Free templates for professional dog trainers
Paperwork is the part of dog training nobody apprenticed for. These are the three client documents trainers keep meaning to build: the intake form that catches a medical issue before session one, the week-by-week plan that keeps homework focused, and the progress report that shows a client their dog is actually changing.
Each one is published in full on its own page. Copy it with one click, put your business name on it, delete what doesn't fit your practice. No signup, no locked PDF, no watermark.
They ship as bonuses with Homework Hound, our generator that turns session notes into finished client packages. We publish them free and complete on purpose: a trainer who never spends a dollar with us should still leave with better paperwork than they arrived with.
Which template do you need right now?
Each document belongs to a moment in the client relationship. Intake comes before the first session, the plan comes after the evaluation, and reports run every week in between.
Client intake form template
Eight sections: household, dog, health screen, daily life, training history, the presenting problem, goals, agreements. Includes the bite-history question most forms are afraid to ask, and notes explaining why each question earns its place.
Training plan template, week by week
A blank scaffold built the way working plans are built: one focus per week, each exercise with a time budget and a filmable success criterion, watch-fors, and a regression rule for the weeks that wobble.
Progress report template
Five parts on one screen: the win, one number, the next focus, one coaching note for the human, the next date. Plus a filled example and a sending schedule by package type.
Generate the whole package instead
Homework Hound turns your raw session notes into a 4-6 week training plan, weekly homework sheets, and a progress report, under your logo, in about 90 seconds. The first full package is free, no card.
How the three documents work together
The intake form does its job once, at the start: it surfaces the household reality, the health questions that outrank training, and the goals you'll be measured against. The training plan turns those goals into weeks, and each week into exercises an owner can run without you in the room. The progress report closes the loop: it shows the client the line moving, week after week, in numbers they can repeat to their spouse.
Trainers who run all three stop having a paperwork problem. Clients arrive screened, practice with focus, and can see what they're paying for. That last part is the quiet one that fills a calendar: a progress report is the only document a client forwards on their own.
Questions trainers ask about these templates
What should a dog training client intake form include?
Eight things: owner and household details, the dog's basics, a health screen, daily life and routine, previous training history (including which tools were used, asked without judgment), the presenting problem with a direct bite-history question, goals with a realistic daily-practice number, and signed agreements. The health screen matters most: sudden behavior changes and signs of soreness go to the vet before they go to training. The full annotated form explains why each question earns its place.
How do I write a training plan a client will actually follow?
One focus per week, daily homework under about ten minutes in short sessions, and a success criterion per exercise that the owner could film. Raise one variable at a time: distance, duration, or distraction, never two at once. And write the regression rule into the plan itself, so a rough week has a next step instead of a guilt spiral. The week-by-week scaffold has all of this pre-structured.
What goes in a dog training progress report?
Five parts, one screen, in this order: the win first, one number that moved, what's next and why, one coaching note for the human, and the next session date. Never open with the problem, never include more than one criticism, never run past a single screen. The report template includes a filled example.
How often should I send progress reports?
Same-day recap after every session, full report weekly during a package, a mid-point summary around week three of a six-week package, and short daily notes during board-and-train. The rule that outranks the rest: never let a mid-package client go more than seven days without hearing something from you.
Are these really free? What's the catch?
Really free: the complete text is on each page, with a copy button. Rebrand it, edit it, use it with paying clients. There's no email gate because we don't want your inbox, we want you to have a better intake form.
The honest business reason we publish them: the same templates ship with Homework Hound, which generates the documents these templates only scaffold. If the free pages are useful, some trainers will try the generator. That's the whole model.