Boarding Agreement

Who this is between

Mina House, Yorba Linda, California (“I”, “me”) and you, the owner of the dog or dogs named in this booking (“you”, “your dog”).

What I’m agreeing to

To keep your dog in my home for the nights you’ve booked. Two walks a day, yard time, meals on your dog’s own schedule, medication given as you’ve written it down, at least one photo update every day, usually two, and someone in the house.

Never more than three dogs at a time, counting yours.

What you’re confirming

1. Everything you’ve told me about your dog is accurate — their health, their habits, and above all their history. If your dog has ever bitten a person or another animal, or been aggressive toward either, you’ve told me. This one matters more than anything else on the page: it decides whether I can keep your dog, the other dogs and myself safe, and whether my insurance stands behind the stay.
2. Vaccinations are current — rabies, DHPP and Bordetella — and you’ve uploaded proof with your booking.
3. Your dog is over a year old and spayed or neutered.
4. You’re the owner, or you have the owner’s authority to make decisions about this dog.

If your dog gets sick or hurt

I’ll call and text you first. If I can’t reach you, I’ll try your emergency contact. Either way your dog goes to your own vet, and if your vet isn’t available, to mine.

Veterinary costs are yours. I carry liability insurance that reimburses up to $1,000 per incident regardless of fault, and I’ll put that toward your bill, but the bill is yours.

Paying, and changing your mind

The deposit is one night, due when I confirm the booking. The balance is due seven days before drop-off, fourteen if it’s a holiday stay.

If you cancel, what comes back is set out in the cancellation policy, which is part of this agreement — there’s a calculator there that works out your exact refund.

If I ever have to cancel on you, every dollar comes back and I’ll help you find somewhere else.

Picking up

Come at the time we agreed. The first hour late is free; after that it’s $20 an hour, capped at one night’s rate.

Photos

Photos sent to you. I photograph your dog through the stay and send those to you. That is part of the service and it happens whether or not you tick the box below.

Photos shown publicly. Using a photo of your dog on the Mina House website, or on Mina House social media, is a separate permission and it is entirely optional. If you don’t give it, nothing changes about your booking or your dog’s stay.

If you do give it: no names are published, yours or your dog’s, unless you ask for them. Tell me at any time and the photo comes down. You don’t need a reason, and you don’t need to explain.

☐ Optional. Mina House may use photos of my dog on its website and social media. I understand I can withdraw this at any time and that my booking does not depend on it.

If something goes wrong, in order

Two reviewers of this page asked what I would actually do, minute by minute, rather than what I promise in general. Fair question. This is the order, and it does not change:

1. Separate first. If there is a scuffle, dogs are behind a gate or a closed door before anything else happens. Checking injuries comes second, because a second round is the real risk.
2. Call you. Not a text and then a wait — I call, and I keep calling. If it is not urgent you still hear from me the same hour.
3. Call your emergency contact if I cannot reach you, using the number you gave me at booking.
4. Get your dog seen. Your own vet if they are open and the problem can wait for them. If it cannot, the nearest open emergency hospital, because minutes matter more than familiarity. I will have confirmed which one that is before your stay begins.
5. Pay for it to start. I can authorise up to $500 of care without reaching you, and I put my own card down at the desk so nothing waits on a phone call. Above $500 I keep trying to reach you first, unless the vet tells me the delay is itself dangerous.
6. Write it down. Photographs with timestamps, what happened, what I did, what the vet said. You get all of it, whether or not you ask.

If a dog here injures a person, I call you, I call animal control as California requires for a reportable bite, and I give them an accurate account. I will not minimise it to protect myself.

What I can’t promise

Dogs play, and dogs are dogs. Scrapes, scratches, an upset stomach in a new house, a torn nail on the turf — these happen in any home with dogs in it, and they’re part of the ordinary risk of boarding. I’ll tell you the same hour if anything does.

If your dog injures a person or another dog, or damages something here, that’s your responsibility.

A dog who is picky about other dogs is welcome here, and the meet-and-greet is where we work out what they need. What I can’t do is run a house for a dog who needs one person’s attention every hour of the day, or who barks without stopping, because that isn’t fair on them or on the other dogs. If that turns out to be your dog, I’ll say so at the meet-and-greet rather than take the booking and hope.

If something goes wrong between us

Call me first. Most things are a conversation. If it genuinely can’t be settled that way, California law applies and Orange County is where it would be heard.