If you've ever used TSA PreCheck at an airport, you know the feeling. While everyone else is queuing to take off shoes, laptops and belts, you walk through a dedicated lane, nothing to remove, nothing to prove, because you already went through the process in advance. It takes 90 seconds instead of 20 minutes.
That's exactly what PawCheck does for pet boarding — and it's one of those ideas that seems obvious in hindsight but that almost no kennel management software bothered to build properly until now.
The problem PawCheck solves
Think about what actually happens at a typical kennel check-in. A client arrives. You need to confirm their emergency contact is current. You need to check whether their pet's vaccination records are up to date and on file. You need them to sign your waiver. You need to capture any changes to feeding instructions or medication. And you need to do all of this while managing other arrivals, answering the phone and actually getting their dog settled.
The information gathering itself isn't the problem — you need that information. The problem is doing it at the worst possible moment: when the client is standing in front of you, their dog is excited and pulling, other clients are waiting, and nobody has time for a 15-minute admin session.
PawCheck moves all of that to before the day of arrival, when the client is at home, unhurried, and able to think clearly about what they're filling in.
How PawCheck works
When a booking is confirmed in KennelBooker, every client receives a unique, secure PawCheck link embedded in their confirmation email. The link contains their booking reference and takes them to a personalised page pre-populated with everything you already know about them and their pet.
Their name, address, emergency contact, vet details — all pre-filled from their account. They only need to review it, update anything that's changed, and confirm it's accurate. There's no re-entering information they've given you before.
From there, the client works through a series of sections:
- Contact and emergency information — review and update their own details plus their emergency contact name, phone and relationship.
- Vet details — confirm or update their registered vet, which staff need in the event of a medical concern during the stay.
- Pet information — feeding amounts, medication schedules, behavioural notes, anything staff need to know before the dog arrives.
- Vaccination dates — for each vaccination type your kennel requires, the client can see what's on file and update expiry dates where needed.
- Vaccination certificates — the client can upload PDF or photo copies of their vaccination documentation directly through the page. HEIC photos from iPhones are automatically converted to JPEG so they open correctly in any browser.
- Waiver signing — your service waiver is presented and the client signs it digitally, with a signature pad that works on both phone and desktop. The signed waiver is stored against their booking, timestamped and complete.
Once everything is submitted, the kennel sees a "PawCheck Completed" flag on the booking. Staff opening that booking on the day of arrival have everything they need — no chasing, no gaps, no clipboards.
What it means for the client experience
From a client's perspective, PawCheck changes the check-in experience completely. Instead of arriving and filling things in at the counter, they walk up, hand over their dog, and they're done. On a busy Monday morning at the start of school holidays, the difference between a 2-minute handover and a 15-minute one is enormous — for the client, who has somewhere to be, and for you, who has five more arrivals behind them.
There's also a reassurance element. A client who has been through PawCheck feels confident that their pet's details are accurate and on file. They know you have their emergency contact, their vet details, and their vaccination records. That confidence translates directly into the trust that produces loyal, returning clients.
"Our mornings changed completely when we turned on PawCheck. Clients who'd done it in advance just walked in, handed over the dog, said see you Friday and left. No queue, no paperwork, no chasing."
— Kennel manager, Edinburgh
What it means for your compliance
PawCheck is also a compliance tool. If your kennel requires vaccination certificates before boarding, PawCheck enforces this digitally: a client cannot complete their PawCheck without uploading a current, in-date certificate. By the time they arrive, you know the documentation is there. There's no moment of awkwardness at the counter where a dog turns up without proof of vaccination and you have to make a difficult call in front of a queue of other clients.
The same applies to waivers. A PawCheck-completed booking means a signed waiver is on file. You're not relying on a paper form that might get lost, or a verbal agreement that can't be proven if something goes wrong.
Validation is thorough but sensible. PawCheck checks that the first name and surname are filled in, that emergency contact details are present (if your kennel requires them), that vaccination expiry dates parse correctly, and that required vaccination certificates are on file. It lists any issues in one clear panel and highlights the problem fields in red — the client sees exactly what they need to fix, fixes it, and submits. Nothing is saved on a failed attempt, so there's no state where a booking looks complete but the data is actually partial.
The security model
Each PawCheck link is unique to the booking and requires a four-digit PIN to access. The PIN can be entered digit by digit or pasted in full — useful on mobile. After eight wrong attempts, the link is locked for 15 minutes. Every postback handler re-verifies the booking GUID and PIN together, so holding the link URL alone isn't enough to read or write anything.
Vaccination certificates can only be removed by the client who uploaded them. Kennel-uploaded documents are read-only from the client side — they can see them, but they can't delete them. This means your own clinical records stay under your control while clients manage their own submissions.
Setting it up
PawCheck is enabled at the kennel level within KennelBooker. The link is automatically inserted into booking confirmation emails via the [paw_check] email token — no custom integration required. If you want vaccination certificate upload to be mandatory rather than optional, turn on EnableVaccinationPhysicalDocument in your kennel settings, and PawCheck will enforce it for every booking that goes through the flow.
Most kennels find that 70–80% of clients complete PawCheck within 24 hours of receiving the link. A gentle reminder in your pre-arrival email ("Don't forget to complete your PawCheck so we're ready for you on arrival") pushes that number higher. The remaining clients who don't complete it in advance are handled normally at the counter — the process degrades gracefully, it doesn't break.
If your current check-in process involves clipboards, paper forms, or a mad rush on busy mornings, PawCheck is the fastest single improvement you can make.