10 questions to ask before you buy kennel software.
Demos show you the happy path — that's what they're for. These ten questions are about the architecture underneath: what the system keeps, what it lets go of, and what it does when the day stops being tidy. Send them to the vendor in writing, before the call. How they answer is half the information.
This is the structural half of the homework
Our guide to choosing kennel software covers the business questions: the all-in cost, who owns the company, and the 15-minute test that beats any demo. This list goes a layer deeper — ten questions about how the software is actually built. None of them show up on a feature-comparison chart, and every one of them will shape a random Tuesday three months after you sign.
“How long do you keep my message history?”
It sounds like a throwaway question until you learn that some platforms quietly purge client message threads after a matter of weeks. Your communication history is two things at once: the relationship (who asked for what, what you promised, how that incident was handled) and the paper trail. If a dispute surfaces in November about something discussed in June, “we don't have that anymore” is not an answer you want to give.
A good answer sounds like: “Forever, by default. It's your history — and it's in your exports too.” A vague answer, or one that depends on your plan tier, is worth pressing on.
“When I export my data, what exactly comes out?”
Every vendor says you can export your data. The real question is which data. Contact lists almost always come out fine. Then ask about the rest: booking history, care logs, message threads, vaccine documents, package and credit balances. In much of this category, “export” means a customer CSV — and years of operational history stays behind. That gap is the moat some vendors are counting on to keep you. We've written up what a real migration looks like and a worked example of getting data out.
A good answer sounds like: “Everything — clients, pets, bookings, care logs, messages, documents — self-serve, in a format you can open, at no charge.” Ask them to show you a sample export file, not describe one.
“Is there an API — and on which plan?”
You may never write a line of code. Ask anyway. In this category, APIs are often absent entirely, gated behind the top tier, or answered with “you'd hire a developer.” The answer is a proxy for two things you care about a lot: how cleanly the system is built underneath, and whether your data has a door or just a window. A platform with a real, documented API is a platform that expects to coexist with your other tools — and one you can leave in an orderly way.
A good answer sounds like: “Yes — here's the documentation.” Bonus points if they can name a customer actually using it. “It's on the roadmap” is fine too, as long as they say it plainly.
“What can my staff do in bulk?”
Saturday morning: thirty dogs arrive in ninety minutes. Holiday week: you need to message every family with a Thursday pickup. Spring cleaning: two hundred lapsed client records to archive. If every one of those is a one-at-a-time operation, the software has decided how your staff spends an hour — and it decided wrong. Bulk check-in and check-out, bulk messaging, bulk admin actions: ask for each specifically, and ask to see it done.
A good answer sounds like: “Select the dogs, one action, done.” If the demo driver starts clicking into individual records to show you “bulk,” you have your answer.
“Show me an exception — not the happy path.”
Every platform can create a clean reservation for one dog with no complications. Your actual week is the other thing: an early pickup, a stay extended mid-visit, one booking split across two runs, a client who wants to change dates on a request you haven't approved yet. In a lot of software these are workarounds — cancel-and-rebook, zero-out-the-rate, call-the-office. Workarounds are where staff improvise, and improvisation is where billing errors and missed charges live.
A good answer sounds like: a live demo of the messy case you named, handled as a first-class action — with the bill updating itself. “You'd just delete it and start over” is a red flag with a smile on it.
“What does my client see while their request is pending?”
When a pet parent submits a booking request and then hears… nothing, they don't assume it's working its way through a queue. They assume it vanished — and they call, which defeats the point of having online booking at all. The fix isn't auto-approving everything (you should keep control of your calendar; we've written about why). The fix is visibility: the client should always know whether their request was received, seen, and confirmed. We read hundreds of public reviews of pet-care portals, and this single gap — the request black box — came up more than any missing feature. The full report is here.
A good answer sounds like: “They see the status the whole way — and they're notified when you approve.” Ask them to submit a request as a client in the demo and show you exactly what that client sees.
“Where does care logging live?”
Feedings, medications, incident notes — in some systems these live in report screens: navigate to the report, set the filters, find the row, edit the cell. That design works fine at a desk and fails completely in a hallway with a leash in one hand. And when logging is slow, it gets skipped — which for medication isn't an inconvenience, it's a safety problem. Care logging should look like a task queue your team can tap through on a phone, not a spreadsheet with opinions.
A good answer sounds like: “Here's the morning med list on a phone — tap, done, next.” Count the taps from ‘phone in pocket’ to ‘medication logged.’ More than a few is a floor-staff tax you'll pay daily.
“What happens to add-ons at checkout?”
The exit bath, the extra playtime, the nail trim someone squeezed in on Wednesday — ask where those live between the moment they happen and the moment they're paid for. In systems where services are recorded in one place and billed from another, the answer is often “staff remembers to add it at checkout.” Staff, at 5:40 p.m. on a Friday with a lobby full of reunions, does not remember. That's not a training problem; it's a design problem, and it leaks real revenue every week.
A good answer sounds like: “The add-on attaches to the stay the moment it's logged, and checkout already has it.” One running bill per stay — no side lists, no memory required.
“How does multi-location actually work?”
Even if you run one facility today, ask this one — it's your growth ceiling. On some platforms, “multi-location” turns out to mean multiple separate accounts: separate logins, separate client lists, and no way to see the whole business in one report. That's fine right up until your best client boards at both sites, or you want one answer to “how did we do last month?” Make the vendor be specific: one account or several? Can a client record follow the client? Does reporting roll up?
A good answer sounds like: “One account, per-location views, shared client records, roll-up reporting.” “Most of our multi-site customers just use two accounts” is an honest answer to hear now rather than discover later.
“What does it tell me without being asked?”
Recording bookings is table stakes; every platform on your shortlist does it. The difference that compounds is what the system surfaces on its own: this month's occupancy against last year's, the regulars who've quietly stopped coming, the follow-ups your team owes today, the revenue sitting in unfilled Tuesday slots. If the answer to every management question is “you can export that and build it in Excel,” then the management job still lives with you and a spreadsheet — you've just bought a more expensive filing cabinet. We keep a list of the six numbers worth watching and how BarkWhiz puts them on one screen.
A good answer sounds like: “Here's the dashboard a manager sees Monday morning — no setup, no export.” Then judge it the way you'd judge an employee: does it tell you things you'd otherwise have missed?
Send it before the demo, in writing
Email the ten questions ahead of the sales call and ask for written answers. Two things happen. First, you get answers you can hold them to — and compare across vendors side by side. Second, you learn how each company handles being asked hard questions, which is a free preview of what support will feel like after you've paid. A vendor who answers plainly, including the unflattering parts, is telling you something. So is one who reschedules the call.
Then, on the demo itself, run the 15-minute test: your front-desk person driving, your real workflows, a stopwatch running.
Ask us the same ten
We'll answer all of them in writing, including the ones where the honest answer is “not yet” — our roadmap is public for exactly that reason. Ask the hard questions on a call with the founder; that's the whole pitch.
Not ready for a founding spot? Just keep me posted