This is the whole journey in one place: from the moment you sign up to the day a real customer books a stay. Work through it in order and nothing will catch you out. Allow about an hour in total. You can stop after any step and pick up later.
- Sign in and set your password. After you sign up, Dogly emails you a link to set your password. It works for 7 days. If it has run out, use Forgot password? on the login page for a fresh one. Your 30-day free trial has started and no card is needed. Your site is already live at the web address you chose (yourname.dogly.ca).
- Fill in your business details. Open Settings, then Business & payments. Your business name and contact email are filled in from sign-up. Add your address, business hours and phone, and check your time zone, currency and sales tax. Press Save Settings. Business details, Time zone, currency and tax
- Add your services and prices. Go to More → Business → Services & Pricing. Add boarding (priced per night), daycare (per day) and grooming (one flat price per appointment). On an empty list, Add three starter services for me gives you hidden samples to edit. Customers only see a service once Visible to customers is ticked. For holiday prices, size surcharges or discounts, open the Pricing Rules tab. Services and pricing, Pricing rules
- Set your capacity. In Settings, Default Nightly Capacity starts at 10. Change it to the number of dogs you can really take. Use the Availability tab to change a single date or close a day. If you offer grooming, open Add grooming or training appointment times on that same page and create your time slots, because customers pick from them. Capacity and availability
- Check your waiver and vaccination rules. Settings → Policies. Dogly starts you with a generic waiver, so read it and make it your own. Requiring a current vaccination record to book is on by default. Waiver, Vaccinations
- Choose how people pay. In Settings → Business & payments, pay in person is already on. For cards, choose Stripe or Square under Payment Provider, press Save Settings, then press Connect Stripe or Connect Square and finish their sign-up. Card payments only appear for customers once that is complete. To take Interac e-Transfer, tick it, enter your e-Transfer email and save. Accept cards, debit, Interac and cash
- Make it look like you. Settings → Look & feel: pick a template and colour theme, upload a square logo and press Save Branding. Then add a few photos under More → Marketing → Gallery, and tell your story in More → Pages. Branding, Gallery, Pages
- Run a test booking. Open your site in a private window, sign up as a customer, add a dog (with a vaccination date in the future), sign the waiver and book, choosing Pay in person so no money moves. Check the confirmation email and the booking in your dashboard, then cancel it and delete the test customer. Run a test booking
- Tidy up. Under Settings → Your data, clear the example dogs that came with your dashboard. If you have a team, add their logins under More → Business → Staff. Clear the examples, Staff accounts
- Go public. There is no switch to flip: your site is already live. Open the menu under your name and press Visit Website to see what customers see, then share the link on Facebook, in your email signature and with past customers. If you own a web address like yourkennel.com you can connect it any time. Connect your own domain
- Keep your site live after the trial. Go to More → Business → Billing and press Add a card & subscribe. If you add a card before the trial ends you are not charged until it does. Billing
Good to know
- The Getting Started box on your Today screen ticks off four of these for you: a service, an address or hours, a connected payment account and a gallery photo.
- A test booking paid by card is a real charge, so use pay in person for tests (or refund the card payment afterwards).
- If you do nothing before the trial ends, your public site shows a holding page. Your dashboard and data stay available so you can subscribe.
- You can change anything on this list later. Nothing here is locked in.
If customers cannot book
- The service is still hidden. Tick Visible to customers.
- The date is closed or full. Check Availability.
- A grooming service has no time slots yet.
- Their dog's vaccination record is missing or expired, or they have not signed the waiver.
Stuck on anything? Open a ticket under More → Dogly Support, or see Your first day: set up in 30 minutes for the short version.