Intake and Handling Profiles

This page explains the handling profile: what it holds, what intake captures at booking, and the discipline for reading and updating the profile before and after every groom. This page summarizes the Pet Safety and Handling, which governs.

Why the profile matters

The handling profile is the written record of how a specific animal behaves during handling. Reading it before you touch the dog is required. It is the difference between a routine groom and an incident report.

What the profile holds

Every dog with a grooming history has a handling profile tied to that dog. It contains

• Temperament: the headline summary. Read this first.
• Handling fields by area: nails, face, feet, ears, dryer, and clippers. Each field answers how the dog reacts in that part of the groom. A dog may be easy for nails and difficult for the dryer. That is why the fields are separate.
• Handling notes: free-text warnings, including bite history, seizure disorders, and handling approaches that make the groom worse for that dog. Red-flag designations are recorded here.
• Grooming notes: cut notes and style history, including what was done last time and what the owner preferred.
• Owner notes: what the owner told the salon, in the owner's words.
• Coat fields: type, texture, length, condition, shedding level, current haircut style, and current body length.

What intake captures

Booking intake is brief by design. The customer provides name, breed, weight, birth date, and a free-text notes field for temperament and sensitivities at booking. Everything the customer enters appears on the booking's notes, and the salon's notification carries the full intake, including the dog's details, so whoever reads the booking before the appointment sees it.

The full handling profile is built over time, not at booking. Detailed handling notes on the pet record are written through the customer records system, and the per-area handling fields accumulate as groomers record what they observe. Every groom either confirms the profile or corrects it. Record-keeping is governed by Grooming Records and Continuity of Care, which governs. The health part of intake is governed by the Vaccination Requirements Policy, which governs.

Intake discipline

Complete these steps for every appointment

1. Read the profile before the dog is on the table, not after the first adverse reaction.
2. Check red flags first. Handling notes showing bite history, severe anxiety, seizure disorder, breathing risk for a short-nosed breed, or a senior or fragile designation change the assignment. Under the Pet Safety and Handling, which governs, a red-flagged pet is assigned only to a groomer whose specialties include special handling.
3. Trust the area fields, not only the headline. A calm temperament with a blank dryer field still requires a careful first introduction to the dryer.
4. Write it down the same day. Anything the dog taught you: a flinch at the clippers near the ears, standing calmly for nails: goes into the profile before you finish your shift. The next groomer depends on today's notes.
5. Correct a profile that contradicts observed behavior the same day. An outdated profile is how incidents happen.

When the profile cannot be found

A customer who books under a different email may create a second customer record, and the dog lookup then misses the existing profile. The profile exists, but the booking does not link to it.

1. If the booking notes describe behavior the linked profile does not show, trust the notes for this appointment.
2. Handle the dog according to the more cautious information.
3. Reconcile the records after the appointment so the next booking links correctly.