Membership Agreement & Liability Waiver

The parties, and what this is

This Membership Agreement and Liability Waiver (the “Agreement”) is between Party of 4, a dog daycare operating from a private residence in Vallejo, California (“Party of 4”, “we”, “us”), and the person who signs it (“you”, the “Member”), for the care of the dog identified in the signature form at the foot of this page (the “Dog”).

It takes effect on the date you sign it electronically and continues until the membership ends under § 4 or § 15. It covers one dog. A second dog needs its own signed Agreement and its own spot.

By signing, you confirm you are at least eighteen years old, that you are the Dog's owner or a person the owner has authorised to place the Dog in daycare and to sign this Agreement on their behalf, and that everything you have told us about the Dog is true and complete.

What a membership includes

A membership reserves one of four daycare spots on every business day of the month, whether or not you use it. There is no daily rate, no punch card, and no fourth spot held open for walk-ins. Never more than four dogs are in our care on a given day.

Included, at no extra charge:

• Supervised care between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
• Two photo updates and a note about the day, sent to you.
• Feeding from the food you send, administration of medication you have written out, and grooming touch-ups.
• First call on holiday, weekend and overnight care, which is booked ahead and priced separately.

Extras are billed as used and appear on your next invoice: a bath and tidy at $55, nail trim and ear clean at $25, and door-to-door transport at $20 each way within roughly fifteen minutes of us in Vallejo.

We close nine days a year: New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the day after, and December 24, 25 and 31. The monthly rate already accounts for those closures, so there is no credit for them. If we have to close unexpectedly — illness, a power or water failure, wildfire smoke, an evacuation order or another cause outside our control — we will tell you as early as we can and credit the affected days at 1/21st of the monthly rate per day.

Fees, billing and automatic renewal

These are the terms of the recurring charge. California requires them to be set out clearly before you consent, and requires your consent to the automatic renewal to be a separate, affirmative step — which it is, in the signature form below.

The first invoice covers the remainder of the month you start in, prorated at 1/21st of the monthly rate for each remaining business day, plus the following full month. Enrollment includes a meet and greet at no charge and a trial half day at $75, credited to your first month if you join.

Invoices arrive by email and autopay takes the charge on the first. A payment more than ten days late may pause the Dog's attendance until it clears; we will email you before it does. We do not charge interest or a late fee.

Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 17600–17606 (Automatic Renewal Law): clear and conspicuous disclosure of the terms above, affirmative consent to the recurring charge, acknowledgment of the terms and the cancellation policy in a form you can retain, and a cost-effective, timely and easy-to-use way to cancel — here, one email.

Cancelling, in one step

You can end the membership at any time, for any reason or none, with thirty days' notice. Send it and you are done: no call to sit through, no offer to decline, and we will not ask you to explain.

The thirty days run from the day we receive your notice. Your spot, and the charge, continue through that period; the Dog is welcome every business day in it. We will not charge you again after the notice period ends, and if a charge has already gone out for a month that falls wholly after it, we refund it in full. Any partial month at the end is prorated at 1/21st of the monthly rate per business day.

If you took the twelve-month rate and cancel before the twelve months are up, the difference between the twelve-month rate and the month-to-month rate for the months you actually used becomes payable — unless you are moving out of the area, the Dog has died, or a veterinarian has advised that the Dog should stop attending daycare, in which case nothing further is owed.

We can also end the membership on thirty days' notice, or immediately under § 15. If we do, we refund the unused part of any month you have paid for.

Hours, drop-off and pickup

We are open 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Drop-off is staggered between 7:00 and 9:00 in the morning and pickup falls between 5:00 and 7:00 in the evening, because four dogs settling in one at a time is the entire point.

Because we operate from a home rather than a storefront, we share the address once your application has been read and a time to meet is set. Please keep it to yourself.

Outside those hours we will often say yes — an early flight, a court date, a dinner that runs long — but case by case and arranged ahead, not as a standing option. Overnights work the same way and are priced separately.

If you are going to be late, text us. Pickup after 7:00 p.m. without notice is billed at $25 for each half hour, and after 8:00 p.m. we may keep the Dog overnight at the overnight rate rather than leave the day open-ended. Only you and the people you have named in the signature form may collect the Dog; we will ask anyone we do not recognise for identification, and we will not release the Dog to someone who appears unable to care for them safely.

Tell us about travel and schedule changes by email. Same-day matters — a late pickup, a feeding note, anything urgent — go by text to (510) 495-0495.

Health, vaccination and licensing

Every dog in the group has to meet these, all the time, not just on the first day:

• At least six months old, and spayed or neutered by twelve months of age.
• Current on rabies, DHPP and bordetella. Canine influenza is recommended, not required.
• On a flea and tick preventative, and free of fleas, ticks and worms.
• Currently licensed, with the license and rabies tags on the collar, as Vallejo requires.
• Free of any contagious condition. Keep the Dog home for at least forty-eight hours after vomiting, diarrhoea, a persistent cough or a suspected contagious illness, and tell us.

You will give us written vaccination records from your veterinarian before the first day, and updated records whenever anything is renewed. Rabies is the hard one: if it lapses, the Dog cannot legally attend and we will have to turn them away at the door until it is current again. That is not a judgment call we are free to make.

Tell us in writing about every medication, dose and time, and about allergies and conditions. We will give medication as you have written it, but we are not veterinarians or veterinary nurses and cannot administer injections, fluids or anything requiring clinical judgment.

Health & Safety Code § 121690 (rabies vaccination and licensing of dogs four months and older); Food & Agric. Code § 30804.7; Vallejo Mun. Code ch. 7.06 (licensing, tags and animal control). We are required to report a bite that breaks skin to Solano County Public Health, and we will.

What you have to tell us

Four dogs together only works if we know what we are putting together. You confirm that you have disclosed, honestly and in full:

• Every bite, snap, fight or injury the Dog has been involved in, whether or not it broke skin, whether or not it was reported, and whether or not you think it was the Dog's fault.
• Any resource guarding, food or toy aggression, fence or barrier reactivity, leash reactivity, escaping, digging, or destructive behaviour.
• Any fear, anxiety or noise sensitivity, and anything that has previously got the Dog dismissed from a daycare, boarding facility, groomer, dog park or training class.
• Any illness, injury, surgery, chronic condition or medication, and anything a veterinarian has advised about exercise or play.

If something changes — a new medication, a scuffle at the park, a diagnosis, a bite at home — tell us before the next drop-off.

A material omission or misstatement about the Dog's bite history, aggression or health is grounds for us to end this Agreement immediately under § 15 and, separately, means the indemnity in § 11 applies to whatever follows from it. This is the one thing we are inflexible about, because the other three dogs cannot consent to the risk.

The care we owe your dog

We will care for the Dog with the reasonable care and skill of a careful dog daycare in similar circumstances. Concretely, that means: never more than four dogs; a person present and attentive while the dogs are together; a fenced yard checked before the dogs go out; introductions handled slowly; play interrupted before it tips; separation where a dog needs a break; and a veterinarian called when something looks wrong rather than after it gets worse.

What we do not promise, because no one honestly can, is that nothing will happen. Dogs play with their mouths and their bodies. Scrapes, nicks, a torn nail, a limp, a puncture, an upset stomach and a bad day are all ordinary outcomes of dogs being dogs together, and they occur in well-run daycares with attentive people watching.

We carry general liability and animal bailee insurance covering every dog in our care, and we will send the certificate on request.

Nothing in this Agreement reduces our duty to exercise reasonable care for an animal in our custody, or shifts to you a loss actually caused by our gross negligence, recklessness or willful misconduct.

Civ. Code § 1834 (a depositary of animals for keeping must provide food, water, shelter and protection from cruelty); Civ. Code § 1668 (a contract cannot exempt anyone from responsibility for fraud, willful injury, or violation of law).

Assumption of risk

You understand that dog daycare is an inherently risky activity, and you choose it anyway with that understanding.

You knowingly and voluntarily assume all risks, known and unknown, of the Dog attending Party of 4 and being in a group of up to four dogs, including but not limited to: bites, scratches, punctures, bruising, lacerations, sprains, strains, torn nails, broken bones, eye and ear injuries, heat stress, choking, ingesting something they should not, transmissible illness including kennel cough, canine influenza, giardia and parasites, escape, theft, injury caused by another dog, injury caused by the Dog's own behaviour, aggravation of a pre-existing condition, permanent disability, and death.

You accept that these risks cannot be eliminated by supervision, screening, fencing, insurance or care, however good; that a four-dog group reduces them but does not remove them; and that the Dog's own temperament and health may make some of them more likely. You accept them for the Dog and for yourself, including risk to your own person or property while you are on our premises for drop-off, pickup, a meet and greet or a trial day.

Release and waiver of liability

Read this section carefully. It gives up legal rights, including rights to sue us over things you do not know about yet.

In exchange for Party of 4 accepting the Dog into daycare, you release, waive, discharge and agree not to sue Party of 4 and its owner, household members, employees, agents, contractors and insurers (the “Released Parties”) from and for any and all claims, demands, actions, causes of action, liabilities, losses, costs, expenses and damages of any kind — including veterinary expenses, loss of the Dog, property damage, and your own injury — arising out of or relating to the Dog's attendance at Party of 4, including claims founded on the ordinary negligence of any of the Released Parties.

This release does not apply to, and you keep every right you have in respect of, gross negligence, recklessness, willful or wanton misconduct, fraud, intentional injury, animal cruelty, or any violation of law by the Released Parties. California does not permit those to be released in advance, and we are not attempting to.

Waiver of Civil Code § 1542

You expressly waive Civil Code § 1542 as to the claims released above, which reads:

Knowing that, you intend this release to cover claims you do not know about or suspect at the time you sign — but only within the limits of the paragraph above.

You have had the chance to read this Agreement in full before signing, published openly at partyof4daycare.com/waiver, and to take advice on it. Signing is voluntary; no one has hurried you.

Civ. Code § 1542; Civ. Code § 1668. A release of ordinary negligence in a recreational or discretionary service is generally enforceable in California when it is clear, unambiguous and conspicuous; a release of gross negligence is not.

Indemnity for your dog's acts

California makes a dog's owner liable for a bite regardless of the dog's history and regardless of the owner's care. That liability is yours, and putting the Dog in daycare does not move it to us.

You will indemnify, defend and hold harmless the Released Parties from and against any claim, demand, action, liability, loss, veterinary or medical expense, property damage, legal fee, cost, fine or judgment arising from the Dog's acts while in our care or on our premises, including injury to another dog, injury to any person including us and our household, and damage to property including our home, yard, fencing and vehicle.

This includes the cost of veterinary treatment for another dog the Dog injures, and it applies whether or not the Dog has any history of aggression — and with particular force if you did not tell us about a history you had.

It does not extend to loss caused by the gross negligence, recklessness or willful misconduct of a Released Party.

Civ. Code § 3342 (owner strictly liable for damages from a dog bite, regardless of the dog's former viciousness or the owner's knowledge of it); Civ. Code § 3342.5; Food & Agric. Code § 31601 et seq.

Emergency veterinary authority

If the Dog is injured or appears ill and we cannot reach you or your emergency contact quickly enough, you authorise us to do what a careful owner would do: transport the Dog to a veterinarian or emergency animal hospital of our choosing and consent, on your behalf, to examination, diagnostics, treatment, hospitalisation, pain relief and emergency surgery.

We will try to reach you first, on every number you have given us, and we will keep trying while the Dog is being treated. We will not wait on a call when waiting would harm the Dog.

You are responsible for the full cost of that care, including transport, whether or not the pre-authorised limit you set in the signature form is enough to cover it. That limit tells us how far to go before we must reach you; it is not a cap on what you owe. If we pay a bill directly, you will reimburse us within fourteen days of our sending you the invoice.

You also authorise us to speak with your regular veterinarian and to obtain the Dog's records, and you authorise them to release those records to us for the Dog's care.

If a veterinarian recommends euthanasia on humane grounds and you truly cannot be reached, we will follow the veterinarian's professional judgment. This is the hardest line in this document, and we will exhaust every way of reaching you before it applies.

If a dog is left with us

A dog not collected, with no contact from you or an authorised person, is treated as abandoned fourteen days after the last day of care you arranged — the period California sets for a boarding facility. We may then place the Dog with a licensed shelter or rescue, or with a suitable adopter, and you remain liable for the daily care, feeding and veterinary costs incurred in the meantime.

Before that happens we will contact you at every address, number and email you have given us, and your emergency contact, and we will send written notice of our intention. We would very much rather find you.

Civ. Code § 1834.5 (an animal boarded and not reclaimed within fourteen days of the agreed period, with notice given, may be treated as abandoned and turned over to a shelter or rescue; the owner remains liable for costs).

Photographs and video

Two photo updates a day are part of the membership, and those are always yours. Separately, you may let us use photographs and video of the Dog on our website, in social posts and in other marketing. That permission is optional, you give or withhold it in the signature form, and saying no changes nothing about the care the Dog receives.

If you say yes: the permission is royalty-free and non-exclusive, we will not identify you by name without asking, we will never sell the images to a stock library, and you can withdraw it at any time by email. We will remove the images from anything we control within a reasonable time, though we cannot claw back a post someone else has already shared.

We may keep and use photographs and video internally regardless of your choice, for record-keeping and for evidence about an incident.

Refusing, pausing or ending care

We may refuse the Dog on a given day, pause attendance, or end this Agreement immediately, if in our reasonable judgment:

• The Dog's behaviour makes the group unsafe, or the Dog is repeatedly a target of the group;
• The Dog bites or injures a person or another dog, or comes close enough that we do not want to see it again;
• The Dog appears ill or contagious, or vaccinations or licensing have lapsed;
• You have materially misstated or omitted something about the Dog under § 7;
• The Dog is in distress at daycare and is not settling — some dogs are happier at home, and saying so is part of our job;
• Payment is more than ten days late after we have written to you; or
• You or someone collecting the Dog behaves abusively toward us or the dogs.

Where we end the membership for anything other than a lapsed payment, we refund the unused part of any month already paid, prorated at 1/21st of the monthly rate per business day, within fourteen days. Where the reason allows for it, we would rather work with you and a trainer or your veterinarian first than end anything, and we will say so plainly. If it is a safety matter, we will act first and explain afterwards.

Your information

We collect what we need to care for the Dog and run the membership: your name and contact details, your address, your emergency contact and authorised pickups, the Dog's details and health records, your veterinarian, this signed Agreement and the record of your signature, and billing records.

We use it for the Dog's care, to reach you, to bill you, to comply with law, and to keep the record of this Agreement. We do not sell it, rent it, or trade it. We share it only with your veterinarian or an emergency animal hospital treating the Dog; with animal control or public health where a report is required; with our insurer or a professional adviser if there is a claim; with the payment and email providers we use to invoice and write to you; and where the law compels it.

We keep the signed Agreement and the consent record for at least three years, or one year after the membership ends, whichever is longer — California's automatic-renewal rules require a retained record of consent. Health records are kept while the Dog attends and for three years after.

Write to info@partyof4daycare.com to see what we hold, correct it, get a copy of your signed Agreement, or ask us to delete what we are not required to keep. We are a small business under the thresholds of the California Consumer Privacy Act, so we are not currently subject to it; we follow these practices because they are the right ones, and we will meet the Act's requirements if we ever come within it.

This site uses Google Analytics to count visits and understand which pages get read. Nothing you type into the signature form is sent to it.

Civ. Code §§ 1798.100 et seq. (CCPA/CPRA, for reference); Bus. & Prof. Code § 17602(b) (retention of the consent record).

California law and disputes

This Agreement is governed by the law of the State of California, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Any dispute belongs in the state or federal courts serving Solano County, California, and both of us consent to that venue.

Before filing anything, we each agree to try: write to the other describing the problem and what would resolve it, and give it thirty days. If that fails, we agree to try mediation in Solano County with a mediator we both accept, sharing the mediator's fee, before going to court. Neither of us has to mediate a claim that has to be brought quickly to preserve a right or to protect an animal from imminent harm, and either of us may go to small claims court instead.

There is no arbitration clause in this Agreement and no waiver of your right to a jury trial, other than through the release in § 10. You keep your right to bring a claim in your own name in court, and nothing here waives any right that California law says cannot be waived.

If either of us has to sue to enforce this Agreement, the prevailing party recovers reasonable attorneys' fees and costs.

Signing electronically

You sign this Agreement by completing the signature form below: typing your legal name, initialing the six separately-acknowledged clauses, ticking the consent boxes, and submitting it. That typed name is your signature, and you agree it has the same legal effect as a signature in ink.

We record the date and time of signing, the initials and consents you gave, the version of the Agreement you signed, and the IP address and browser you signed from, as evidence of execution. A copy of the completed Agreement is emailed to us on submission; we countersign it and send it back to you, and you should keep that email. Ask us any time for another copy.

If you would rather sign on paper, say so and we will print it, sign it with you at the meet and greet, and give you a copy.

Civ. Code §§ 1633.1–1633.17 (California Uniform Electronic Transactions Act); 15 U.S.C. §§ 7001 et seq. (federal E-SIGN Act). You consent to transacting electronically and to receiving this Agreement, invoices and notices by email. You may withdraw that consent by writing to us, and we will move you to paper.

The whole agreement

This document, together with the completed signature form, is the entire agreement between us about the Dog's daycare. It replaces anything said in conversation, in email, at the meet and greet, or on the rest of this website. Where the website and this Agreement conflict, this Agreement governs.

We may change this Agreement for future months on at least thirty days' written notice by email, and you may cancel in that window if you do not accept the change; continuing to bring the Dog after the notice period is acceptance. Changes to the sections you initialed — risk, release, indemnity, veterinary authority, abandonment and dismissal — require a fresh signature, not just notice. Nothing else in this Agreement can be varied except in writing signed by both of us.

If any part of this Agreement is held unenforceable, the rest stays in force, and the unenforceable part is limited only so far as necessary. If the release in § 10 is held too broad, it applies to the maximum extent California law allows. A delay in enforcing something is not a waiver of it. You may not transfer this Agreement to someone else; we may transfer it if the business changes hands, and we will tell you if that happens.

Questions about any of it, before or after you sign: info@partyof4daycare.com or (510) 495-0495. We would genuinely rather answer them now.