A house-sitting handoff note does two jobs at once: it runs your dog's life and it runs your home, for someone who knows neither the way you do. Write it as the document you would want at 11 p.m. when the dog has been sick and the alarm is chirping — sectioned, specific, and free of anything the sitter has to guess.
Dates, Contacts, and Reachability
Open with your departure and return dates and times, where you are going in general terms, and exactly how to reach you: mobile, messaging, the best hours, and what to do if you do not answer. List, in the order to call them, a nearby backup person with a spare key, your regular vet, and the emergency clinic with its address, because the nearest clinic at midnight is rarely your usual one. Note your expected return time on the final day and what the sitter should do with the dog if your journey is delayed.
Feeding, Medication, and Walks
Give food by name, measured amount, and time, where it is stored, and what to do about a refused meal. Copy medication instructions directly from the labels: name, amount, time, with food or without, how you get your dog to take it, and where each medicine lives, plus a line for the sitter to note each dose as given. For walks, write routes and lengths, lead and harness rules, recall limits, known triggers on the route, the cue words you use, and the non-negotiables, such as no off-lead time outside the garden or no greetings with unknown dogs.
Your Dog's Rules and Your House's Rules
State the house rules your dog actually lives by: which furniture is allowed, where the dog sleeps, whether doors and the garden gate stay shut, what happens at mealtimes, and the settling routine at night. Then the house itself: how the alarm is set and unset, which locks stick, heating controls, bin and recycling days, where the stopcock and fuse box are, where cleaning supplies live, and which cupboards, chemicals, or foods are hazardous to the dog and stay shut. Add small mercies — spare bedding, the mop's location — because a sitter cleaning up a muddy accident at speed is a sitter who will sit again.
If Something Goes Wrong
Close with a calm decision ladder: for illness or injury, phone the backup person, then the vet, then you; for an escape, search the immediate streets, alert neighbours, then phone you. Leave written permission for emergency treatment to be started. KinsLe's Care Pass gives your house sitter temporary, clear access to this handoff — feeding, medication, walks, house details, and emergency contacts — for exactly the dates you are away, then the access ends when you are home.