nearest emergency vet, written authorisation to seek treatment with a spending limit, all medications with doses and timing, allergies, feeding amounts and times, the normal walk and toilet routine, honest behaviour notes including any bite history, home access details such as keys and alarm codes, and the agreed rate and cancellation policy. The vet authorisation and the access details are the two people most often skip and most often need.
Do I need an intake form if I already have a contract?: Yes, they do different jobs. The contract sets the terms between you and the client: services, pricing, cancellation, liability. The intake form captures the operational detail you need to actually look after the animal, such as medication timing, the alarm code, and how the dog reacts to other dogs. A contract will not tell you where the food is kept.
Should clients fill in the intake form themselves?: Mostly yes, because they know the answers and it saves you a long phone call. The exception is behaviour, which is worth talking through in person at the meet and greet. Owners tend to understate reactivity in writing because they are worried about being turned down, and a conversation gets you a more honest picture than a text box does.
How often should intake details be updated?: Check them at least once a year, and any time something changes: a new medication, a house move, a new alarm code, a new vet, or a behavioural change after an incident. Out of date access codes and expired vaccination records are the two that cause real problems.

Useful next

Free client contract template, for the terms the intake form does not cover.
Pricing calculator, if you are still deciding what to charge.
How to start a pet sitting business, for licensing, insurance and your first clients.

One link, and the details come to you.

Send clients your Nuzzo booking link. Their contact details, their pets and the visit they want arrive together, and the bookings land in your calendar. 14-day free trial.