Terms and conditions for a dog daycare business

A dog daycare needs terms that deal with what actually goes wrong: the dog who fails the assessment, the cough that goes round the group, the owner who arrives long after closing time, and the vet bill nobody authorised. I draft customer terms around how your daycare runs, for a fixed fee of £995, delivered in five working days.

Who this is for

Dog daycare centres and doggy day care businesses in England and Wales, including those combining daycare with walking, training or overnight stays. Almost all of your customers are consumers, and consumer law does the heavy lifting here, although you may also take dogs from breeders, other dog businesses or from staff under a corporate arrangement. One set of terms can serve both if it is drafted to.

What matters in dog daycare terms

Assessment days and the right to refuse a dog

Most daycares run a trial or assessment before a dog joins a group. The terms should say that a place is conditional on that assessment, that you can refuse a dog or withdraw a place at any point, and what happens to days already paid for when you do. They should also put the owner under a duty to disclose known behaviour honestly: bite history, resource guarding, separation problems, neutering status and whether the dog has been asked to leave another daycare. Owners rarely volunteer that history unless the form asks.

Vaccination, illness and dogs turned away at the door

Group care spreads infection. Your terms should require current vaccination, flea and worm treatment, proof before the first day, and the right to refuse a dog that arrives coughing, sick or scratching, without a refund for that day. They should also say plainly that kennel cough and similar infections can be picked up in any group setting despite reasonable care, because owners tend to assume the daycare is at fault. Where you sell to consumers, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires the service to be performed with reasonable care and skill, and no term can put that aside.

Bookings, cancellation and prepaid blocks of days

Daycare sells days, blocks and standing weekly places, and the arguments are about unused ones. Set out how far ahead a day can be cancelled, what is charged if it is not, and how long a block of days lasts. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 treats disproportionate default charges and keeping prepayments without a matching obligation on you as unfair, so any charge has to reflect the place you held open and be shown before booking. Where owners book online or by phone, the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give them fourteen days to cancel unless they expressly ask you to start sooner.

Collection times, late pick-up and the dog nobody claims

Your opening hours are both a promise to customers and a staffing cost. The terms should fix drop-off and collection windows, state a late collection charge that reflects what keeping a handler on actually costs you rather than punishing the owner, and name who else is allowed to collect the dog. They also need a route for the dog nobody comes for: contacting the emergency contact, boarding the dog at the owner's expense, and the point at which you treat the dog as abandoned. That clause is unpleasant to draft and invaluable on a Friday evening.

Vet treatment and emergency authority

If a dog is injured or falls ill in your care you need written authority to act before you need it. The terms should allow you to take the dog to your nominated vet or the nearest available practice, make clear that the owner pays the bill, and record a treatment limit the owner authorises in advance with a route for exceeding it when nobody can be reached. Collect the owner's own vet, their insurance details, and any medication with dosing instructions, and say that you give medication only as recorded in writing.

Injury, escape and how far your liability goes

Dogs in a group get scratched, bitten and occasionally get out. The terms should allocate risk honestly: you are responsible for failures of reasonable care, the owner accepts the ordinary risks of off-lead group play, and the owner indemnifies you where their dog injures another dog, a handler or a member of the public. A liability cap works against business customers, subject to the reasonableness test under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, but nothing excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, and no clause removes a consumer's statutory rights.

What it costs

Customer or supplier terms and conditions, £995. One set of terms, customer-facing or supplier-facing, drafted around your business. Five working days.

Review of your existing terms, £495. You already have terms and want to know how much of a problem they are. Returned marked up with my amendments and an explanation of the changes. Three working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the terms and conditions drafting page describes, you accept the Terms of Service at checkout, and I email you within four working hours to get started. If you would rather ask something first, email me.

What you get

• A full set of terms drafted around your business, not a template with your name inserted
• A covering note in plain English explaining every commercial choice I made and why, so you can defend the terms in a negotiation without ringing me
• Liability, payment, termination and IP provisions set at a level that will survive a procurement review
• Consumer-facing wording drafted to be enforceable where you sell to consumers
• Guidance on how to incorporate the terms properly, which is where most businesses actually fail
• One round of amendments after you have read them

What is not included

• Negotiating your terms with individual customers
• Sector-specific regulatory compliance beyond the contract terms themselves
• Website privacy notice and cookie compliance, which I quote separately
• Terms governed by the law of another country

Questions I am often asked

Do the terms cover dogs I collect and drop home?

They can, and transport needs its own section: the collection window you will work to, who holds keys or has access to the house, what happens when nobody is home at drop-off, and that travel times vary with traffic and the run. Where the booking is agreed at the customer's home it may count as an off-premises contract, which brings the fourteen-day cancellation right with it.

Can I post photographs of the dogs on social media?

Most owners are delighted, but the agreement should be recorded rather than assumed. I include wording under which the owner agrees to photographs and video of their dog being used in your marketing, and can withdraw that agreement. Where a person appears in the shot, or the dog's name is shown alongside the owner's, treat it as personal data and obtain proper consent.

Can I charge interest when an owner falls behind?

Charging interest is possible with both types of customer, but the basis differs. Where the customer is a business, such as a breeder or another dog business, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 gives statutory interest and fixed compensation per debt. Where the customer is a consumer, the rate must be modest, transparent and stated before they book, or it risks being unfair.

Related guidance and services

• Terms and conditions drafting, £995, the service this page describes
• Employment contracts and handbooks, £595
• Contract review, £495
• Terms and conditions for a dog groomer
• Terms and conditions for a personal trainer

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: September 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.