A new vet assistant opens a crate and a frightened Labrador lunges. A new groomer brushes a matted Shih Tzu and finds a hot spot underneath. A kennel attendant mixes two feeding bowls and a boarder with a kidney diet eats the wrong food. Each of these is a first-week story, and each could be prevented by a day of order and a supervisor close by.
This checklist covers clinics, grooming studios, boarding centres, trainers and daycare. It sits within the pet care and veterinary hub and follows the pattern of the first thirty days guide.
Day-by-day sheet
Day 1 Tour: consulting room, wards, runs, grooming tables, isolation area, store. Meet the on-call vet.
Day 1 Handling: slip lead, muzzle, towel wrap for cats, safe lift for large dogs. Bite and scratch log explained.
Day 2 Hygiene: hand wash, scrub and boot dip routine, cleaning order from healthy to sick runs, laundry of bedding.
Day 2 Intake: owner details, vaccination card check, deworming and tick history, diet and medication notes.
Day 3 Feeding charts, medication rounds, water checks and kennel cough signs. Learn the isolation rules for coughing dogs.
Day 3 Grooming joiners: table loop, clipper blade choice, de-matting limits, dryer safety, stop signs for stressed animals.
Day 4 Shadow an owner handover or discharge. Learn the words for good news and bad news.
Day 4 Emergency drill: heatstroke, seizure, collapsed animal, escape from a run.
Day 5 Supervised solo block with two calm animals. Debrief.
Joiner ______ Supervisor ______ On-call vet ______Handling and the bite log
Every joiner should see a bite entry on the first day. It teaches that bites happen to good handlers, that they are logged and that there is a doctor to call. Stress signs matter more than force: lip licking, whale eye, stiff tail, freezing. Teach the joiner to stop and call for help rather than push through. Cats need their own space and a quiet approach. Rabbits and birds need separate training.
Where first weeks go wrong
- A boarder arrives without a valid vaccination card and is placed in a general run.
- Medication given from memory on a busy morning round instead of the chart.
- Two dogs sharing a play yard before the daycare temperament check.
- An owner told too much, or too little, by a junior at the front desk.
- Cleaning with the wrong sequence, carrying infection from a sick run to a healthy one.
Vocabulary for the first week
- Run, crate and pen: where a boarder sleeps, and the cleaning order between them.
- Slip lead, harness and muzzle: tools for a nervous or reactive dog, each with a rule about when it is used.
- Kennel cough, parvo and tick fever: why a coughing dog is isolated and a puppy without shots is kept apart.
- Hydraulic table, grooming loop, clipper blades and dematting comb: the groomer's kit, and the reason a stressed dog is never left unattended on the table.
- Playgroup, temperament check and recall cue: the daycare words that decide who plays with whom.
- Pre-anaesthetic form, inpatient chart and discharge note: the clinic paperwork a vet assistant touches daily.
Ask each joiner to say the words back on Friday. If they cannot explain why the isolation run is cleaned last, the lesson has not landed.
The owner conversation
- 1
Greet by the pet's name
Owners warm to staff who say the animal's name first.
- 2
Collect the right facts
Diet, medicines, last meal, last stool, fears, escape tendencies, vet contact.
- 3
State what you will and will not do
A groomer will not clip a matted coat to the skin without telling the owner first.
- 4
Say who to call
Name the person who will phone with news, and when.
A note on rosters in the first week
Keep the joiner on a fixed shift for five days. A rotating schedule in the first week hides patterns: which hours are the busiest, when the kennel attendant is alone, when the vet leaves. Mark on the sheet the quiet hour for questions and the noisy hour when questions should wait. Show the joiner how weekly offs are planned and how to ask for a swap. A new groomer who cannot find the Saturday cover rule will quietly look for another employer.
What to ask about the joiner's own health and safety
Discuss with a doctor which vaccinations the team should consider, and keep a simple record of what each person has chosen. Provide gloves, aprons and an X-ray apron where relevant. Show the sharps bin and the first-aid kit. The workplace health and safety page for veterinary clinics and the pet boarding documentation page go deeper.
If you would like the sheet redrawn for your own clinic, studio or kennel, leave your details on the requirements form.
