The Dog Walking Incident Report Template

First fifteen minutes on the scene

• Secure the dog before you do anything else.Shorten the leash, move the dog behind you and put a fence, car or doorway between the dog and the other party. Nothing you write matters if a second contact happens while you are exchanging phone numbers.
• Check for injury on every animal and person involved.Look for broken skin, limping, bleeding and torn clothing on both sides. Say plainly what you see without offering a diagnosis or an opinion about fault, and offer to call for medical help if skin is broken.
• Get the other party's name, phone number and address.Ask calmly and write it down before anyone walks away. If another dog was involved, get the owner's name and the dog's rabies tag number too, since animal control will ask for both.
• Photograph the scene while it is still the scene.Take wide shots of the sidewalk or park, the leash and collar as they were, any wound if the person consents, and the street sign or building number. Photos taken later never look the same.
• Write the exact time and cross street.Note the clock time of the contact, not the time you finished the walk. If you use a tracked walk report, the GPS timestamp already gives you this, so copy it into the form word for word.

Facts to record while they are fresh

• Record the dog's full identity and owner details.Name, breed or mix, approximate weight, sex, color, plus the owner's name, address and phone. Add the rabies vaccination date and tag number, which is the first thing an animal control officer will ask you for.
• Write what happened in plain sequence.Three to six sentences, in order, in your own words. What the dog was doing, what changed, what you did. Avoid words like attacked or vicious unless they are literally accurate, and never guess about anyone's intent.
• Log the exact gear in use at the moment of the incident.Collar or harness, brand and type, leash length and material, and whether a clip, ring or stitch failed. If a piece of gear broke, bag it and keep it rather than throwing it away that afternoon.
• Capture witness names and numbers.Anyone who saw it, including a doorman, a nanny or another walker. One neutral witness is worth more than a page of your own recollection when two stories disagree three weeks later.
• Save the route track and photo cards from that walk.Export or flag the walk record so it cannot get lost in a month of routine walks. A mapped route with times shows where you were and how fast you were moving, which answers questions no memory can.

Calls and reports the same day

• Call the owner before they hear it from anyone else.Lead with the dog's condition, then what happened, then what you have already done. Follow the call with a written summary the same evening so there is a dated record of exactly what you told them.
• Report to animal control if skin was broken.Most United States jurisdictions require a bite report when skin is broken, and many require it within a set number of hours. Call your county animal services line and write down the officer name and case number.
• Notify your insurer promptly, even if nobody is claiming.Commercial pet care and animal bailee policies generally expect timely notice of a potential claim. A same day call costs you nothing and protects coverage if a medical bill appears two months later.
• Tell whoever is covering the rest of the route.You may be tied up for an hour or more. Hand the remaining stops to another walker with the door codes and any special notes, so the other five dogs are not still waiting at three o'clock.
• Do not admit fault or offer to pay on the spot.Be kind, be present and give your contact information, but let the insurer decide liability. Offering money in the first ten minutes can complicate coverage and rarely ends the matter anyway.

Closing the file properly

• Track the ten day observation period on a calendar.After a reported bite most jurisdictions require the dog to be observed for about ten days, usually at home. Put the start and end dates in writing and confirm with the owner who is responsible for compliance.
• Write a follow up note in the client record.One paragraph a week later covering the dog's condition, the status of any claim, and the outcome of the observation period. Future you, or your insurer, will want this and will not remember it otherwise.
• Review the handling decision with your walkers.Talk through the moment before the contact, not the contact itself. Most incidents have an earlier decision inside them, a blind corner taken wide, a greeting allowed, a leash held long on a busy block.
• Update the dog's gear and route plan.Change what you can control: a different harness, a quieter street, a shorter leash on approach, a note that this dog does not greet. Write it into the client file so a covering walker sees it before the next stop.
• File the completed report where you can find it in a year.Store it with the walk record, the photos and the animal control case number in one folder named by client and date. Claims and county follow ups can arrive long after everyone has moved on.