A vaccination policy for boarding kennels, and how to actually enforce it

Every kennel has a vaccination policy. Most of them are enforced by whoever happens to be on the desk, which means they’re enforced properly on a Tuesday and not at all at 7am on the Friday before a bank holiday when the owner is late for a flight and the dog is already out of the car.

The policy is the easy part. This is about the other part.

This is operational guidance, not veterinary or legal advice. Requirements vary by country and by insurer, and your vet and your policy documents should have the final word.

What to require

The common core, and it’s worth stating each one in your own words on your own website:

Core vaccinations. DHPPi or equivalent — distemper, hepatitis, parvovirus, parainfluenza. Usually annual or triennial depending on the product and your local protocol.

Rabies. Legally required in many countries and by most insurers. Non-negotiable where it applies.

Leptospirosis. Annual, and worth requiring given the exposure risk in a facility with shared outdoor space.

Kennel cough (Bordetella). The one that causes the arguments, and the one you should be strictest about. It’s intranasal, it’s usually annual, and it’s the single most likely thing to run through your facility.

Cats: the tricat, and usually feline leukaemia where cats share airspace.

The timing rule people forget

A vaccine given the morning of arrival is not protection. It takes time to work, and a dog vaccinated on the way to you is arguably higher risk than one that wasn’t, because the owner now believes it’s covered.

Most kennels require:

• Kennel cough: at least 7 days before arrival, sometimes 14 depending on the product.
• Core vaccines: at least 14 days before arrival if it’s a first course or a lapsed restart.
• Boosters that are current and not expiring mid-stay. A booster that runs out on day three of a ten-day stay is a lapsed booster.

That last one catches people out constantly. Check the expiry against the check-out date, not the check-in date.

Write it so it survives the argument

The point of writing it down is that the person on the desk doesn’t have to negotiate. Short, specific, on the booking confirmation:

All dogs must be up to date on DHPPi, leptospirosis and kennel cough. Kennel cough must be given at least 7 days before arrival. Vaccinations must be in date for the whole stay, including the day you collect. Please send a photo of the vaccination card when you book. We cannot accept a dog whose vaccinations are not in date, and the deposit is non-refundable in that case, so please check the dates before you travel.

Two things are doing the work there. The seven-day rule is stated, so nobody can claim they didn’t know. And the consequence is stated, in money, up front. That last sentence is what stops the argument at the door.

Collect the proof at booking, not at arrival

This is the whole game.

If you ask for the vaccination card at check-in, you will be checking it while holding a lead, with a queue behind you and a taxi waiting. You will wave things through. Everybody does.

So move the check to booking:

1. Ask for a photo of the card when the booking is made. Most people send it within the hour.
2. Record the dates in your system, not in a folder. The next-due date is the thing that matters, and it needs to be somewhere you can query.
3. Flag anything expiring before the check-out date as soon as the booking is taken, and tell them then, when there’s still time to see a vet.
4. Chase at 14 days out if it’s still missing.

By the time the dog arrives, this should already be settled.

What to do when they turn up anyway

It happens. Have the answer decided in advance so it isn’t made under pressure:

• Card current, no paperwork — ring the vet practice and confirm. Most will tell you over the phone. Log who you spoke to.
• Kennel cough given inside the 7 days — this is a judgement call you should make once, in advance, and write down. Many facilities will accept with an isolation arrangement and a signed disclaimer. Many won’t. Either is defensible. Deciding it at the door is not.
• Core vaccinations lapsed — refuse. This is the one where you hold the line, because it’s the one your insurer will ask about.
• Genuinely stuck owner — have a relationship with a local kennel or a home-boarder you can refer to. Being the kennel that solved someone’s problem, even by sending them elsewhere, buys a lot of goodwill.

Tell your team what to say

Staff cave because they don’t have words ready. Give them the words:

“I’m really sorry, I can’t take him today because his kennel cough ran out on the ninth. It’s not my call, it’s the condition of our licence and our insurance, and it protects the other twelve dogs in here. Here’s what I can do: here’s a vet two minutes away who does walk-ins, and here’s a kennel that might have space.”

Sympathy, reason, and two ways to help. Nobody argues with that for long.

Turn it into revenue instead of friction

The list of dogs with vaccinations coming due is the most valuable marketing list a kennel owns, and almost nobody uses it.

A message six weeks out that says “Bruno’s kennel cough is due on 12 March, and you’ve got him booked in with us on 2 April” is not marketing. It’s a favour. It gets a genuinely warm response, it prevents a refused check-in, and it quietly reinforces that you’re organised.

How to stop relying on people remembering

Everything above fails the same way: it depends on somebody checking a date under pressure.

In Fretso’s boarding module the check happens in the software. Vaccination records live on the pet’s file with the next-due date calculated from your protocol when the jab is recorded, and check-in reads that record and warns before the dog is in the building. Your Sunday cover gets the same check your most experienced manager would run.

The same dates feed the recall list, so the six-week warning goes out automatically. One record does the enforcing and the marketing.

The short version

1. Require core, lepto and kennel cough, and say so in your own words on your own site.
2. Kennel cough at least 7 days before arrival. Say the number.
3. Check the expiry against the collection date.
4. Collect the card at booking, not at check-in.
5. Write down what happens if they arrive non-compliant, including what happens to the deposit.
6. Give your team the exact words.
7. Use the due-dates list as a reminder service, and it stops being a confrontation.