5 Time-Saving Hacks Every Pet Business Owner Should Know

Pet-care business owners are pros at working with animals, as well as multitasking. You bounce between managing pets, clients, staff, schedules, and the occasional mystery puddle or building repair. But even the most seasoned teams can shave hours off their week with a few clever tweaks to their daily workflows.

These five hacks come straight from real pet-care facilities across daycare, boarding, grooming, and training. None require extra staff or complicated new systems, just smarter ways of using the tools you already rely on.

1. Automate Repetitive Communication

So you’re not writing the same message 87 times a week

Every day, your team reminds clients about appointments, requests vaccination updates, shares grooming notes, and follows up on inquiries. That adds up fast.

The hack: Create a library of reusable message templates, and automate reminders whenever possible.

Alyson from Fantastic Fidos swears by this: “Canned email templates make invitations, follow up, and reminders a breeze.”

Why it works:

• Automated reminders cut down on no-shows.
• Templates ensure consistency and reduce errors.
• New staff can communicate confidently from day one.

Even better, many systems (Gingr included) let you schedule reminders for appointments, vaccinations, expiring packages, and more, freeing your team to focus on the animals, not the inbox.

2. Replace Paper with Digital Waivers and Whiteboards

Leave ‘where did that Post-It go?' in the past

Paper gets lost. Dry-erase boards get, well, erased. And both require someone to rewrite the same information multiple times.

The hack: Move any repeatable, high-touch information — waivers, agreements, feeding instructions, training notes — to a digital format.

Dan from Dog Training Elite Utah shared how his team is ditching their physical board: “We’re working on replacing our ‘dog board’… with a TV. We started setting up custom icons for things that are specific to us.”

Shana from Club Cat made digital notes work for her feline-only hotel: “We track cat excretions… We’ve modified the pet cards to reflect morning and night.”

Why it works:

• Info stays stored, searchable, and sharable.
• No rewriting or chasing missing paperwork.
• Staff can reference notes from anywhere.

Digital records reduce friction during check-in and let your team react quickly to changes. Digital whiteboards can streamline the check-out process, making important info available at a glance. 

3. Use Online Booking to Reduce Phone Time by Hours a Day

Because no pet lover wants to sit on hold while a puppy is waiting to play

If your front desk spends most of the day answering calls, scheduling appointments, and repeating pricing or policies, you’re not alone. When busy teams are stretched thin, this way of working becomes one of the biggest time drains in the industry.

The hack: Shift as much booking as possible to a self-service online system.

Many pet-care facilities report saving 2–4 hours a day when pet parents book themselves. Facilities like Fantastic Fidos take it further: “I often see a new feature or update and find a way to use it… and 10/10 times it increases our efficiency.”

Tips to make online booking work for you:

• Offer all major services online, not just daycare/boarding.
• Let customers upload vaccinations and sign contracts during booking.
• Use PreCheck or similar tools so details are confirmed before arrival.

The result? Fewer calls, shorter lines, and fewer interruptions for staff.

4. Make Scheduling Flexible with Drag-and-drop and Bulk Editing

Intuitive calendars make it easy to adjust appointments on the fly

Grooming and training calendars change constantly, from cancellations, swaps, overbooked days, uneven workloads, and more. Keeping everything aligned manually is slow and prone to mistakes.

The hack: Use drag-and-drop scheduling and bulk tools to reshuffle your day in seconds.

Liz from Wash n’ Woo & Co. loves the simplicity of this trick: “If our groomers need to swap grooms we can just slide them on the calendar… and the commission goes the correct way too.”

She adds: “Moving appointments… to balance the schedule between all the groomers. They just slide around!”

Why it works:

• Faster adjustments during the morning rush.
• Staff workloads stay balanced.
• No need to change multiple fields manually.

Even better: Some systems automatically recalculate commission, prices, or add-ons when things move.

5. Use Visual Cues & Behavior Notes to Speed Up Decisions

Emojis are a language all their own 

Your team makes dozens of judgment calls each day, like:

• Who goes into which playgroup?
• Which dogs have allergies?
• Who needs a slow introduction?
• Who has “frenemies” at the kennel?

The hack: Create a visual cue system — icons, flags, colors, status tags — and pair them with consistent staff notes.

Amy from The Pawffice shared: “We keep track of our dogs’ besties and ‘frenemies’… We reference it daily.”

David from Puppy Fades Dog Grooming said: “I love the function of putting icons on pet profiles that help us know their personalities!”

And Tatiana from Pet Nanny PR adds another layer: “I use custom flags and notes to quickly identify behaviors, special needs, or check-in instructions… It helps me stay organized.”

Why it works:

• Staff instantly understand a pet’s needs.
• Grouping and scheduling become faster.
• Communication is smoother across shifts.

This small step prevents mistakes, reduces rework, and creates safer playgroups.

Bonus Hack: Ask Your Pet Software Provider for Enhancements

Handy tips lead to pawesome results

One of our favorite insights came from Jamie at Astro Kennels: “We have emailed lots of ideas… and Gingr is always ready to hear our ideas and get them in action.”

Most platforms genuinely want to improve. Asking for features or checking user groups regularly can uncover time-saving hacks you might not've known about! Here at Gingr, we host bi-weekly webinars (and recaps) to share these types of tips and tricks with users. No major time commitment required.

You don’t need a bigger staff to run a smoother operation. A few tips and tricks can optimize your operations so you can get back to that perfect poodle cut, graduating your canine trainees, or creating cozy kennels for your next boarding clients. Here's a quick punch list you can start working through today:

• Automate the repetitive stuff
• Digitize what gets lost
• Let pet parents self-book
• Use scheduling tools to rebalance quickly
• Give staff the info they need instantly

Whether you use Gingr or another system, these hacks are simple, sustainable, and proven by real pet-care pros who rely on them every day. Ready to increase tail wags while decreasing time-consuming tasks? See how Gingr can help!