Heat Waves Are Coming!

This summer is forecasted to be one of the hottest in history.  While this may be nice for people traveling to the beach, this brings additional risk to pet boarding and daycare facilities.  Our facility is in Northern Washington state and thus rarely gets severe heat waves.  When we do have heat waves come, we make sure to go over our 'Hot Weather Protocols' with all of our staff.  Below are the protocols we use to ensure the safety of the pets at our facility.

Play Groups:

When the weather gets above 90 degrees it is not safe to allow the dogs to run around too much. We will not be doing any playgroups outside to help prevent heat stroke. Limit dog's time outside to only what is necessary.

Yards:

In order to determine if it is safe to use a gravel yard, grab a handful of rocks and clench it in your fist. If you cannot hold onto the rocks for 30 seconds, then they are too hot for the dogs paws! Even when they are border-line hot, we should be dousing the rocks with water continually. I have ordered more sprinklers to help us keep the rocks cool. Whenever possible, use the air-conditioned play rooms for activities. 

Water:

We need to be checking dog's water bowls with more frequency in the hot weather. Whenever walking through a boarding area, have a water jug on hand. All dog's water bowls need to be FULL at all times. You also need to be drinking more water yourself!

HEAT STROKE:

Definition:

High body temperature (100-103°F and above) & stress can cause a pet to go into heat stroke. Dogs cool themselves by panting. However, there are a variety of dogs that have a harder time regulating their body temperature which causes them to overheat much more quickly:

• Brachiocephalic dogs (Pugs, Bostons, Boxers, Pekingese, Frenchies, etc.)
• Dark colored dogs (i.e. black, chocolate, dark grey)
• Dogs who have very thick coats (Huskies, Malamutes, Newfoundlands, St. Bernards)

Causes:

Heat stroke’s most often caused by leaving a dog out during the warm weather without access to water or shade. Excessive exercise can also lead to heat stroke symptoms – dogs who have a harder time regulating their temperature need to have limited activity during the hottest points of the day.

Signs:

• Uncontrollable panting
• Rapid heart rate
• Foaming at the mouth
• Depression
• Lethargy
• Agitation
• Vomiting and/or loss of consciousness
• Tongue & gums can initially be bright red – as symptoms worsen they’d begin changing to grey/blue.

Treatment:

• Bathe or hose down the dog with cool water until their temperature subsides.  Not too cold! We don’t want to shock their system

• Moving a pet to a cool, well-ventilated space, then wrapping them in a wet, cold sheet or towel.

• Use a digital thermometer to monitor a dog’s core temperature.

• Contact a manager immediately so they can prepare to treat a dog for shock if symptoms continue or rush the dog to the emergency vet.

Prevention:

• Re-fill kiddie pools during the warmer months at each rotation so dogs have access to cool & clean water.       
• Do not have “at risk” dogs in play groups during the hottest points of the day.                                                         
• Keep “at risk” dogs let outs short. Prioritize getting the kennels of these dogs clean first!                                             
• Re-fill water bowls at the beginning & end of each rotation.                                                                                               
• Give our larger, darker, hairier friends a deeper water bowl.                                                                                            
• Make sure the fans and A/C are turned on & working properly at each rotation.

If you see a pet with heat stroke it is best to play it safe and seek veterinary care!  While the sun can make for a fun time with the dogs, if you don't pay attention to the risks involved, you may have dogs in danger and not even know it!  On these hot days it's also extremely important to make sure your staff stays hydrated, so remind your staff to drink plenty of water.  Stay safe and have fun out there!

Big New Paw Partner Release!

We are releasing a new feature update that we have been working on for a number of months.  We are really excited to make a number of areas easier in Paw Partner!  Please check out the information below for our main feature updates, and keep an eye out for the "Updates" section after the release.

New Daycare Reservation Update

This is our biggest feature update of this release.  Based on our compilation of great feedback from our customers, we have made our repeating daycare reservation process much more customizable and faster.  Please click the video below to see the new changes!

Merge Customer Account Tool

In this release, we have made a new tool that will allow staff with owner/manager permission levels to merge two accounts together.  This will help when duplicate accounts were accidentally made.  Please click the video below to see the new changes!

Changing Same Family Kennel In The Kennel Assignment Calendar

We have created the ability to move all pets from the same family from one kennel to another at one time without moving them individually. Please click the video below to see the new changes!

These are just our main features that are being released.  We have many other smaller changes, so be sure to check out the "Updates" section to see the rest of the updates.  We are always here if you have any questions or need anything at all, don't hesitate to reach out!

New Reports Section In "Staffing"

We moved three reports from the "Manager" reports to the "Staffing" section.  The three reports we moved was the "Commission Report", "Staff Hours Report", and "Tip Report".  This will enable owners of our businesses to allow staff members through permission to view the tip report if desired.  

Now there are reports in our three main sections of Paw Partner which will organize them into the areas that correlate to the report.  In the Overview, the report section is meant for operational reports that all staff are able to view and interact with.  These include reports such as feeding, medical, vaccines, birthday etc.  In the Staffing section, we put all reports that were relevant to staffing which are the staffing hours report, commission report, and tip report.  In the Manager section the reports are relevant to the owners and managers running the business such as financial reports, Occupancy reports, etc.

Note that the default for permission has not changed for any of these reports.  Staff not listed as managers or owners will not be able to see the commission report, staff hours report, or tip report.  There is a new permission though that if the owner chooses can allow staff to access the tip report.

Updated Kennel Settings

We have updated our kennel settings to add a new "fill to capacity" function in the kennels you set up.  This will in essence turn the "kennel" into a "room".  This will be valuable for facilities who offer group boarding or daycare.  If you set the kennel capacity to 20 dogs and check the "fill to capacity" box, then customers from different families will be able to make reservations for the same kennel or room.  We have gone through all of our facilities on Paw Partner and checked the "Fill to capacity" for those who used our previous daycare "spots" function.  There are numerous facilities who could benefit updating there kennel settings using this new function and we will be reaching out to you in the coming days to help transition to the new format if desired.  If you would like us to help change those settings please contact us at Support@pawpartner.com

Checking Out a Groom Before The Groomer "Completes" The Groom

Based on feedback from several facilities, we added the ability to checkout grooms from the overview area if the groomer forgets to press "complete".  If you go to checkout a groom which hasn't been "Completed", you will see a window pop up to confirm that you want to check out without completing.  If you choose to continue, the customer won't be notified of the groom being complete and the price at checkout will be the standard price for the groom or the price that the specific pet was charged last time if applicable.

New Custom Login For Your Customers!

In our release for April 5th, we are releasing a new widget for a custom business login for your customers.  We are really excited for this as it gives your customers a branded experience from your website through Paw Partner.  With this widget, your customers will no longer go to the general Paw Partner login.  They will login and create accounts directly with your businesses branded login page.

To access your custom login page go to "Settings" -> "Integration".  At the bottom of the integration page you will see a link to your business' custom customer login page in bold in the bottom of this page.  You can give that link to your website developer to link to your "Book Now" or "Make a Reservation" button on your website.  If you don't have a website developer, we have made it easy for you to design a button to put into your site.  You can create text, and colors and copy the code and paste it directly to your website for a "Book Now" button to appear.  See the video below for how to access the widget information.

This new widget will give your customers a new flow to login to their account on Paw Partner that is branded for your business.  If your customer has an account already, when they input their email address, it will ask for a password and they will go directly into their my business page and can interact directly with your business from there.  If your customer is new and does not have an account then they will be prompted to create a password, input their contact and pet information and then will be directed to the my business page where they can interact directly with your business.  This is an incredibly simple and branded flow for your customers to go from your website directly into Paw Partner.  See the video below for more information on the customer flow.

Tipping Now Enabled For Customers Paying Online

We have now enabled tipping when your customers pay online for deposits, prepay, package credits, and invoices.  These tips will automatically be logged when the customer leaves the tip.  The tip will be directed to who performs the service tied to the payment.  For example if a customer is leaving a tip for a billed out invoice for daycare, then the tip will be directed to daycare.  If your customer is prepaying for a groom with Katie and leaves a tip, then the tip will be directed to Katie who is performing the service.  If multiple services are present when leaving a tip then the tip will be split amongst the services present based on their percentage of the total.  For example: if a customer has daycare and boarding they are paying an invoice for and decides to leave a tip.  Paw Partner will determine what percent of the total is Daycare and what percent is boarding and will split the tip based on those percentages.  If daycare was 20% and boarding was 80% of the total then daycare will receive 20% of the tip and boarding will receive 80% of the tip.  Note that this feature is available for our customers who use our credit card integrations.  See the photo below for what the new tipping feature looks like.

New Time Clock Lock Feature

We have had several businesses want to limit their staff from only clocking in at the property of the business.  This week we are releasing the ability for you to limit your employees to clocking in only at a desktop computer in your facility.  If you enable this feature then your staff will only be able to clock in and out at a desktop at your facility they will not be able to clock in and out on their phone or on a tablet.  They will be able to clock in on any desktop that is on your internet network at your property.  So your employees would come to work, login on the desktop, clock in, then when they open the app on their phone they would have access to Paw Partner.  They would have no access once they clock out at work and go home.  To enable this feature you must be at a desktop computer at your facility.  As an owner when logged in on a desktop go to "Manager" -> "Tools" -> "Time Clock Lock".  When you enable it then staff will no longer be able to clock in on their mobile phones.  See the photo below for details.