Puppy & Dog Care Records

Greetings!  

As we're ticking down the timer on our wait for Cinder's arrival this weekend, today brought me to new thoughts: dog records.  As I was purging outdated files of unrelated information from my file cabinet, I got to my dog files and realized a lot of people don't keep good records of their dog's healthcare or county dog licenses. These days there are so many legal issues surrounding keeping dogs that keeping good records could mean true life and death for our dogs!

     Beyond my dog's annual shot records, I keep a running history of all the reasons my dogs go to a veterinarian; information about any training classes and certifications; and copies of their county dog license information. Luckily, my vet clinic provides an itemized list of their services, any medications given or prescribed; and other information for each dog at each office visit. Since they provide such good information I have everything  I need to place in my dog file for each dog without having to generate my own version of the same information.  As we visit the vet, each itemized receipt goes into the file on top of the previous one, keeping the most recent information on top. If I participate in any training or certification classes, I keep that information too.

     I reviewed Gilley and Buster's files this morning and realized that I can provide not just information about their shots and when they were administered, but I can tell you about each time one of them was sick enough I took them to the clinic, what they had, which vet saw them, and what was done. I can tell you a lot of things that frankly, I had even forgotten.  I also have pictures of Gilley as a puppy and as an adult; and Buzz as an adult (we didn't have him as a pup).  I have copies of all of our training information and the classes we attended, who taught them, when and where they were.  You're probably wondering why I keep all that stuff for a couple of "pets."  Because when it comes to legal or medical issues, I want to be able to get my files out and provide specific information as needed without hoping I can get it from my vet at or by the time I need it. If I change vets or need to go to an emergency clinic, I can grab my files and know I have most of what they may need about my dog.  If they bite someone (not that they would), I may have only 12 hours to produce their shot records. If one of them gets sick, it may be important to review what they've had in the past, when, and how it was treated.

     Today I made Cinder a file and the first thing in it is my, "Puppy Preparation Checklist" because I wrote some information on it that I want to save. Next will be information about her puppy shots and the food Janelle's been giving her, along with a puppy picture. If I ever need to post a picture to help find my lost dogs, I always want a fairly recent one in their files.  Cinder's pictures will need to be updated about every month for a while; then every year like the others.

   

Tick tock goes that countdown clock to Cinder's arrival! With each day, I find a little something more I'm glad to have done for her before she arrives.

Cheers!

Chris