Feeding instructions fail in predictable places: 'a handful' that doubles in a bigger hand, 'twice a day' that drifts to whatever time suits the carer, and the extras — gravy, scraps, a second breakfast from another family member — that nobody thought to mention. A holiday carer feeding your dog for a week needs instructions that survive tired evenings and good intentions, which means measured food, written times, and no reliance on judgement calls.
Pre-measure the meals before you pack your own bag
The clearest instruction is a physical one. Portion each meal into a labelled bag or tub — day and meal marked on it — so the carer's job becomes opening the right container rather than interpreting quantities. If food is weighed at home, weigh these; if it is scooped, use the same scoop and level it the way you do. Fourteen small containers in a row also show you instantly whether the amount you are leaving covers the whole trip plus a spare day.
Leave the remaining food supply clearly located as backup, with a note of what to do if a bag spills or a day runs long. A carer who runs out on the last morning will improvise with whatever a shop sells, and a sudden food change is a reliable route to an upset stomach on your return day.
Write the bowl routine, not just the ingredients
State what happens around the food: feeding times, whether the meal is served dry or soaked and for how long, warm water or cold, and whether the dog eats from a standard bowl, a slow feeder, or a puzzle to stretch the meal out. Note where the dog is fed, whether other pets are shut out during meals, and the command or routine that starts eating — some dogs wait for a release word, and a carer who simply puts the bowl down teaches a week of barging.
Cover water explicitly too: bowl washed and refilled how often, and any habit like drinking heavily after walks that the carer should expect rather than worry about. Then list the absolute exclusions in plain terms — no cooked bones, no table scraps, no food left down for grazing if your dog is a measured-meal dog — because most feeding mistakes are additions, not omissions.
Tell the carer what normal appetite looks like
A carer cannot judge a skipped meal without a baseline. Write down how eagerly your dog normally eats, whether the first morning with a new person is typically subdued, and which foods can be used to tempt a reluctant eater — a little warm water over the meal, for example — versus what should trigger a call to you. One missed meal with normal drinking and energy is usually adjustment; refusal across a full day alongside vomiting, diarrhoea, or lethargy is a veterinary conversation, and the carer should have the vet's number on the same sheet.
Also note treat allowances in numbers, not adjectives. 'A few treats' across a holiday week of sympathetic treating can quietly become a second diet, and a dog that comes home heavier and with a loosened stomach has usually been loved generously rather than fed wrongly at mealtimes.
Make one example meal and hand the sheet over in person
Before you leave, prepare a meal exactly as it should look while the carer watches, and let them make the next one while you are there to correct it. That two-minute rehearsal catches misunderstandings — soaking time, water level, which supplement goes in which meal — that no written sheet fully prevents.
Written down and rehearsed, those instructions still need to live where the carer will look at feeding time, and KinsLe's Care Pass is built for exactly that handover, giving your holiday carer temporary access to the feeding amounts, times, and exclusions together with the rest of your dog's routine.