Dog Grooming Intake Form Template

An intake form looks like paperwork. It's actually insurance, a memory aid, and a customer-service tool wearing a boring costume. The right dog grooming intake form template catches the health issue you'd otherwise learn about mid-groom, records the vaccination status you'd be liable for skipping, and quietly tells you that this doodle's owner wants a teddy-bear face, not a shave-down. Get it right once and every appointment after runs smoother.

‍

Below is a field-by-field template you can lift straight into your shop, plus the reasoning behind each section and a note on when it's worth going digital.

‍

What a good intake form actually captures

Skip the temptation to ask for everything. A form that takes ten minutes gets abandoned. You want the fields that protect you and improve the groom, nothing more. Here's the core set:

‍

‍

The three fields groomers regret skipping

Every experienced groomer has a story tied to a missing field. Behavior flags top the list — the "he's friendly!" dog that turns into a shark at the nail grinder. Health and mobility is second; a senior with a heart condition changes how long you can safely keep them on the table. Third is the matting consent line. When a shih tzu comes in pelted and the only humane option is a short shave, you want a signature confirming the owner understood that going in, not an argument at pickup.

‍

Paper vs. digital intake

Paper works. It's cheap and it doesn't crash. But it also lives in a binder you can't search, gets coffee on it, and has to be re-filled by returning clients who've told you the same info five times. Digital intake fixes those specific pains: forms fill in before the appointment, attach to the pet's profile, and update themselves for repeat visits.

‍

Most modern grooming platforms include this now. Teddy's digital intake forms save to each pet's record so you're not re-keying Bailey's details every season, and DaySmart Pet and MoeGo offer their own versions. If you're moving off paper, it's worth reading how to create digital intake forms for grooming so you don't just recreate the paper form's limitations on a screen.

‍

Pair it with the rest of your paperwork

An intake form is one piece. Two documents belong right next to it: a liability waiver and a service agreement. The intake gathers information; the grooming waiver handles consent and risk; the service agreement sets expectations on pricing, cancellations, and what happens if a groom runs long. Together they turn "he said, she said" into signed, dated clarity. For the full field-by-field starting point, grab this free dog grooming intake form template and adapt it to your shop.

‍

How to roll out a new intake form

Having a great form and getting it filled out are two different battles. A clipboard shoved at a client while they're wrangling a leash and a coffee gets half-answered at best. The move that changes completion rates is sending the form ahead of the appointment as a link they finish on their own phone, on their own time. Tie it to booking so it arrives with the confirmation, and most clients complete it before they ever arrive — which means you're reading about the senior dog's heart condition the night before, not discovering it mid-bath.

‍

For existing clients, don't make them re-fill everything each visit. That's the fastest way to annoy a regular. A good system stores the profile and only asks them to confirm or update what's changed. If you're still on paper and re-collecting the same husky's details every season, that friction is a signal it's time to move the form onto software.

‍

Red flags your current form is missing something

If any of these have happened to you, your intake form has a gap to close:

• A groom went a direction the owner didn't expect, and you had nothing signed to point to.

• You learned a dog had a medical or age issue only after it became a problem on the table.

• A dog reacted badly and you realized no one had ever asked about behavior in writing.

• You wanted to post a great before/after but weren't sure you had photo permission.

‍

Each of those maps to a field in the template above. Close the gaps once and the same surprises stop recurring — the form quietly does the remembering so you don't have to.

‍

Frequently Asked Questions

What should a dog grooming intake form template include?

At minimum: owner contact info, pet name/breed/age, vaccination status, health and mobility notes, behavior flags, the exact services and style requested, and consent lines for matting/de-matting and emergency care. Those fields protect you legally and make the groom itself go smoother.

‍

Is a dog grooming intake form legally required?

It's not usually mandated by law, but it's strongly recommended and often expected by insurers. A signed intake and waiver document consent and vaccination status, which matters a great deal if there's ever an incident. Treat it as basic risk management, not optional paperwork.

‍

Should I use a paper or digital dog grooming intake form?

Paper is fine to start, but digital intake forms fill in before the visit, attach to the pet's profile, and auto-update for repeat clients, which saves real time. Most grooming software includes digital intake, so if you already use a platform, use its version rather than a binder.

‍

How do I get clients to actually fill out the form?

Keep it short and send it ahead of the appointment as a link they can complete on their phone. Digital forms tied to booking get much higher completion than a clipboard shoved at a rushed owner at drop-off.

‍

What's the difference between an intake form and a waiver?

The intake form collects information about the pet and owner. The waiver is a consent-and-liability document covering things like de-matting risk, senior-dog handling, and emergency vet care. You want both — they do different jobs.

‍

Build the form once, keep it short, and let it work for you at every appointment. If you're tired of re-writing the same details each season, digital intake in a platform like Teddy — or DaySmart Pet, if you need boarding too — turns that clipboard into something your software just remembers.