Learning Hub · Policies
Incident & Emergency Policy
What does this policy do?
This is your written plan for an incident on a walk — a fight, an injury, an escape, a dog taken ill. You list the steps in order, name the vets and the number to ring, and say when the client is told. While it is on, the policy is printed as section 11 of your Dog Walking Agreement, on the screen a client signs and in the signed PDF emailed to them and to you. Gaia can quote it when a client, a team member or you ask about incidents. Switched off, section 11 keeps its general wording instead, and Gaia is told to say you have not set one. Nothing here changes a booking, a price or a charge.
How it works
Where to find it
Admin → Policies → Dog Walking → "Affecting Only Contract Agreement". The Dog Walking category shows on the Starter, Walker and Pro plans, and on Sitter or Boarder while the Dog Walking add-on is on or its free preview is running. Only an admin can save the policy.
Protocol steps
Each step has a title and a description. Add one with "+ Add Protocol Step", remove one with the cross. Steps are numbered in the order they appear; a new step goes on the end, and there is no control to move one. The editor opens with eight steps already filled in, from securing the scene to the follow-up, so you edit rather than start from blank. A business that chose walking at sign-up has those eight saved and switched on from day one.
Emergency contacts
Three boxes: your designated vet, an emergency or out-of-hours vet, and the business emergency line. Only the numbers you have filled in are printed. The PDF still prints an "Emergency Contacts" heading when all three are blank; the screen a client signs prints nothing for them.
Client notification rule
A short promise of when the client is told. It reads "immediately by phone or message" until you change it, and if you leave it blank the default comes back when you save.
Additional notes
Optional. Anything typed here is printed after the notification line, at the end of the policy's own wording.
Saving and the switch
The Save & Activate / Update button saves the policy and switches it on, every time. The switch saves at once too, with whatever is in the boxes, and flips the state: from on it saves the policy off, which is the only way to keep a saved policy off; from off it saves it on, like the button. Once a policy has been saved, editing any box shows the card as Active before you have saved. With nothing saved yet, the card stays Inactive until you save.
What the client sees
Section 11 of the Dog Walking Agreement carries your steps, contacts, notification rule and notes, on the screen they sign and in the PDF emailed to them and to your business email once they sign. The PDF is built from the policy as it stands at that moment, so a copy downloaded later shows your current wording, and so does the agreement when they open it again on screen.
When you change it
Saving a change to the wording while the policy is on writes a revision on the Dog Walking Agreement and sends every active client an in-app notification that the agreement has a new revision. The notification quotes only the first few words of the new wording — always the policy's opening line — so the client reads the real change under their signed agreement in Forms, where each revision shows the wording before and after. Saving while off writes nothing and tells nobody, and so does switching it off. If you have removed the {{dw_incident_emergency_policy}} placeholder from your own agreement text, no revision is written and nobody is told.
What the team sees
No staff screen reads this policy. The incident report your walkers file has its own fixed checklist and does not show these steps. Your walkers meet this policy by asking Gaia, who reads it for team members as well as clients.
Gaia
Asked about an incident, emergency, injury, accident, fight, escape, a lost or hurt dog or a bite, Gaia is handed this policy: how many steps and their titles, the notification rule and the contacts, plus the full wording of the steps when the question touches the subject. Switched off, she is told to say plainly that you have not set one. With Branding, your website assistant quotes it to visitors only if "Website assistant may answer policy questions" is on under General.
Tips
The default steps tell a walker to ring the emergency vet and the business line, so fill those two boxes in. Only the numbers you enter are printed; with all three blank the PDF carries an empty "Emergency Contacts" heading.
Keep each step to one action with a clear title. The titles are what Gaia lists when a client asks what you would do.
Give every step a title. An untitled step disappears from the editor's preview but is still printed in the agreement, numbered, with no title; Gaia counts it but cannot name it.
Get the boxes right before you press Save & Activate or the switch: from off, both save the policy on, and that first save writes the revision and tells your clients. Every later save while it is on that changes the wording does the same, so make your edits in one go.
The incident report your walkers file does not read these steps. If you want them followed on the day, go through them with the team, or tell walkers to ask Gaia.
Learning Hub • Incident & Emergency Policy