What to record each day if you run a licensed dog day care in England

If you run a dog day care business in England, you'll almost certainly need an animal activity licence from your local authority. The licence comes with conditions, and many of those conditions are about keeping records. Good records make inspections smoother, help your team give consistent care, and protect you if something goes wrong.

This guide covers the records most day cares keep each day, and why. It's a practical starting point, not a legal checklist: the exact requirements come from the regulations, the government's statutory guidance and your local authority, and they're updated from time to time. Always check the current versions, and ask your licensing officer if you're unsure.

Where the rules come from

Dog day care in England is covered by the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018. Day care counts as "providing or arranging for the provision of boarding for cats or dogs", so it needs a licence if you run it as a business.

Two sets of conditions apply:

• General conditions, which cover every licensed activity, such as records, staffing, suitable environment, diet, monitoring of behaviour, and emergencies.
• Specific conditions for dog day care, explained in Defra's statutory guidance for dog day care, which you can find on GOV.UK.

Your inspector will assess you against both, and your star rating can depend on how well you meet them.

What to record every day

Who's in, and when

Keep a register of every dog on the premises each day: the dog's name, the time they arrived and the time they left, and who dropped them off and collected them. If there's a fire or an emergency, this is the list you'll need first, so make sure it's accurate in real time, not filled in at the end of the day.

Feeding and water

Note what each dog ate and when, especially if owners send their own food or a dog has a special diet. If a dog refuses food or eats much less than usual, write that down too. It's often an early sign that something's not right.

Medication

For any dog that needs medication during the day, record:

• the medicine and dose
• the time it was given
• who gave it
• anything you noticed afterwards

Medication records are one of the first things inspectors look at, and they matter to owners and vets as well.

Health and behaviour

Day care conditions expect you to monitor each dog's health and behaviour through the day. A short note per dog is usually enough: settled or unsettled, any signs of illness or injury, how they got on in their group. If you split dogs into groups by size, age or temperament, note which group each dog was in.

Incidents and accidents

Write up any incident as soon as you can, while details are fresh: what happened, which dogs and people were involved, any injuries, what first aid or vet treatment was given, and who you told. Record when you contacted the owner. Keep incident records even when nobody was hurt, because patterns of near misses are useful to spot.

Cleaning

Many day cares keep a daily cleaning log for play areas, kennels or rest areas, and equipment. It shows you have a routine and makes it easy to prove it was followed.

Records you keep once per dog

Alongside the daily records, you'll need some information on file for every dog, kept up to date:

• the owner's contact details and an emergency contact
• the dog's vet and how to reach them
• vaccination records, checked before the dog first attends and when boosters are due
• known health conditions, allergies and medication
• a behaviour or temperament assessment, usually done before the dog joins a group
• the owner's consents, such as consent to emergency vet treatment

Records about your team

The general conditions also cover staff. Keep a record of each person's training, including what it covered and when they did it. Many local authorities also expect a written training policy and staff rotas showing that you had enough people on for the number of dogs. The statutory guidance sets out staffing expectations for day care, so check the current figures.

How long to keep records

The guidance expects records to be kept for a set period and to be available for inspection. For many records under the 2018 regulations this is three years, but check the current guidance and your licence conditions for each type of record. Whatever the period, records need to be legible, dated and easy to find, and digital records are generally fine as long as an inspector can see them.

Making it manageable

The hardest part isn't knowing what to record, it's doing it consistently on a busy day. A few habits help:

• Record as you go. A note made at the time is more accurate, and more convincing, than one written up later.
• Use the same format every day. Templates mean nobody has to remember what to write.
• Make one person responsible per shift for checking the register and medication records.
• Review weekly. Ten minutes on a Friday to spot gaps saves a lot of stress before an inspection.

Trusthound's daily care records use templates that follow the licence conditions for England, and you can export everything for a date range as an inspection pack. Good records help you show how you work, but they can't guarantee a licence or a particular star rating: that decision is always your local authority's.