Pet vaccination rules for boarding & grooming in Colorado

Colorado rules we’ve verified

What facilities must do. Colorado's PACFA rules (effective July 15, 2025) require boarding/training, grooming and pet handler facilities to keep records of current rabies vaccination for dogs, cats and ferrets over 16 weeks old, current distemper and parvovirus vaccination for dogs over 8 weeks old, and current FVRCP vaccination for cats over 8 weeks old. A licensed veterinarian may exempt an animal in writing if the vaccine would endanger its life. [PACFA rules, 8 CCR 1202-15, § 19.5.3 (eff. July 15, 2025) — verified August 31, 2026]

Citations checked against primary sources on August 31, 2026. Laws change — verify anything you rely on with the authority itself.

What facilities in Colorado commonly require

Separately from any law, most grooming salons, daycares and boarding kennels set their own admission policy — and it is usually stricter than the legal minimum, because one sick dog can close a playroom for a week. Typical policies ask for:

Dogs: current rabies, DHPP (distemper–parvo combination), and bordetella (kennel cough) — with bordetella most strictly enforced by boarding and daycare, where dogs share air. Some facilities also ask for leptospirosis or canine influenza in areas that have seen outbreaks. Cats: current rabies and FVRCP.

Bring the certificate your veterinarian issued — the facility needs the expiry date printed on it, not just proof a shot happened. Some owners carry titer (antibody test) results instead of a booster; whether a facility accepts titers is that facility’s call, and many don’t for rabies.

Running a pet-care business in Colorado?

Whatever your policy is, the hard part is keeping proof of it current for every pet without chasing paper. VaxCheck gives you a QR code for the counter: owners type their own dates and photograph the certificate, your staff verifies once, owners get automatic reminders before anything expires, and check-in becomes a red / amber / green list. You can set the exact vaccines your policy requires, and it flags any pet missing one.

Pet owner in Colorado?

Keep every certificate in one place, get told before anything expires, and hand a copy to any groomer, daycare, kennel or sitter who asks — including one that has never heard of VaxCheck. They open a link, print what they need, and create nothing. Free, and there is no password to lose.

What a shop will ask you for, and how to have it ready · See your pet’s records