Leave one clear page fixed by the food bin, where the work happens, covering food, amount, time, water, medication-free note, vet number, house rules. A relief walker covering two visits a week has no daily rhythm to fall back on, so the sheet has to do the remembering for her. It should read in the order she will use it, from entering the house to locking up, and it should fit on a single page she can follow without searching through folders or messages.
What Each Line on the Page Has to Say
Start with the food itself: name the food exactly as it appears on the bag or tub, and say where that container lives, because two similar tubs in one cupboard invite the wrong scoop. Beside it, give the amount as an exact measure, such as one level scoop from the scoop kept inside the container, and say whether the bowl should be emptied of leftovers first. Give the time as a clear window for each visit day rather than a vague morning or evening, and note how long after eating your dog usually needs a toilet break. For water, say to empty the bowl, rinse it, and refill it at every visit, not simply to top it up, so stale water never carries over between her visits and yours. The medication-free note deserves its own line in plain words: no medication to give, and nothing extra to be added unless you have said so directly. Writing that down protects your dog from well-meant improvisation and protects the walker from worrying that she has missed a dose hidden somewhere else. Follow it with the vet number, written in full, plus a short line on what counts as a reason to call: a meal refused twice, vomiting, a collapse, limping, or anything that looks like pain. Finish with house rules that affect the visit itself: which lead and collar to use, which doors stay shut, whether your dog is let into the garden first or walked straight away, how the key is returned, and what to do if the front door or gate will not secure.
How a First Solo Visit Should Run
She arrives, reads the page before she touches the food, and works down it in order. Food measured exactly, bowl put in its usual place, water refreshed while your dog eats, then the toilet break or short walk your house rules describe. Before leaving she checks the bowl, notes how much was eaten, and makes sure doors, gates, and the water bowl are as the page expects. If your dog leaves food, the instruction should already say what to do with the remainder: pick it up, leave it down, or report it, rather than leaving that judgment to a newcomer. A short walkthrough together before the first solo visit turns the page from theory into something she has physically done once: opening the bin, finding the scoop, filling the bowl, working the door latch.
What She Writes Back After Each Visit
The handover works both ways, so leave space at the foot of the page, or a small notebook beside it, for her return notes. Ask her to record the time she fed, whether the bowl was finished, water refreshed, toileting, and anything that seemed different: a skipped meal, an unusually thirsty dog, a loose stool, a limping step. Those notes are how you spot a slow change across her two weekly visits that neither of you would catch from one visit alone. After her first two visits, revise anything she found unclear.
Keeping the Sheet Current
Whenever food, portion, timing, or house rules change, rewrite the page that day and remove the old copy, so two versions never circulate at once. Date the page, so she can check at a glance that she is reading the latest version. For safekeeping, KinsLe holds a backup of this sheet inside Pet Passport, available when a second helper or an unexpected clinic trip requires identical instructions.