Bow Wows Dublin

Bow Wows Dublin ("we", "us", "our") is committed to protecting the privacy of our clients, their pets and visitors to our website. This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and what rights you have.

This Policy should be read alongside our Terms & Conditions and Service Policies. Where the two overlap, this Policy governs how we handle your personal data specifically.

1. Who We Are

Bow Wows Dublin is the data controller responsible for your personal information.

If you have any questions about this Policy or how we handle your data, please contact us using the details above.

2. What Personal Information We Collect

Depending on which services you use, we may collect:

About you (the client):

• name, address, phone number and email address;
• payment and billing details;
• emergency contact details;
• communications with us (email, phone, messages, booking notes);
• marketing preferences and consents.

About your pet:

• name, breed, age, size and coat details;
• health, medical, behavioural and dietary information you provide;
• veterinary practice details;
• photographs or videos taken during a service;
• care notes, incident records and service history.

About your property (where relevant, e.g. pet sitting or home boarding):

• access arrangements and instructions reasonably necessary to provide the service.

Automatically, if you use our website:

• device and browser information, IP address, and pages visited, typically via cookies or similar technologies (see Section 9).

We do not knowingly collect information from children, and our services are directed at adult pet owners.

3. Why We Use Your Information and Our Legal Basis

Purpose	Legal basis
Creating and managing bookings	Performance of a contract
Providing pet-care, grooming, walking, sitting, boarding and transport services	Performance of a contract
Contacting you about your booking or your pet's wellbeing	Performance of a contract / legitimate interests
Handling payments	Performance of a contract / legal obligation
Contacting your emergency contact or vet in a welfare emergency	Vital interests of your pet / legitimate interests
Maintaining pet and client care records	Legitimate interests / legal obligation
Meeting insurance, legal, tax or regulatory obligations	Legal obligation
Sending marketing communications (e.g. offers, appointment reminders you've opted into)	Consent
Using photos/videos for social media or advertising	Consent
Improving our website and services	Legitimate interests

Where we rely on consent (marketing, promotional photos/videos), you may withdraw that consent at any time by contacting us. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of anything already done before you withdrew it.

Some of the information you provide about your pet's health or behaviour is requested because it is reasonably necessary for us to provide the service safely — see Section 3 and 4 of our Terms & Conditions. Without it, we may not be able to accept or safely carry out a booking.

4. Who We Share Your Information With

We do not sell your personal information. We may share relevant information with:

• Veterinary providers, where reasonably necessary to protect your pet's welfare, including in an emergency;
• Payment processors, to process bookings and payments securely;
• Booking, scheduling or CRM software providers, who help us run appointments and client records;
• Insurance providers, where relevant to a claim or policy requirement;
• Emergency contacts you have nominated;
• Professional advisers (e.g. accountant, solicitor), where necessary;
• Regulatory or legal authorities, where we are required to by law.

Any third-party processing personal data on our behalf does so under a data processing agreement requiring them to protect it appropriately.

International transfers: We use Collar as our booking and client-management platform. Where Collar processes personal data on our behalf, it does so under appropriate data protection obligations. Personal data relating to EU customers is not transferred outside the European Economic Area.

5. How Long We Keep Your Information

We keep personal information only for as long as necessary for the purposes set out in this Policy, including to:

• maintain accurate pet and client care records for future bookings;
• meet legal, tax, accounting or insurance requirements;
• handle any complaint, claim or dispute.

As a general guide:

• Client and pet care records: retained for the duration of our relationship with you and for a reasonable period afterwards; unless a written request is made.
• Financial/payment records: retained for the period required by Irish tax law (generally six years).
• Marketing consents: retained if the customer maintains an active relationship with your business.
• CCTV/photos/videos: retained as long as the customer maintains an active relationship with your business.

If you ask us to delete your information, see Section 7 below — some records may need to be kept meeting a legal obligation even after such a request.

6. How We Protect Your Information

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse or disclosure, including restricting access to those who need it to provide your service and using reputable, secure third-party systems for storage and payment processing.

No system can be guaranteed completely secure, but we review our practices on an ongoing basis.

7. Your Rights

Under the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, you have the right to:

• access the personal information we hold about you;
• rectify inaccurate or incomplete information;
• erase your information in certain circumstances;
• restrict or object to certain processing, including direct marketing;
• data portability, where technically feasible;
• withdraw consent at any time, where processing is based on consent;
• complain to the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) if you believe we have not handled your information properly.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at hello@bowwowsdublin.com. We will respond within the timeframes required by law.

8. Photos, Videos & Marketing

As set out in our Terms & Conditions, we may take photos or videos during a service for care-related purposes (e.g. recording your pet's condition or documenting a groom). These are used for advertising, social media or promotional marketing only where you have given the appropriate marketing consent.

You can withdraw marketing consent at any time by contacting us; this will not affect material already used lawfully before you withdrew consent.

9. Cookies & Website Data

Our website may use cookies or similar technologies to:

• remember your preferences;
• understand how visitors use our site;
• support booking functionality.

We currently utilize Google Analytics to analyze site traffic and usage patterns, along with an integrated online booking widget to process reservations directly. A cookie consent banner is displayed upon your first visit to give you full control over accepting or declining non-essential tracking technologies.

You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or in the law. The current version will always be available on our website, and we will note the date it was last updated at the top of this page.

11. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal information, please contact: