Last updated: 11 October 2026
This notice explains how The Spaniel House looks after your personal information, and your dog’s, from your first enquiry to every stay.
Who we are
The Spaniel House is a licensed home dog boarding and day care business in Welwyn, Hertfordshire. It is run by Katrina Neal, a sole trader, who is responsible for your information (the “controller”).
Questions or requests: katrina@thespanielhouse.co.uk
What we collect
We ask for information step by step, only when we need it:
- Enquiry: your name and contact details, your dog’s basic details, the dates and service you’re interested in, and anything you choose to tell us.
- Screening: your dog’s behaviour, temperament, routine and suitability for home boarding or day care.
- Meet and greet: our notes on how your dog settled and whether we’re a good fit.
- Registration: the details our licence requires, such as your address, an emergency contact, your dog’s identity and microchip, your vet and insurance, health, diet, medication, behaviour, vaccination and parasite treatment dates, and your consents.
- Before each stay: a quick check of anything that has changed.
We also keep:
- copies of vaccination records you email to us
- care notes and a stay log (dates, health, any incidents or treatment)
- photos and videos of your dog, used publicly only with your permission
- messages you send us by WhatsApp, email or phone
- booking, invoice and payment records
Information about your dog’s health is about your dog, not you, so it isn’t “special category” data. We still treat it with care.
Why we use it, and our lawful basis
| What we do | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Reply to your enquiry, arrange a meet and greet, take bookings and care for your dog | Contract: taking steps at your request before a contract, and performing it |
| Keep the records our licence requires and show them to the council inspector | Legal obligation: the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 |
| Decide whether your dog is suited to our home, keep every dog safe, and run the business (scheduling, records, admin) | Legitimate interests: running a safe, well-organised home boarding business |
| Get vet care for your dog during a stay, including in an emergency | Contract and your consent on the registration form; if we can’t reach you, our legal obligation to get vet care and our legitimate interests in your dog’s welfare |
| Share photos and videos of your dog on our website and social media | Consent |
| Send news, offers or event updates by email | Consent (you can unsubscribe at any time) |
Booking confirmations and reminders are service messages, not marketing.
Who we share it with
We never sell your information. We share it only when we need to:
- Vets: your own vet, or our registered vet, Mimram Vets, when your dog needs care.
- Your emergency contact, if we can’t reach you about your dog.
- The council licensing inspector, who may ask to see our records.
- Others where the law requires it.
The tools we use
We use trusted service providers to store and manage information for us:
- Microsoft 365: email, forms and secure file storage
- WordPress.com: our website and enquiry form
- Google Calendar: booking dates (while we move to Microsoft 365)
- QuickBooks: invoices and payments
- WhatsApp: day-to-day messages and updates during stays
AI tools
Katrina uses AI assistants (currently Claude, made by Anthropic) to help organise records, draft messages and run the admin side of the business. We keep the information we use with them to the minimum needed, and we’ve switched off the setting that lets the provider use our conversations to train its models. AI never makes decisions about you or your dog: Katrina reviews everything, and she decides on bookings, suitability and care.
Where your information is stored
Some of our providers may store or process information outside the UK. Where they do, we rely on the safeguards UK data protection law allows, such as UK adequacy regulations or the International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum.
How long we keep it
- Your dog’s records, consents, vaccination copies and stay log: 3 years after your dog’s last stay. Our licence requires us to keep records for at least 3 years.
- Enquiries and screening answers that don’t lead to a booking: 12 months.
- Invoices and financial records: 6 years, for tax purposes.
- Photos and videos: until you withdraw permission. We’ll then stop using them and remove past posts where we reasonably can.
We review records yearly and securely delete what we no longer need.
Keeping it safe
Records are kept in password-protected business accounts, with access limited to The Spaniel House. Printed care sheets are kept securely.
Your rights
You have the right to:
- see the information we hold about you
- correct anything that’s wrong or incomplete
- ask us to delete it. We’ll do this unless our licence requires us to keep it.
- ask us to limit how we use it
- object to our use of it for legitimate interests
- receive it in a portable format
- withdraw your consent at any time, for example to photos or marketing emails, without affecting anything we did before
To use any of these rights, email katrina@thespanielhouse.co.uk. We’ll reply within one month.
Complaints
If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO): ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or 0303 123 1113.
Changes to this notice
We’ll update this notice when our services or tools change.
