An allergy note inside a care folder fails at the exact moment it matters: a sitter standing in your kitchen, scoop in hand, with your dog watching the bin. Placement is the whole system. The information has to live at the points where food is stored, chosen, and served, written so a tired person reads it in seconds and acts on it without interpretation.
The Two Notices Nobody Can Miss
Fix the first notice to the lid or front of the food bin itself, since that is the surface a sitter touches at every meal. Make it bold, short, and impossible to skim past: the dog's name in large letters, the words ALLERGY in capitals, and the specific foods that must never be given, written as ingredients a shopper would recognise rather than vague categories. Fix the second notice to the fridge door at eye height, because fridge raids for extras, leftovers, and treats happen there, and a sitter deciding whether a scrap is harmless needs the warning in front of them at that decision, not in another room. Use the same wording on both notices, word for word, so there is never a question about which version is right.
If other pets eat in your home, add the third line sitters most often need: your dog must not finish other bowls, and other pets' food stays behind a closed door until their bowls are lifted.
The List at the Prep Surface
Tape a two-column list at the surface where food is actually prepared, beside the scales, board, or counter space the sitter will use. Head one column SAFE and the other NEVER, and fill both from your own dog's confirmed history: the usual food and its measure on the safe side alongside any treats you genuinely use, and on the never side the forbidden ingredients plus the forms they hide in, such as gravy, stock, flavoured chews, and table scraps cooked with them. A sitter preparing a meal works down the safe column and never has to reason about a borderline ingredient at mealtime; anything not listed on the safe side is treated as not given, and your phone number sits at the foot of the list for the one question worth ringing about.
Keep the list to one page. A long, anxious document gets read once and remembered vaguely, while a short list in the working spot gets checked every single meal.
Keep the System Current
Allergy information rots quietly: a new food is trialled, a forbidden ingredient is confirmed, a treat changes recipe. Date every notice and list, and replace all copies in the same visit to the kitchen, because a fridge notice updated in spring beside a bin notice from winter is a contradiction waiting for a busy evening. When anything changes, cross out nothing by hand; print or write a fresh set, throw the old set away in front of yourself, and tell your regular sitter what changed and why. Photograph the final set on your phone so you can send the identical pages to a new sitter before they arrive, and walk any first-time sitter to each notice during the handover, watching them read the bin notice aloud before you leave.
One boundary matters throughout: these notices record what your dog must not eat and what has been agreed with your vet; they are not the place for symptoms, treatments, or what to do in a reaction. If your vet has given you specific instructions for your dog, ask the practice how those should be worded for a sitter and follow that wording exactly rather than summarising it yourself. Pet Passport on KinsLe then travels with your dog to boarding or a vet visit, carrying the same safe and forbidden foods beyond your own kitchen.