How to use Leashnote

The owner's guide, in the order you'll do things: set up your pets, build a guide for one trip, share it, and follow along while you're away.

Sitting for someone else? Read the page for sitters instead.

Before you start

You need an iPhone or iPad on iOS 17 or later. Download Leashnote free from the App Store.
To share with a sitter, be signed in to iCloud in the Settings app. Sharing goes through your own iCloud account, not through any Leashnote server. Settings in Leashnote shows whether iCloud is signed in.
To try it first, tap Explore a sample guide on the first screen. It's a finished guide for a dog named Biscuit that you can poke at and delete.

Set up My Pets

On first launch, Leashnote asks about your pets. Each profile is filled in once and reused on every trip.

Name is the only required field. Everything else can wait.
Food and medication with times. These become the sitter's daily timeline.
Quirks tagged Never, Careful, Loves, or FYI. Never rules are pinned to the top of the sitter's view and the PDF.
Allergies, microchip, insurance, vaccines with due dates. Leashnote reminds you two weeks before each vaccine is due, and sitters see them in case of a vet visit.
A photo, picked with the system photo picker. It goes on the guide, the PDF, and the lost pet flyer.

Pets are backed up to a private area of your iCloud so they come back on a new iPhone. Nobody else can see this backup. Tap Back up pets now in Settings if you want to force it.

Lost pet flyer

Open a pet in My Pets and tap Lost pet flyer. Leashnote makes a printable poster with their photo, description, and your phone number. Add a profile photo first for the best result.

Editing a pet later

Change a pet in My Pets, or inside any trip, and the update flows to every trip that hasn't ended yet. If that trip is already shared, you'll see a banner to push the change to your sitter.

Create a trip

A trip is one guide for one stay. Tap Create your first guide, or the plus button, and answer:

Who's staying home? Every saved pet starts ticked. Untick any that are coming with you.
Leaving and back dates. These drive the daily checklist, the countdown, and when door codes are visible.
Sitter names. Naming your sitters is what lets the share link lock itself once they've all opened it. A backup sitter, dog walker, or neighbour can be added too with Plus.

Fill in the guide

The guide is split into sections. Every field has a friendly icon, and most are optional. Fill in what a stranger would need to care for your pets for a week.

Routine

Feeding, medication, walks, litter, and anything else with a time of day. Each becomes a row in the sitter's timeline, with a Next marker during the day. Include amounts and where things are kept, like "1 cup, blue bag in the pantry."

Quirks

The things only you know. Tag each one:

Tag	Use it for	Where it shows
Never	Rules that keep a pet safe. "Never let him near the cat's food."	Pinned at the very top of the sitter's view and the PDF
Careful	Things that need attention. "Pulls hard when he sees squirrels."	Highlighted in the pet's section
Loves	The nice stuff. "Belly rubs after dinner."	In the pet's section
FYI	Good to know. "Sleeps under the bed during storms."	In the pet's section

Emergency card

Your emergency vet, regular vet, poison control, and you. On the sitter's phone each one is a single tap to call. Also add:

Spending limit you've approved for vet care, so a sitter isn't guessing at 2am.
Where the carrier is, and pet insurance details.
A backup contact who can make decisions if you can't be reached.

ASPCA Animal Poison Control is included by default. It's a US service that charges a consultation fee. Replace it with your local poison line if you're elsewhere.

House info

Wi-Fi, the thermostat, trash day, where the spare leash lives, and the door and alarm codes.

About codes. On the sitter's guide, codes stay hidden until tapped, appear only from the day before your trip until it ends, and re-hide after a screenshot or during screen recording. No app can stop someone writing a code down, so change your codes after each sit. Most smart locks let you make a temporary code just for the sitter.

Preview and readiness

At the top of each guide is a readiness ring with a short list of what sitters usually look for that you haven't filled in yet, like a vet number or a feeding time. You don't have to reach 100%. It's a nudge, not a gate.

Tap Preview sitter's view to see exactly what your sitter will see, including today's checklist and the emergency card.

Tap Send to your sitter. Leashnote creates a private area in your iCloud for this guide and gives you a link and a QR code. The first link takes a few seconds.

Send the link by Messages, or let your sitter scan the QR code at handoff.
Your sitter opens it on an iPhone with the free Leashnote app and the guide appears under You're sitting for. They need to be signed in to iCloud too.
Watch who has it. The share sheet lists Who has this guide as people open the link.

The link locks itself

The link starts open to anyone who has it, then locks automatically once as many people as you named as sitters have opened it. After that a forwarded link does nothing. You can tap Lock link now early, or Unlock to let someone else in if a backup sitter needs access later.

Updating after you share

Edit anything and a banner appears on the guide. Tap Update sitter's guide to push the changes. Your sitter sees them the next time the app refreshes. Updating an already-shared guide is always free.

Stop sharing

Open the link sheet and tap Stop sharing. The sitter loses access, and the shared copy, check-ins, and photos are deleted from iCloud. Leashnote reminds you to change your door and alarm codes. Links are also cleaned up automatically 30 days after a trip ends.

What's free

Your first shared trip is free. After that, unlimited sharing is part of Leashnote Plus. The sitter's side is always free, and so is updating a guide you've already shared.

Send as PDF

For a sitter without an iPhone, or to leave on the counter, tap Send as PDF. You get a paginated, printable guide with:

Never rules on the first page, then each pet with photo, routine, quirks, and vaccines.
A checkbox list for every day of the trip.
The emergency card and house info.
A signable vet authorization letter with your spending limit, microchip numbers, and your vet's details.

Leashnote asks whether to include door and alarm codes. They're left out by default, because a PDF can't be taken back. Send it by Messages, Mail, or AirDrop, or print it from the share sheet.

With Plus, the Custom PDF option adds a cover page with your pets' photos and a colour of your choice. Tap Preview & share the PDF from the branding screen.

While you're away

Check-ins

When your sitter sends a check-in you get a notification with the mood, the sitter's name, a photo if they added one, and their note. Tap it to open that guide's feed, where check-ins are grouped by day. Tap a photo to see it full screen.

Only the actions your sitter chooses to send reach you: check-ins and medication doses marked Given. Ticking off other tasks stays on their phone. Leashnote never tracks a sitter's location, and photos are sent without location data.

Medication tracker Plus

Each medication time becomes a dose alert on the sitter's phone, even if they haven't turned on general reminders. When they tap Given, you get a confirmation. If a dose hasn't been confirmed 30 minutes after it was due, you get a gentle nudge.

Daily recap Plus

Turn on Daily recap in Settings and pick a time. Each evening of a shared trip you get one notification with the day's check-ins, tasks done, doses, and the latest note. The recap screen in the app shows today for everyone, and past days with Plus.

Trip schedule Plus

Before the trip, the guide shows a countdown. During it, the sitter's checklist switches on. When it ends, you and the sitter both get a trip-ended summary with check-ins, tasks, photos, and doses.

Home Screen widget Plus

Add the Leashnote widget to see today's check-ins without opening the app. The sitter gets a Lock Screen Live Activity with their next task.

Add to Calendar

Tap Add to Calendar to put the trip on your calendar as an all-day event. Leashnote asks for write-only calendar access, only when you use this.

After the trip

Change your codes. Leashnote reminds you when the trip ends and when you stop sharing.
Duplicate for next trip keeps the pets, contacts, and house info, with fresh dates and no link.
Save as template Plus saves a guide to start future trips from in one tap. Templates appear on the home screen with the Leaving date picker above them.
Delete a trip by swiping its card or using the long-press menu. Deleting also stops any sharing. Swipe needs iOS 27; the long-press menu works everywhere.

Trips you write live on the phone you wrote them on. Only shared copies and your My Pets backup are in iCloud, so sync of unshared trips between your own devices isn't available yet.

Settings

Setting	What it does
You	Your name and phone. Used on guides you write, lost pet flyers, and check-ins you send when you're the sitter.
Appearance	Light is free. Dark and Match iPhone come with Plus.
Daily recap	The end-of-day notification and its time. Needs notifications turned on for Leashnote.
Purchase	What Plus includes, and `Restore purchase` if you've bought it on another device.
Sharing	Your iCloud sign-in status and when My Pets was last backed up.

Stuck on something? See Support.