Dog Daycare Morning Check-In Checklist
A night-before and at-the-door checklist that keeps the morning rush short and catches lapsed vaccines, missing waivers, and capacity problems before a leash changes hands.
Reviewed for 2026, updated September 8, 2026.
Most of the time spent at the front desk during the morning rush is spent verifying things that could have been verified the night before. This checklist splits check-in into three passes: what the desk reviews the evening before for every dog on tomorrow's schedule, what actually needs to happen at the door, and what the floor needs before the dog joins its group. Work through the night-before section once for the whole list, then keep the door section within reach during drop-off. In our experience, once the paperwork questions move to the evening, the at-the-door conversation often shortens to somewhere around one to three minutes per dog, depending on your process and on how much has changed since the dog's last visit.
Print it, laminate it, or paste the lines into whatever system you use, including the check-in flow in PupCheckr. If you want to see how much desk time a shorter check-in frees up across a typical week, run your numbers through the Check-In Time Saved Calculator at /tools/checkin-time-saved/ and pair it with the Handler Staffing Calculator at /tools/handler-staffing-calculator/ to confirm the floor can absorb the headcount you are accepting. The guide at /guide/ explains the reasoning behind every line, and the article on speeding up the morning rush at /blog/speed-up-morning-checkin/ goes deeper on the door itself.
- Night before: pull tomorrow's reservation list and confirm every expected dog against the schedule.
- Night before: check each dog's vaccination records against your facility's requirements and flag anything expired or expiring this week.
- Night before: confirm a signed waiver and a current emergency contact are on file for every dog on the list.
- Night before: note any medication, feeding, or handling instruction the owner has given, and put it where the floor will see it.
- Night before: pre-assign each expected dog to a playgroup and a rest space based on its last evaluation and recent notes.
- Night before: compare the expected headcount against tomorrow's handler schedule hour by hour and fix any thin spot now.
- Night before: decide how many walk-ins, if any, each group can absorb, and write that number on the desk board.
- Night before: read yesterday's notes for any dog that was flagged so the desk can ask a specific question at drop-off.
- At the door: greet the owner by the dog's name and confirm the dog is on today's list.
- At the door: ask one specific question about what has changed since the last visit (health, diet, heat cycle, injury, household).
- At the door: check the collar or harness, remove anything that could catch during play, and label belongings.
- At the door: do a quick visual once-over for limping, discharge, coughing, or skin issues before accepting the dog.
- At the door: confirm today's pickup time and who is authorized to collect the dog.
- At the door: log the arrival time and update the live headcount before the dog leaves the lobby.
- At the door: for a walk-in, check the desk board for group capacity before saying yes, not after.
- Before the floor: hand the dog over with its group assignment and any watch-for note, both spoken and written.
- Before the floor: give a first-day dog, or one returning after a long break, a short supervised entry into its group rather than an open gate.
- Before the floor: note the first five minutes, including greeting style, body language, and whether the dog settles.
- Before the floor: update the group board so anyone walking through knows where every dog is.
- After the rush: review the headcount against handler ratios once drop-off slows and adjust groups or staffing before anyone goes on break.
https://pupcheckr.com/templates/morning-check-in-checklist/Use it in your business, share it with your team, or link to it from your own site.
Also from PupCheckr
- Playgroup Roster and Daily Notes Log: A one-page daily log that tracks which group and handler every dog is with, captures short time-stamped behavior notes, and confirms that a report card went home.
- Free calculators