Starting a dog walking business is an exciting venture, but it’s crucial to establish clear boundaries and expectations from the outset. Your dog walking contract serves as the foundational document for your client relationships, safeguarding both your business and your clients’ beloved pets. While not the most glamorous aspect of pet care, a well-drafted contract is indispensable for outlining services, terms, and conditions, ensuring all parties are aligned before any services commence. It’s always advisable to consult with a legal professional to ensure your contracts comply with all legal regulations and liabilities, which can vary significantly based on your business type, location, and services offered. This guide will walk you through the essential components of a robust dog walking contract, providing a strong starting point for your business.
Service Agreement: The Backbone of Your Contract
The Service Agreement is the cornerstone of any dog walking contract. This primary document details all the services you will provide to a client and lays out the terms and conditions they must agree to before becoming a customer. Depending on the breadth of services your company offers, you might need multiple Service Agreements. For instance, you may have separate agreements for dog walks and cat visits versus overnight stays. Some businesses opt for a distinct agreement for each service type if their rules and expectations differ significantly. The general recommendation is to keep your agreements as straightforward as possible while ensuring your business is adequately protected. A legal professional can offer tailored advice on the optimal number of agreements for your specific business.
These agreements are vital not only for communicating your policies and procedures and setting client expectations but also for protecting you, your staff, and your company in potential liability situations. It’s imperative that both you and your clients are on the same page, with every client explicitly agreeing to your terms and policies before you render any services. While agreements can vary based on services offered, location, and the drafting attorney’s style, some standard inclusions are: payment terms, late payment fees, cancellation fees, holiday fees, vaccination requirements, and policies regarding responsibility for damages or medical costs. For a starting point, you can review a sample Service Agreement, but always remember this is for educational purposes only and should not be copied verbatim. Consulting a local legal professional is strongly recommended to create a legally sound document tailored to your business needs.
Medical History and Veterinary Release: Prioritizing Pet Health
When onboarding new dog walking clients, collecting a detailed record of their pet’s medical history and their veterinarian’s contact information is essential. You must also confirm that pets are up-to-date on all vaccinations. If a pet has specific medical conditions requiring special assistance or needs prescribed medications, ensuring your team is fully informed is critical. Forewarned is forearmed, and your team should never enter a client’s home without complete and necessary information, especially concerning the pet’s health.
This is why a Veterinary Release Form, signed by the client as part of your dog walking contract, is highly recommended. This form authorizes you and your company to seek professional medical care from a veterinarian in emergencies concerning the pet’s health or well-being. When drafting this form, clearly outline your company’s emergency procedures and communication protocols with the client. It’s also wise to include a maximum dollar amount for treatment that the client authorizes, especially if they are unreachable. If the client is unavailable, having an emergency contact on file who can make decisions on their behalf is vital.
Time To Pet offers a sample Veterinary Release Form to guide you. Remember, a legal professional should review all legal documents your company uses. Beyond medical information, securing pet sitting insurance is crucial when starting a new pet care business to cover unforeseen emergencies. For more insights, refer to our Definitive Guide to Pet Sitting Insurance!
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Key Handling and House Rules: Building Trust and Security
If your pet sitting or dog walking business involves keeping keys on file or accessing client homes when they are not present, including a key handling form in your contract is highly recommended. Granting access to a client’s residence is a sensitive matter that deserves utmost importance. Clients entrust you not only with their furry family members but also with the ability to enter their homes, which significantly impacts the trust between them and your company.
While many pet care businesses are moving away from keeping physical keys and embracing lockboxes or digital codes, it remains important to address how you will access a client’s home. If you use lockboxes, consider a key lockbox form instead of a key handling one. The primary goal of these forms is to clearly define: how the key will be stored during service, who will have access, the security measures in place to protect the key and client privacy, and what will happen with the key after the services conclude. Will it remain in a lockbox, or will the sitter keep it? Will multiple sitters access keys? Will you keep keys on file for future services, and if so, where? Will there be a fee to return keys? As with other service details, agreeing on these points beforehand minimizes confusion and misunderstandings.
Time To Pet provides a sample Key Handling Form as a starting point. As always, a legal professional should review your final documents. Additionally, documenting any house rules agreed upon by you and your client before visits or stays is a good practice. For daily visits or walks, this could include instructions on lights, thermostats, windows, doors, and alarm codes. For overnight stays, rules might be more comprehensive, covering trash collection, composting, use of kitchenware, sleeping arrangements, and Wi-Fi passwords.
[Dog Walker Cancellation Policy: Managing Unexpected Changes
Life’s unpredictable nature means you must be adaptable to client cancellations. Cancellations, especially last-minute ones, are inevitable. Having clear cancellation policies in place prevents questions and confusion. It’s crucial that you and your staff are compensated for your time and expenses, particularly for last-minute cancellations or during peak busy periods like holidays. These cancellations can lead to missed work opportunities, negatively impacting your business and your staff’s livelihoods. Therefore, establishing cancellation fees and policies is a must. For detailed guidance on setting up these policies, consult our blog post on Setting and Enforcing Your Pet Sitting or Dog Walking Cancellation Policy.
Payment Authorization for Services: Streamlining Finances
Getting paid is fundamental to any dog walking business. To make the payment process as seamless as possible for your clients, consider implementing a payment authorization form. This is especially important if you plan to accept debit or credit cards. Your form should provide clear instructions on how clients can pay invoices, whether you require a payment method on file, use a client portal for payments, or will be charging manually or via an Automatic Charging system like Time To Pet’s. Clearly state any disallowed payment types and list the accepted ones. Whatever your company’s payment process, explain it very clearly to avoid future issues or disputes.
Similar to other forms mentioned, Time To Pet offers a sample Payment Authorization Form for review. Remember, this is for educational purposes, and an attorney or legal professional should review it, along with all other contracts and agreements, before finalization.
Signing the Contract: Formalizing the Agreement
After finalizing your dog walking contract with legal counsel, you’ll need a method for clients to sign. Time To Pet offers a straightforward way to upload your contract and capture client e-signatures through its Portal Policy feature. By enabling Client Agreements in your account settings and adding your contract, you can require new clients to review and e-sign. Existing clients can also be prompted to do so. If you update your agreements, Time To Pet allows you to decide if clients need to review and re-sign the updated version. You can also download a PDF of each signed contract from client profiles.
Alternatively, you can print contracts for clients to sign during Meet & Greets or utilize e-signature tools like DocuSign. Regardless of the method, ensure all clients have read and agreed to your contract terms and have provided their signatures.
While the administrative aspects of operating a dog walking company might not be the most thrilling, having all your ducks in a row will prevent numerous headaches down the line. Clear, well-defined policies protect your team and business from liability and client claims for services not agreed upon. They also enhance your professionalism and reputation. By meticulously preparing your agreements with the help of a qualified legal professional, you can craft a robust set of documents that benefits you, your company, and your clients. Happy Dog Walking!
As always, we highly recommend having a legal professional review your service agreements or create them for you. Time To Pet is not a law firm and we do not provide legal advice.
Make sure to check out our Time To Pet Academy and Blog for more great resources.
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