Exercise, Play and the Honest Energy Rating
Log each walk and play session with time, length, and an energy note: keen throughout, lagging at the end, or stiff afterward. Golden Retrievers will retrieve past sensible limits because pleasing people outranks tired legs, so instruct the sitter to end fetch on time rather than on the dog's enthusiasm.
Include the regular routine as the baseline — usual routes, off-lead areas if any, and recall reliability — and ask the sitter to note any limping, reluctance on stairs, or slowing that differs from it. A dated pattern of 'stiff after long Sunday walk' is far more useful than a general impression at pickup.
Swimming and Ear Care After Water
Give swimming its own log line: whether he swam, for how long, and whether ears were dried afterward with the method you use. Goldens dive into any available water, and ear trouble after swimming is common enough that the connection should be visible in the record rather than reconstructed later.
Add coat notes after wet days — rinsed or not, any hot, itchy patches found while drying, and scratching that evening. Ask the sitter to run hands over the coat during drying and note any new lump or bump felt, with its location described in plain words, for you to raise with your vet at home.
Meals, Treats and Scavenging Rules
Write measured meals, feeding times, and the permitted treat list with amounts. State the scavenging rules a Golden demands: kitchen counters clear, bins latched, no dropped food left, and on walks a firm 'leave it' with any successful grab logged — what it was, how much, and when.
Record appetite faithfully. A Golden Retriever refusing food is a meaningful change, and the log should capture refused or partial meals with times so a vet can be given facts, not impressions, if it continues. Note water intake changes and any vomiting or loose stool the same day.
Grooming, Toilet and Night Notes
Schedule brushing in the log — Goldens shed constantly, and a few minutes with a brush doubles as the daily hands-on check for lumps, ticks after countryside walks, and sore spots. Note toilet breaks, accidents, and night settling: slept through, restless, or seeking company.
Record mood plainly too. A sociable dog who goes quiet, or one who shadows the sitter relentlessly, is telling you how the stay feels from inside it, and that belongs in the record alongside meals.
Car, Travel and Visiting Rules
If the sitter takes your Golden out in a car or to another home, log that too: travel behavior, whether he rides calmly or pants and drools, and the rules for other people's kitchens, where a charming retriever gets fed by everyone. Note any homes with cats or small dogs he visits and how those meetings went, so the next sitter inherits the social map rather than rediscovering it.
Contacts and the Closing Entry
Finish with owner and backup numbers, vet details, and urgent signs: repeated vomiting, a swollen abdomen, collapse, breathing trouble, or a known toxic item eaten. Request a short closing entry each evening summarizing the day.
Tracked in KinsLe's Care Teams, those Golden Retriever duties — swims, ear drying, meals and brushing checks — are assigned to the sitter and each completion is marked with a timestamp you can review.