But i use a one-page intake (5 questions) to flag fear, anxiety, and frustration at check-in, with prompts for low-stress handling, treat ladders, and a brief calm-arrival coaching note for clients; I’m happy to share the PDF and an editable Google Form if it would help your team. It’s cut our fidgety waits and muzzle moments noticeably during our Thursday vaccine rush.
We added a simple 1–10 “worry score” to our 5 questions and write it on the room whiteboard; if it’s 7+, we skip the lobby and go “car-to-room” with a prepped treat ladder, which chilled out our Thursday vaccine rush too. Small caveat: when Wi‑Fi dies the Google Form stalls, so we keep a laminated checkbox version at the desk.
Stole this for our Thursday vaccine rush: we auto-text a 60‑sec calm‑arrival clip (Home - Fear Free) 30 minutes out and ask folks to wait in the car, then it’s two taps on your Google Form curbside and we run a towel‑covered carrier straight to a dim room. The “treat ladder” bin lives by the door so techs can grab it without thinking. Minor caveat: when Wi‑Fi flakes, the laminated 5‑Q card with a dry‑erase pen beats the tablet.
I add a temporary alias in the PMS so the slots read ‘Biscuit — cat (Nguyen)’ and ‘Biscuit — dog (Smith).’ A matching pop-up note says ‘announce as Biscuit the cat,’ keeps front and techs consistent, and auto-expires at close to keep the schedule clean. If your system won’t do pop-ups, a single-day tag color works the same.
I love the idea of using a quick intake form! We recently started asking clients to list any known triggers on their forms, and it’s made a big difference in how we approach each visit. It’s like having a cheat sheet for anxious pups. @sanders_l92, have you tried something similar?