What a complete handover actually includes
Handing a dog to a new partner or housemate goes better when the knowledge in your head becomes a document in theirs. Gather the full picture in one place: vaccination and parasite-prevention status, any ongoing health condition and what the vet has said about it, the microchip number and which database holds it, insurance details if he has them, and the vet's name and number. Then add the lived knowledge that never appears on a certificate: exactly what and how much he eats and when, the walk routine and the routes he knows, his recall reliability, the dogs and situations he dislikes, how he signals he needs the garden, what settles him at night and what frightens him. A page of honest quirks is worth more than a perfect record of his injections.
Walk the routine rather than just sending it
A written handover is the starting point, not the handover itself. Spend a few days running the routine together: feed side by side so your partner sees the exact measure and the exact bowl, walk the usual route together and hand over the lead mid-walk, and let them practise the cues your dog actually knows, in the wording he knows them in. Dogs read inconsistency instantly, and a cue said three different ways by two people becomes no cue at all. Agree the house rules explicitly too — sofa or no sofa, which treats and how many, what happens at the front door — because the dog will test every gap between you, cheerfully and immediately.
The first week: shadow, then hand over in stages
Stage the change so the dog's world stays stable while the cast changes. For the first few days your partner shadows you; then they take the morning feed and the evening walk while you are still in the house; then they hold the whole routine for a full day with you reachable by phone. Watch the dog rather than the humans for the verdict: eating normally, sleeping in his usual spots and greeting both people easily are the signs the handover is landing. A dog who follows you from room to room or goes off his food is telling you to slow the stages down, not that the arrangement cannot work.
Keep the record alive after the handover
A care profile freezes on the day it is written, and dogs do not. Build the habit of updating it whenever anything changes — a new food amount, a vet visit and its outcome, a treatment started or stopped, a new fear that appeared during fireworks — so the person who did not witness the change still works from current facts. The packet should also name who makes decisions and who takes the lead in an emergency, agreed while everyone is calm rather than negotiated during a crisis at the vet's door. Keeping the whole packet in one portable place is what KinsLe's Pet Passport is for: the records, routine and vet details sit together in one file that either of you can open, update and hand on again if the household changes once more.