A kennel checks a certificate in about a minute, against fixed points, and a rejection at drop-off is rarely about a sick dog — it is about a detail: a date out of force, a name that does not match, a stamp missing. Run the same check at home, a week ahead, when every problem it finds is still fixable with a phone call or a booster appointment.
Check the certificate against the dog
Begin with identity. The dog's name on the certificate must be the name the kennel has on the booking, and the description — breed or type, colour, sex, age where shown — must plainly describe the dog you will deliver. Mismatches creep in innocently: a puppy registered under a breeder's name for its first vaccination, a certificate in a previous owner's surname, a description written for a black puppy who is now unmistakably grey. A chip number, where the certificate records one, should match the number on your chip paperwork; where it does not, raise it with your practice before the kennel raises it with you. Kennels are not being awkward when they query identity — the certificate only proves vaccination if it provably belongs to this dog.
Dates, vaccine names and the practice stamp
Work down the dates next, because dates are where certificates quietly fail. Every vaccination recorded must be in force for the whole stay: nothing expired, boosters current rather than due during the boarding dates, and any waiting period the kennel requires after a booster or a first course already satisfied. Do the arithmetic against the actual drop-off and collection dates, not against today — a certificate in force this week can lapse mid-stay next month.
The vaccine names must be legible, fully written rather than smudged abbreviations you can read but a kennel worker cannot, because the kennel is checking that the cover it requires is the cover recorded. If handwriting has faded or a sticker has peeled, ask the practice to reissue a clean copy rather than sending a document that invites a judgement call at a busy reception desk. Finally, the authentication: the practice's stamp or a vet's signature should be present, with the practice's details readable. An unstamped printout reads as a draft; kennels reasonably treat the stamp or signature as the difference between a record and a claim.
The kennel's extras, and copy versus original
Ask the kennel what it requires beyond the standard certificate, and confirm those extras explicitly. Kennel cough cover is commonly requested separately, apart from the routine boosters, recorded in its own right and sometimes required a set time before boarding; other kennels want evidence of current flea and worming routines, or have their own form for the vet to complete. Requirements vary by kennel, so the check is a question to that kennel, answered in writing, not an assumption carried from the last place you used.
Then send a copy and keep the original. A clear scan or photograph, sent when the kennel asks for it — often at booking, so problems surface early — is what travels; the paper original stays in your file at home, safe from the losses that happen to documents in transit and in busy offices. Keep the copy you sent, too, so you know exactly what the kennel saw if anything is queried later.
Certificates checked once tend to be checked every time once the habit exists. Storing the current certificate with your dog's other health documents, as KinsLe arranges inside its Pet Passport packet, means the version you send a kennel is the current one, not last year's scan found in an old email thread.