A sitter can follow feeding times from a sticky note, but quirks and fears are where a stay goes wrong: the dog who panics at the vacuum cleaner, bolts at an open gate, or guards a particular toy looks fine until the exact moment a stranger meets the trigger. A useful document does not describe your dog in general terms. It walks a newcomer through each situation in advance, in language they can act on at two in the morning without phoning you.
Write Each Fear as a Four-Part Entry
Give every fear or quirk its own short entry with the same four parts, in the same order, so the sitter can find the right response quickly. First, the trigger in concrete terms: not nervous about noise, but frightened by the vacuum cleaner, fireworks on television, and the metal food bowl dropped on tiles. Second, the early signs in your dog specifically: pacing, lip licking, ears pinned, hiding behind the sofa, or going unusually quiet. Third, what helps: being allowed into the bathroom to hide, a filled chew given in the crate, curtains closed and radio on, a calm voice and no fuss. Fourth, what never to do: never pull him from under the bed, never have visitors crowd him for a stroke, never leave him in the garden during fireworks. That final column prevents the kind, obvious mistakes a stranger makes with confidence.
Cover the Quirks That Are Not Fears
Quirks shape a stay as much as fears do. Note the dog who will only toilet on grass, who refuses walks in heavy rain but will use the garden, who steals socks and trades them happily for a treat, who barks at the post arriving and settles once the hallway door is closed. Record food behaviour precisely: meals, amounts, where he eats, any allergy flagged at the top of the page in the kitchen copy, and whether other pets or visiting children must be separated at feeding. Door and escape habits deserve their own lines: which doors stay shut, whether the front garden gate latches reliably, how he behaves when the doorbell rings, and the exact recall word or whistle you use, written phonetically if it is unusual.
Add Comforts, Places and People
List the things that settle him, not just the things that upset him: the blanket that travels to every bed, the evening chew, the order of the bedtime routine, the resting places he chooses by time of day. A sitter who can reproduce comfort can prevent half the anxiety they were warned about. Follow with people information: your mobile number, a second contact who knows the dog, the veterinary practice with its address and out-of-hours arrangement, and a neighbour with a spare key. House basics belong on the same document rather than a second sheet that gets separated: alarm code instructions without writing the code itself if you prefer to give it verbally, bin day, and which appliances the dog fears when they run.
Make It Usable, Then Test It
Keep the document to two pages at most, ordered by the day rather than by topic: morning routine, walks, feeding, evening, night, then the fear entries as a reference section. Use plain headings, short lines and no paragraph that needs reading twice. Walk the sitter through it in the house, showing the gate latch, the hiding place and the treat cupboard while you talk, because a shown routine survives better than a read one. After the stay, ask what surprised them and update the document the same week; the second sitter inherits a tested page instead of your first draft. Inside KinsLe, a Pet Passport record travels with your dog to clinics, boarders and sitters, so the paperwork packet stays complete between visits.