A capable sitter can follow a feeding schedule after one reading. What nobody can guess is the private vocabulary an old dog and her owner have built together over years: the particular way she asks, the particular places she trusts, the particular touches she no longer accepts. Your job before the stay is translation. The finished document should let a kind stranger read her almost as well as you do, and it should leave no room for well-meant improvisation with a dog whose body forgives very little.
Translate Each Cue Into an Action
List her signals one by one, and beside each signal write the response it calls for. Describe how she asks to go out: perhaps she stands at the door, perhaps she paces a particular route, perhaps she only stares at you from the hallway. Describe how she asks for company and how she asks to be left alone, because an old dog's request for solitude is as real as her request for a fuss, and a sitter who follows her into her retreat turns rest into pressure.
Include the signs that mean she is sore, tired or overwhelmed rather than simply quiet: a change in how she lies down, reluctance at a step she managed yesterday, panting at rest, or withdrawing from a room she usually shares. For each sign, write the action plainly: shorten the walk, offer water, settle her in her spot, or phone you. A cue without an action is trivia; a cue with an action is care.
Map Her Resting Spots and Her Night Routine
Name her favourite resting spots in the words the household actually uses, and locate each one precisely: the rug beside the armchair, the cool tiles by the back door, the bed she chooses only at night. Note what makes each spot work, such as a folded blanket, a draught she avoids, or a view of the door she likes to keep. A sitter who can offer the right spot at the right moment prevents the restless wandering that tired old dogs fall into in an unsettled house.
Describe how she settles for the night, step by step in the order you do it: last trip outside, water, bedding arranged, lights and doors as she expects them. Note how long she usually sleeps, what stirs her, and what helps her resettle at three in the morning without a full expedition. Before the stay, confirm the sitter's agreed terms, including dates, payment and authority to call your vet, in writing, so comfort is never delayed by an unanswered question about money or permission.
Handling Limits, Written Without Ambiguity
State plainly where she may not be lifted, and if she is not to be lifted at all, write exactly that, in the first lines of the brief rather than in a footnote. Say which movements hurry her and must never be rushed: stairs, the step down to the garden, getting up from slippery flooring. Say how she accepts help instead, whether that is a steady hand nearby, a ramp she already knows, or simply time to rise at her own speed while the sitter waits.
Cover everyday handling too: how she tolerates having her paws wiped, her coat brushed, her collar taken. Distinguish what she dislikes but accepts from what genuinely frightens or hurts her, because a sitter treats those two categories very differently. Demonstrate each manoeuvre in person before the stay, and let the sitter practise while you watch. When the stay ends, so does the access granted by the Care Pass you created in KinsLe for that particular sitter.