Exercise Plans and Owner Consent for Home Boarding Dogs

Keep the dog's normal needs in the profile

Record exercise restrictions and relevant behavioural information before the booking. A dog that cannot be exercised normally needs an alternative plan, not an empty exercise box.

Capture the permissions clearly

Current guidance includes written consent for walking outside the home environment or garden, off-lead exercise and walking with dogs from other households. Make those choices explicit in the consent form.

Turn the plan into a daily record

During the stay, record what exercise or enrichment actually happened. This creates a useful bridge between the owner's instructions and the care delivered.

Higher standards can add requirements

The current guidance includes additional exercise requirements within higher standards. If you are working towards a higher star rating, review the relevant higher-standard sections in full rather than treating a generic checklist as sufficient.

Record the exercise plan as well as the consent

Permission is only half the operational record. Keep the dog’s normal exercise needs, health restrictions, lead requirements, recall concerns and any vet advice together with the owner’s choices. That gives the person walking the dog an actual plan instead of a collection of yes/no answers.

Make the three common permissions explicit

The current England guidance specifically addresses written consent for walking outside the home environment or garden, letting a dog off lead, and walking a dog with others outside its household. If those activities are part of your service, surface them as separate decisions so an owner cannot accidentally agree to one while thinking they agreed only to another.

Reassess during the stay

Consent does not require you to continue an activity that becomes unsuitable. Hot weather, illness, injury, fear or behaviour around another dog may mean the planned walk should change. Record the reason and the alternative enrichment or exercise provided where relevant.

Connect exercise to the daily care record

The standing exercise plan says what you intend to do. The daily care log shows what actually happened. Keeping both gives you a clear picture without rewriting the plan every day.