Managing Animals

Staff & Admin Only

Adding and editing animals requires Staff or Admin role. All users can view animal profiles.

Animal management is how staff and admins add, edit, and organize animals in Heelr. This includes setting handling levels, uploading photos, and maintaining notes that keep everyone safe and informed.

Overview

Staff and admins can:

• Add new dogs, cats, or other animals to the system
• Upload photos so volunteers can easily identify animals
• Set handling levels to control who can interact with each dog
• Update handling and medical notes with safety protocols and health information
• Manage animal status (active, medical hold, behavior hold, adopted, etc.)
• Import animals via CSV (admin only)

Volunteers can view animals appropriate to their permission level but cannot edit information.

Multi-Species Support

Heelr supports three species types:

Species	Dashboard	Activity Logging	Behavior Intelligence
Dog	Full	Walk, Playgroup, Training, Enrichment, Kennel, Incident	Full (trends, exit behaviors, recommendations)
Cat	Basic	Interaction, Enrichment, Observation	Not available
Other	Basic	Interaction, Enrichment, Observation	Not available

Dogs are the primary species with full behavioral intelligence. Cats and Other species are supported for identity, lifecycle, dashboard visibility, and basic activity logging.

Permissions

Role	What You Can Do
Admin	Full access -- add, edit, delete animals; upload photos; import CSV; edit all notes
Staff	Add/edit animals; upload photos; edit all notes; cannot delete or import
Volunteer	View Level 1 dogs only; cannot edit. SH Certified volunteers can also view Special Handling dogs

Handling Levels (Dogs Only)

Every dog is assigned a handling level that determines who can interact with them. This is the primary safety mechanism in Heelr.

Level	Badge Color	Who Can Handle	Description
Level 1	Green	All users	Standard dogs that any volunteer can handle
Special Handling	Blue	SH Certified Volunteers, Staff, Admin	Dogs requiring trained volunteer handling (e.g., orange vest dogs)
Staff Only	Orange	Staff, Admin	Dogs with behavioral challenges requiring staff expertise
Isolation	Red	Staff, Admin	Dogs in isolation requiring restricted access
PPE	Purple	Staff, Admin	Dogs requiring personal protective equipment for handling

When a dog is set to Isolation, it forces a staff-only handling gate regardless of other settings.

Pre-Vaccination Restriction (Age-Based)

Dogs under 16 weeks old are automatically restricted from Walk and Playgroup activities as a biosecurity measure. This restriction is fully derived from the dog's date of birth -- no manual configuration needed.

• A "Pre-vax" badge appears on the dog's dashboard card
• Walk and Playgroup tiles are removed from Quick Log
• The restriction lifts automatically when the dog reaches 16 weeks
• Dogs with unknown date of birth are not restricted

note

Cats and Other species do not have handling levels. They are visible to all users.

Animal Search

Staff and admin users can use Animal Search from the main navigation to find records by:

• Name
• Animal code
• Intake code

Search results include species, kennel location, and status. For Other animals, Heelr also shows the configured sub-species when available.

Dashboard View

On the dashboard, animals appear as cards in a responsive grid sorted by longest wait time. Each dog card shows:

• Circular photo (or placeholder icon) with handling level color ring
• Dog name
• Time since last activity (e.g., "2h ago")
• Handling level badge with color coding
• Handling flags (if any)

Staff and admin see an "Add" button on the dashboard to create new entries, with species-specific labels.

Dog Detail Page

Tapping a dog card opens the detail page, which shows:

• Large photo (or placeholder)
• Edit button (visible to staff/admin)
• Basic Info -- Name, breed, age, sex, weight, color
• Shelter Info -- Kennel number, intake date, handling level, status
• Handling Notes -- Safety and behavior instructions (staff/admin only)
• Medical Notes -- Health and medical information (staff/admin only)
• Behavior Profile -- Adoption matching traits:
  • Good with dogs, kids, men (Yes / No / Unknown)
  • Energy level (Low / Medium / High)
• Handling Flags -- Operational dispatch flags:
  • Reactive, Escape Risk, Resource Guarding, PPE, Needs Care
• Wellness Indicator -- Visual indicator of recent welfare activity frequency

Needs Care Flag

The Needs Care flag is set automatically when a volunteer or staff member toggles the Medical Concern switch while logging an activity and selects a concern type (Injury/Cut, Bite Wound, Cough, Vomiting, Limping, or Other). The flag appears as a handling flag badge on the dog's dashboard card and detail page.

Staff and admin can resolve the flag from the detail page by tapping Resolve Needs Care and optionally adding a resolution note. The flag can be re-applied if a new concern is observed on a later activity.

Dogs with an active Needs Care flag appear on the Metrics page under the Needs Care section.

• Behavior Support -- Active/inactive status with plan details (staff/admin only, see Behavior Support)
• Recent Activities -- Activity timeline with behavior trends and exit frequency charts
• "Responds Well To" -- Activity recommendations based on historical exit behavior data
• Staff Notes -- Contextual notes for shift handoff (see below)
• Log Activity button

Staff Notes

Staff and admin users can add notes to any animal's detail page. Staff notes are meant for shift handoff and directed follow-up -- ongoing guidance like "Try a calming enrichment before walks" or "Needs a slow intro to new people."

Key behaviors:

• @Mentions -- Type @ to mention another user by name. Mentioned users receive an in-app notification via the bell icon.
• All users can read staff notes, but only staff and admin can create them.
• Staff notes do not affect activity clocks, metrics, or dashboard priority. They are purely informational.
• Notes can be soft-deleted by the author or an admin.

tip

Staff notes are not a replacement for activity logging or incident reports. If something happened, log it as an activity or incident. Use staff notes for context that helps the next person.

Cat & Other Detail Pages

Detail pages for cats and other species show a simplified view:

• Basic info (name, breed, age, sex, color)
• Sub-species for Other animals
• Shelter info (kennel, intake date, status)
• Notes (staff/admin only)
• Recent activities
• No behavior profile, handling flags, behavior support, or intelligence features

Adding an Animal

Staff and admin can add a new animal by tapping the "Add" button on the dashboard. The form includes:

Required:

• Name
• Species (Dog, Cat, or Other -- selected via the dashboard tab)

Optional:

• Breed
• Age (years)
• Sex (Male, Female, Unknown)
• Weight (lbs)
• Color
• Kennel number
• Intake date
• Handling level (dogs only, defaults to Level 1)
• Handling notes (dogs only)
• Medical notes
• Sub-species (Other animals only)

CSV Import (Admin Only)

Admins can bulk-import animals from a CSV file with Shelterluv header mapping:

1. Navigate to the import page
2. Select the species (Dog or Cat)
3. Upload a CSV file
4. Map CSV columns to Heelr fields
5. Review and confirm the import

Editing an Animal

From the detail page, staff and admin can tap "Edit" to modify any information. The edit form includes all the same fields as the add form, plus:

• Photo upload section with preview
• Photo removal if a photo exists

Note fields are conditionally shown based on your role -- handling notes and medical notes require staff or admin access.

Photo Upload

Staff and admin can upload a photo for each animal:

• Accepted formats: JPEG, PNG, WebP
• Maximum file size: 5 MB
• Crop: Photos are cropped to a 5:2 aspect ratio
• One photo per animal -- Uploading a new photo replaces the old one

Photos help volunteers quickly identify animals in the shelter.

Dog Lifecycle

Dogs can be set to various statuses to reflect their current situation:

• Active -- Currently in the shelter and on the dashboard
• Medical Hold -- Temporarily unavailable due to medical treatment
• Behavior Hold -- Temporarily unavailable due to behavioral assessment
• Adopted -- Removed from the dashboard (preserved in history)
• Transferred -- Moved to another facility
• Deceased / Euthanized -- Terminal status

Dogs in foster are hidden from the dashboard but remain in the system.

All status changes are logged in the audit trail.