What to Include in Your Dog's Health Journal

A health journal for your dog is only useful if it contains the right things. The bar isn't high - you don't need to log every sneeze - but the gap between a helpful record and a collection of half-remembered notes often comes down to a few specific categories. According to the PDSA PAW Mini Report 2025, there are 11.1 million pet dogs in the UK, yet the vast majority of owners have no structured way to track health observations between appointments - creating a significant gap between what owners notice and what vets can act on.

Here's what's worth tracking, and why each one earns its place.

Vet visits

Every appointment deserves an entry: the date, the reason you went, what the vet found, any diagnosis, and what was prescribed or recommended. Include follow-up instructions - "recheck in four weeks if not improving" is easy to forget.

This isn't just for your own reference. When you see a new vet, or visit an emergency practice, having a clear timeline of appointments means they're not starting from zero. Vets are good at piecing together histories from what you tell them, but a written record is faster and more accurate than memory under pressure.

Symptoms and changes you've noticed

This is the entry type most people skip, and it's the one that often turns out to matter most.

If your dog seems off - quieter than usual, eating less, moving stiffly - write it down. Include the date, what you observed, and roughly how long it seemed to last. You don't need to interpret it. "Seemed reluctant to go up the stairs this morning, ate about half his breakfast" is a complete and useful entry.

The reason this matters: many health conditions don't announce themselves dramatically. They build gradually, and the pattern only becomes visible when you look back across weeks or months of notes. A vet who sees your dog every year doesn't have that context. You do.

Weight

Weigh your dog monthly if you can, and log the number. Weight loss or gain that happens slowly is one of the hardest things to notice when you see your dog every day - you simply adjust to their new shape without registering the change. The PDSA PAW Mini Report 2025 found that 82% of UK dog owners are unaware of their dog's body condition score - and that veterinary professionals estimate nearly half of all UK dogs (46%) are overweight or obese, with many owners simply not noticing the gradual change.

A graph of weight over six to twelve months tells a more honest story than how a dog looks on any given day. If your dog is on a diet, it's also the only way to know whether it's working.

Most vets have scales in reception and are happy for you to pop in for a weigh-in. Some larger pet shops and pharmacies also have them. Pup Notes tracks weight over time and shows it as a trend, which makes the pattern visible at a glance.

Medications and treatments

Any medication your dog is taking - prescription or over-the-counter - belongs in the journal. Note the name, the dose, the frequency, when you started, and when you're due to finish.

Also log flea and worm treatments separately. These are routine enough that they're easy to lose track of, but the timing matters. A missed treatment window means a gap in protection, and if you're not sure when you last treated, you're guessing.

If you notice any reaction to a medication - vomiting after a new tablet, scratching after a spot-on - log that too. It's the kind of information that's hard to reconstruct later and genuinely useful to pass on to a vet.

Vaccinations and preventive care

Your dog's vaccination history should be somewhere permanent: which vaccines, which dates, and when boosters are due. This is especially important if you use kennels, groomers, or doggy day care - they'll often ask for proof of vaccination.

The same applies to flea, tick, and worm prevention. Log the product name, the date, and the next due date. Over time you'll have a reliable record that makes the next reminder easy.

Behaviour changes

Behaviour and health are more connected than they might seem. A dog that suddenly becomes aggressive, withdrawn, or unusually clingy is often in pain or discomfort. A dog that starts having accidents indoors after years of reliable house training may have a urinary tract infection.

You don't need to diagnose the connection - just note what you're seeing. "Much more vocal than usual, seemed agitated during evening walk" is useful information. So is "hasn't initiated play for the past week."

The "nothing to report" entries

These feel pointless to write, but they're genuinely valuable over time. A regular entry that says "all fine, eating and drinking normally, good energy on walk" creates a baseline. When something does change, you can see clearly that it's a change - not just your memory being unreliable.

It also means that if your dog develops a condition later and a vet asks "when did this start?", you have actual dates to work with rather than a vague "a few months ago maybe."

What you don't need to log

Not everything. You don't need to record every bark, every small treat, or every perfectly normal walk. The goal is signal, not noise.

A good rule: if you thought "I should probably mention that to the vet," write it down. If you wouldn't have given it a second thought, you probably don't need to log it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should I write in my dog's health journal? After any vet visit, whenever you notice something worth remembering, and roughly once a month for a routine weight check and a brief general note. You don't need to write daily - a few meaningful entries a month is more useful than dozens of empty ones.

Do I need a special app or can I just use notes on my phone? Any system you'll actually use is the right system. A notes app, a physical notebook, or a dedicated journal app like Pup Notes all work. The advantage of a dedicated app is that it structures the information - weight as a trend rather than scattered numbers, medications with dates and doses rather than free text - which makes it easier to find things later.

What if I don't know what a symptom means? Log it anyway. You're not diagnosing - you're recording. Write what you observed, when you observed it, and how long it seemed to last. Your vet can interpret the information; your job is to have it available.

Should I log normal, healthy behaviour? Occasionally, yes. A brief note that everything seems fine establishes a baseline. If things change later, that record is what makes "change from normal" visible.

Is it worth keeping records for a healthy young dog? Yes. The most useful health records aren't the ones you start keeping after a diagnosis - they're the ones that were already there when you needed them. A history of a healthy dog is the context that makes any future illness easier to assess.