Pet vaccination rules for boarding & grooming in Iowa

Iowa rules we’ve verified

What facilities must do. Iowa requires licensed boarding and commercial kennels — a class that expressly includes grooming and training businesses — to keep written veterinary documentation of distemper, parvo and rabies vaccination, or a written exemption, on file for 12 months for each animal boarded, groomed or trained. Vaccine titers are not accepted as verification. Dog day cares are licensed as a subclassification of a boarding or commercial kennel, so this rule applies to them too, with r. 21—67.8 adding further requirements. [Iowa Admin. Code r. 21—67.7(1); definitions at r. 21—67.1; day care at r. 21—67.8(2) — verified August 31, 2026]

Record keeping. Vaccine records and exemptions must be kept on file for 12 months for each animal boarded, groomed or trained. Iowa is one of the few states whose record rule reaches grooming, not only boarding. [Iowa Admin. Code r. 21—67.7(1)(b) — 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 Iowa 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 Iowa?

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 Iowa?

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