This page is written for someone who has never set foot in your kennel and now has to keep every animal in it alive until you are back — so every line on it has to make sense without you.
The most important first
- One page, printed, where the dogs are, with a second copy in the vehicle and a third with the key holder.
- Write for a stranger. No abbreviations, no household nicknames, and nothing that exists only in your telephone.
- State explicitly who may authorize veterinary treatment and up to what limit, because the clinic will ask and a stand-in who has to guess will lose time.
- Date the version and review it after every change of dog, medication, veterinary practice or telephone number, since a plan that is trusted and out of date is worse than none.
- Keep it freely available and never behind a login. It belongs beside crisis and contingency planning for a kennel and when to call the vet during whelping and afterwards.
Header — version and ownership
- Kennel name and full postal address, written out as a stranger would need it
- Your name, mobile number, and a second number where you might be reached
- Date this version was written, and the date of the next planned review
- Name and number of the person who takes over first, and of the second choice
- One line stating what this document is for, so nobody has to work it out
- Confirmation that a signed veterinary treatment authorization is on file with your practice, naming who may consent to treatment and up to what amount
Who to call, in order
- Day-time veterinary practice: name, address, telephone, opening hours
- Out-of-hours or emergency clinic: name, address, telephone, and whether a referral is needed
- An alternate vet farther away, in case the local practice is affected too
- Which practice holds the dogs’ records, if they differ
- The person authorized to consent to treatment in your absence, with the agreed financial limit
- How treatment will be paid for: account held with the practice, card arrangement, or named payer
- Fire service and police numbers, and the national emergency number
- Electricity supplier fault line, water and heating engineer
- Your registry or breed club contact, for registration questions that cannot wait
Put the numbers a stranger needs first at the top of the page: fire service, police, your regular vet, the out-of-hours clinic and the alternate vet. In England, the emergency phone list in a licensed breeder’s plan must include the fire service and the police. A plan that says “call the vet” is not much use if the vet cannot act on your stand-in’s word, which is why the signed treatment authorization belongs with the practice before you need it.
How to get there and get in
- Written directions and what the entrance looks like, not only a postcode
- Access code, key location, or who holds the key and how far away they are
- Which doors and gates are locked, and which keys open them
- Where the lights, fuse box, water stopcock and heating controls are
- Where the fire extinguisher, blanket and first aid kit are kept
- Any dog that must not be let out at the same time as another, named explicitly
The dogs, one line each
- Call name and registered name
- Microchip number and the database the identity is registered in
- Breed, sex, neutered or entire, date of birth, color and distinguishing marks
- Current weight, and whether any recent change matters
- Insurance company and policy number
- Where this dog sleeps and which run or room is its own
- Temperament notes a stranger needs: handling, lead behavior, resource guarding, fear of men
- For a pregnant or nursing bitch: due date or whelping date, number of puppies, and what is already known about the litter
Medication and feeding
- Each dog’s current medication: product, dose, route, time of day, and what it is for
- Where the medicines are stored, and which need refrigeration
- Any dog that must not be given a particular drug, with the reason
- Food: brand, amount, number of meals, and feeding times
- Supplementary or tube feeding in progress, with the schedule and the last feed given
- Where the food, formula, bottles and feeding equipment are kept
- Anything a dog must never be given, including human food and treats from visitors
The day, in the order it happens
- First check of the morning: what is looked at, in which order, and what is written down
- Feeding, letting out, cleaning, and the time each normally happens
- Litter routine: weighing, warmth check, nest cleaning, and how often puppies are observed
- Exercise and what each dog can and cannot do
- Evening routine and the last check of the night
- What is recorded daily, and where the log sheet lives
When something is wrong
- The signs that mean telephone the vet now rather than wait, for an adult dog
- The signs that mean telephone the vet now for a neonatal puppy
- What to do if the heating or power fails: the fallback heat source and where it is
- What to do if a dog shows signs of infectious disease: which room becomes the isolation area, and who is told
- Where the dogs go if the building becomes unusable: two addresses, two telephone numbers, and what they can be transported in
- Who must be informed if a dog or puppy dies
Where the records are
- Where the dog cards, litter cards, health journals and medication log are kept
- Where vaccination certificates, registration papers and insurance documents are
- Where the buyer register is, and who may be contacted from it
- Login or location of any digital records, with access arranged in advance rather than written on the page
- A note of where this plan itself is duplicated
Grab-and-go supplies
- Where the evacuation bag and crates are kept
- Food for at least three to seven days and water for at least seven
- A two-week supply of each dog’s medication, rotated so it does not expire
- Leads, spare collars with ID tags, and a muzzle
- A copy of this plan, microchip numbers and vaccination records
- Crates labeled with your contact details
Using it well
The discipline is to let someone else test it. Hand the finished page to a person who has never worked in your kennel, stand back, and watch them try to carry out the morning routine from the paper alone. Everything they have to ask you is a line that needs rewriting. This is the same exercise that regulation reaches for in different words: in England, a licensed breeding establishment must hold a written emergency plan acceptable to the local authority, covering fire, breakdown of heating and ventilation and relocation of the dogs, and the statutory guidance expects drills to be tested annually or as the fire risk assessment determines. Several other jurisdictions publish templates and emergency procedure guides for licensed breeders for the same reason.
In the US, breeders licensed under the federal Animal Welfare Act must keep a contingency plan that names the likely emergencies, the specific actions for each, who decides, and the equipment needed, train staff on it, and review it at least once a year. Even if you are not licensed, that structure is a good test for your own page.
Keep it short enough to stay on one side of one page, and move anything that does not fit into the records it points to. A plan that runs to four pages will not be read in an emergency. If something genuinely cannot be compressed, such as a complex medication regime or a hand-rearing schedule, give it its own single sheet and reference it by name from the main page.
Review on a fixed date, and also whenever reality changes: a new dog, a mating, a whelping, a new medication, a practice that merges, a stand-in who moves away. Write the version date at the top in large figures so that anyone picking it up can see at a glance whether it is current. And keep it unlocked and freely shareable, because the person who needs it most may be someone you have not met.
When to call your vet (for the person using this plan)
- A dog is bleeding heavily, has trouble breathing, collapses, or has a seizure.
- A dog may have eaten something poisonous (medication, rat bait, chocolate, antifreeze) — call before trying anything yourself.
- A pregnant or whelping bitch strains strongly for 20–30 minutes without a puppy, or has green or black discharge before the first puppy.
- A dog has repeated vomiting or diarrhea, or refuses food for more than a day.
- A puppy is cold, weak, or not nursing.
- Dogs were exposed to heat, smoke or flooding, even if they seem fine.
- If in doubt, call — your vet would rather hear from you early.
Work on it
A few minutes here will teach you more than re-reading the article.
Ask yourself
- Could a competent stranger run my kennel for two days from this page alone, without telephoning me once?
- Does every number on it still ring the organization it names?
Find out & check
- Confirm with your veterinary practice what they need in order to accept consent for treatment from your named stand-in, and write their answer onto the page.
Do one thing
- Fill in the header and the contact section today, print it, and put it where the dogs are rather than in a folder.
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Sources & further reading
- The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 — Schedule 2, paragraph 10. legislation.gov.uk
- Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs — Dog breeding licensing: statutory guidance for local authorities. gov.uk
- Agriculture Victoria — Code of Practice for the Operation of Breeding and Rearing Businesses: toolkit and templates. agriculture.vic.gov.au
- USDA APHIS Animal Care — Tech Note: Guide to contingency plans for emergencies. aphis.usda.gov
- American Kennel Club — AKC-Supported APHIS Rule Requiring Emergency Contingency Planning Finalized. akc.org
- American Veterinary Medical Association — Pets and disasters. avma.org
Where evidence is limited, recommendations rest on established practice and expert judgment, and may be updated as knowledge develops. The emergency planning requirements cited here apply in England, in the State of Victoria and, for federally licensed breeders, in the US, and are used as worked examples of how such plans are specified; licensing conditions, drill requirements and reporting duties differ between countries and regions, so check what is required where you live with your own licensing authority. This template is not a substitute for veterinary instruction: the clinical thresholds for calling a veterinarian should be agreed with your own practice and written in their words, not copied from a general guide.
Next steps
- Read next: Crisis and contingency planning for a kennel.
- Related: When to call the vet during whelping and afterwards.
- Return to the area hub: Running a kennel: operations, records and resilience.
- Everyday risks to plan for: heatstroke and poisoning in the kennel and home.