Pet Sitting Client Intake Form: What to Collect Before Visit One

A pet sitting client intake form should collect six things before the first visit: owner details, a profile for each pet, health and vaccine records, the daily routine, home access, and the booking. Copy the checklist below, send it before the meet-and-greet, and you will walk in knowing the pet instead of filling in paperwork on the doorstep.

The form is only half the job. The other half is a short screening step before it, and a rule for what you do when a client sends half the answers. Both are below.

Screen the inquiry with six questions before you send the form

Most people who contact a sitter are not yet clients. Do not send a long form to someone you cannot serve. Time To Pet's guide to new-client questions starts with location, because a client who lives too far away wastes your time. It also points out that many sitters get calls from people who really want a boarding facility, so confirm the service early.

Use these six, in this order:

1. Where are you located?
2. What kind of service do you need?
3. What dates?
4. Have you used a sitter or dog walker before?
5. Tell me a little about your pet's routine.
6. Will anyone else have access to your home during these visits?

The last one matters if your company does not allow shared visits. The same guide notes that many pet care companies have a policy against them. If an answer rules the client out, you stop there. If not, send the full form.

The intake form, section by section

This is the part to copy. Each section is a block in your form. Order matters: the easy contact details first, the detail-heavy pet sections in the middle, access last.

Section 1: Owner details

• Full name
• Mobile number
• Email
• Emergency contact (name, number, relationship)
• Where the owner will be, and how to reach them while they are away

Section 2: One profile per pet

Give every animal its own block. Makeform's intake guidance names the common mistake: names, diets, medications and behavior notes for several pets piled into one long answer, which makes visit instructions easy to mix up.

• Name, age, breed
• A photo
• Health issues
• Allergies or sensitivities
• Behavior notes: fears, triggers, how the pet reacts to strangers, other animals and the door

If the client has three pets, the form repeats this block three times. A good form does this for you with conditional logic, adding a fresh set of fields for each additional animal, as Makeform's form builder describes.

Section 3: Health records, vaccines and the vet

• Vaccination history, with upload
• Medications: name, dose and time as separate fields
• Vet clinic name and phone
• A line authorizing you to seek emergency care

Keep medication as three fields, not a notes box. Example: say Biscuit takes one pill at 7 am and 6 pm. If that lives in a free-text note, it sits next to the paragraph about the squirrel obsession and gets skimmed. As three fields, it shows up as an instruction.

Paperform's pet sitting intake template includes the vet contact with emergency care authorization. Without it, you have no clear permission and no number at the worst moment.

Section 4: Routine

• What and when the pet eats, and how much
• Walk schedule
• Where leashes, bags, food and cleaning supplies are kept
• Anything the pet should not do or get

Section 5: Home access

• How you get in: key, lockbox or code
• Alarm code and what to do if it trips
• Who else may be in the home
• Parking or building notes

Collect access details in the form, not in a text thread. A code buried in a message from three weeks ago is a code your sitter cannot find at 6 pm in the dark.

Section 6: Booking

• Visit dates and times
• Which service for which pet
• Any special visit length

Make vaccine proof a pass or fail check

Vaccine records are where intake forms get vague. Make it a rule.

Pet care providers that publish requirements, such as Doghouse's vaccination page, list three core vaccines: rabies, DHPP (distemper, hepatitis, parvovirus) and bordetella. They require that each is current, given by a licensed veterinarian, and received before the pet's first visit. Some also collect Lepto and Lyme dates on top of the core three.

That page is written for a dog care facility, so treat the three as a common pattern, not a law. Check what applies where you work and set your own list.

For each vaccine, ask three things:

When all three pass, book. When any fails, hold the first visit until it clears. Hold it politely, but hold it. A pet with unknown vaccine status in your care is your problem the moment something goes wrong.

Sample wording for your form: "Vaccines must be current and given by a licensed veterinarian. Records are due before the first visit."

Offer more than one way to send records. Doghouse accepts client portal uploads, emailed records, faxes, paper copies, or records sent directly by the vet. If a client cannot find the paper, ask their vet to email it. That removes the excuse and the delay.

And decide about fleas and ticks now. The same page expects pets to be flea and tick free and says a pet showing signs may be treated at the pet parent's expense. If you want that rule, put it in the form and in your terms. Your client contract is the right place to write it down.

Send the form before the meet-and-greet, not after

Send the form as soon as the screening questions pass. Makeform advises sharing it before the meet-and-greet so that in-person time can focus on the pet and the home.

The meet-and-greet then does the work a form cannot. Pawshake's list of meet-and-greet mistakes points out that pet behavior changes when the owner is present, so if you will need to carry, hold or play with the pet, practice it there. It also says not to rush the visit, and to exchange information in both directions: the client should ask you about your experience, availability and other pets, too.

A workable order:

1. Screening questions by text or phone.
2. Send the form.
3. Review the form and the vaccine proof.
4. Meet-and-greet, focused on handling, the home and the access test.
5. Book.

Five mistakes that cost you a visit

• Collecting details by text. Information scatters across threads, and you chase the client before the visit.
• One long answer for several pets. Instructions get mixed up. Give each animal its own block.
• Medication in a notes box. The most important instruction becomes the easiest to miss.
• No emergency care authorization. You have no clear permission and no vet number when you need both.
• Taking vaccine records after visit one. The pet is already in the home, around other animals.

Know where your intake data lives

A form collects answers. It does not tell you where they go afterward. Plenty of sitters collect everything in a form tool, then retype it into scheduling and invoicing software, and end up with the same client in three places.

Whatever you use, ask one question before you commit: can I get every client, pet and vaccine record out, in a format I can read? If the answer is no, your records are held hostage the day you want to leave.

This is the part of the job I care about as a software operator. Porchlight, the pet sitting software I work on, exports every table as CSV and JSON, plus a media manifest, at any time. If you ever move from another tool, the Switch Kit imports exports from Time To Pet, Precise Petcare, Pet Sitter Plus and LeashTime, with a dry run so you can check the result first and a one-click rollback. How long that takes depends on how much data you have. Our switching checklist for Time To Pet walks through what to export before you go.

Time To Pet is a well-reviewed product, and it publishes useful guidance on new clients, as cited above. If you are already happy on it, a good intake form on top of it is a fine plan.

Do this in the next ten minutes

Open a blank document and paste in the six sections above. Cut the fields you do not need, add the ones your company requires, then add the vaccine rule in your own words. Send it to your next inquiry, after the six screening questions.

Keep your records in one place from day one

An intake form gets you the right answers. Software that stores them, schedules the visits and lets you take everything with you if you leave gets you a business that can grow. Porchlight has two flat plans, Solo at $35 a month and Team at $79 a month with unlimited staff, and a 30 day free trial with no card needed. Start free for 30 days.