Pet notes and grooming history guide.

Quick answer

Track health and safety notes, coat and matting history, behavior and handling preferences, service history, product or blade preferences, owner instructions, pricing context, photos, and multi-pet household details.

Why it matters

Pet notes save time at the door, protect the pet and groomer, support staff handoff, and help repeat clients receive a more consistent groom. Missing notes can mean repeated questions, wrong tools, avoidable stress, or pricing confusion.

Practical checklist

Use this checklist to tighten the workflow before the next busy grooming day.

• Health and safety notes
• Coat and matting history
• Behavior and handling preferences
• Service history
• Product or blade preferences
• Owner instructions
• Photos where useful
• Pricing and time context
• Multi-pet household notes
• Follow-up and rebooking details

How OpenDog helps

OpenDog keeps pet notes close to pet records, customer records, appointments, route context, invoices, receipts, messages, and follow-up so groomers can find the details when they matter.

What pet notes need to include

A useful pet record gives the groomer practical context before the van arrives or before the pet reaches the table. Notes need to be short enough to scan and specific enough to change the workflow.

• Pet name, breed, size, age, and household.
• Service preference and prior groom outcome.
• Anything the groomer needs before touching the dog.

Health and safety notes

Health notes are not a replacement for veterinary advice, but they help the groomer make safer service decisions and ask better questions before the appointment.

• Skin irritation, lumps, soreness, seizures, coughing, or injury notes.
• Senior pet limitations or handling needs.
• Medication, muzzle, or vet-directed cautions the owner shares.

Coat and matting history

Coat notes help prevent unrealistic expectations and make future pricing easier to explain. Record matting, coat condition, dematting decisions, shave-down consent, and how the coat responded last time.

• Matting severity and location.
• Blade length or trim result.
• Extra time, coat condition, and maintenance recommendation.

Behavior and handling preferences

Behavior notes help the next groomer prepare without judging the pet. Keep them factual: what happened, what helped, and what to avoid.

• Nervous for nails but calms with breaks.
• Does not like dryer near ears.
• Needs two-person lift or owner help for entry when appropriate.

Service history and product preferences

Repeat clients expect consistency. Track the service performed, products used when relevant, blade or guard length, add-ons, photos, owner feedback, and what to repeat or change next time.

• Last groom date and service.
• Shampoo, conditioner, or product sensitivity notes.
• Blade, comb, length, and style preference where useful.

Owner instructions and staff handoff

Owner instructions can be easy to lose in texts. Put important requests into the pet record so another groomer, a future employee, or the owner reviewing the route can see them.

• Access and parking instructions belong with customer context.
• Pet-specific owner preferences belong with the pet.
• Follow-up and rebooking notes belong with appointment history.

Keep notes useful, not noisy

A long wall of old notes can become just as hard to use as no notes at all. Keep current cautions visible, move stale context out of the way, and update the record after each meaningful change.

Screenshot needs for pet notes

This page needs real product screenshots showing pet profile, service history, health/safety notes, coat photos, behavior notes, owner instructions, and appointment-linked follow-up.

Related next steps

Use the linked feature, solution, and setup pages to turn this guide into a practical OpenDog setup path.