A good sitter handover is measured at the moment something small goes wrong — a missed feed, a loose lead, a dog unsettled at midnight — and the sitter finds the answer in seconds without having to guess or disturb your flight. That means handing over a working pack built around your dog's actual routine, walked through in person, rather than a long message thread sent as you leave.
Feeding, water and the shape of her day
Write out feeding times, what she eats at each meal in plain amounts, where her food is stored, and what she must not be given, including table scraps or a food that upsets her stomach. Note water bowl habits, toilet routine and garden access, last walk timing, and how she settles for the night, including where she sleeps and any cue or blanket that helps her settle. If she has an ongoing medication routine, describe it only in the general terms your vet has set out for carers, where it is kept, and what the sitter should do — call you or the vet — if a routine is refused or missed, rather than improvising. Specifics belong to this dog: a grazer needs a different note from a dog who inhales meals and then hunts the bin.
Walks, lead rules and honest quirks
Set out where she normally walks, how long for, and her lead rules without softening them: whether she stays on lead, how she reacts to other dogs, traffic, bikes or livestock, and any place to avoid. Name the quirks plainly — door-dashing when the post arrives, guarding a chew, pulling toward one particular park gate, fear of fireworks or thunder. A sitter warned in advance can manage all of those calmly; a sitter surprised by them may lose confidence or, worse, lose the dog. Leave the lead, harness and waste bags in one obvious place and note what to do if the collar or harness breaks.
Contacts, vet cover and authority to act
Leave your reachable number and the times you will be out of signal, a local backup who knows the dog and holds a spare key, and your vet plus the separate out-of-hours clinic with addresses. State clearly that the sitter may take her for urgent care and how you want to be contacted if that happens, and leave insurance details where they can be found if the clinic asks. Note house essentials that affect the dog: alarm, heating, which doors stay shut, and where cleaning supplies live for the inevitable muddy or upset-stomach incident. None of this needs to be long; it needs to be findable.
Walk it through before departure day
Sit with the sitter in your home, ideally during one feed or walk, and go through the pack where each item actually lives. Let them ask the questions your written notes did not anticipate — they will spot gaps you are blind to because the routine is automatic for you. Confirm how you want updates: a daily photo, messages only if something is wrong, or a call at a set time. When you return, debrief briefly and update the pack with anything the sitter learned, so the next handover starts better than this one.
A handover built that way lets a sitter care for her as you would, not as a stranger improvising. Using a KinsLe Care Pass to hand that trusted sitter temporary, clear access to her routine and key details keeps the whole pack in one place for exactly the length of your trip.