Two dogs at the counter
A daycare owner has a family with two dogs standing at the counter. What should the membership cost, and what does the second dog get?
Most software only tells you about one answer, and usually after the complaint: someone assumed the second dog bought its own days, then discovered both dogs share one allowance. Three honest answers exist. This guide is about picking the right one before you publish the plan.
The one rule everything hangs off
Adding a pet does not add more included uses. All pets on the membership share the same allowance.
That sentence is not a gotcha. It is the product. Counters are per membership, not per pet. Booking both dogs on the same day draws two uses from the same allowance. Once you accept that, the three pricing shapes below become obvious.
Shape 1: one flat price
One price covers every pet on the owner's account, including pets added later.
This converts best because there are almost no rules for the owner to learn and zero mental maths at purchase. It is our default recommendation. Price it knowing a three-dog family pays the same as a one-dog family: if that feels too generous for your capacity, raise the base or choose shape 2 or 3 for that product line. Do not quietly hope people will only enrol one dog.
Shape 2: shared benefits plus an extra-pet amount
Frame this as covering the whole household, never as a penalty fee. The first pet pays the plan price; each extra pet adds an amount you set. Stripe bills it as one subscription.
It is exactly right when the plan's value is unlimited visits, an uncapped percentage or fixed discount, or something genuinely household-level (one home visit a week regardless of dog count). It is also right when you are recovering the real capacity cost of multi-dog households on an unlimited plan.
It is wrong when the value is capped inclusions each dog should get separately. A "$60 plan with 1 day a week, plus $45 for the second dog" still leaves the household sharing 1 day a week. That is the misread the plan builder tripwire warns about.
| Good fit | Poor fit |
|---|---|
| Unlimited benefits (e.g. unlimited daycare) | Capped inclusions each dog should get separately |
| Percentage or fixed discounts with no cap | "1 daycare day / week" meant as one day per dog |
| Household-level inclusions (e.g. 1 home visit regardless of dog count) | Any plan where both dogs using it the same day should both be included |
| Recovering capacity cost for multi-dog households |
The litmus question
If both dogs come in on the same day, do you charge for the second one?
If yes, the extra-pet amount (shape 2) fits. If no, the inclusions need to scale with pets, so skip to shape 3. Do not use shape 2 as a shortcut for "per dog days" - it will not deliver them.
Shape 3: household-size tiers
When each dog should get its own inclusions, sell a bigger plan sized for the household.
The recipe with numbers. Base plan $60/week with 1 daycare day. You would have charged $45 for the second dog. The two-dog tier is about $105/week with 2 days. Put the pet count in the name ("Walk Club - 1 Dog" / "Walk Club - 2 Dogs") so owners self-select in seconds.
Build the whole ladder in one pass with a group of plans (Memberships > Create Plan > A group of plans). An owner holds one membership with you at a time, so the tier is how a multi-dog household buys more - there is no second subscription workaround.
One honest note on shell count: tiers x billing cadences x pet counts grows fast. Only add the pet-count axis where each dog genuinely needs its own inclusions. Unlimited and discount plans usually stay on shape 1 or 2.
Running all three at once without confusing anyone
You can sell a flat daycare pass, a surcharge VIP unlimited, and a 1-dog / 2-dog walk ladder side by side. Pet owners should never need to know the framework exists.
What they should see: categories, one card per plan family, billing-cycle tabs, the pet count in the plan name, and an extra-pet line that reads as household coverage. What they should never see: scope jargon, your internal decision matrix, or a wall of "ifs and buts" about how you priced it.
If you have already priced it the other way
If the plan builder tripwire is telling you the surcharge looks like per-dog pricing, believe it. Two clean fixes:
- Drop the additional pet amount to genuine household-coverage money (well under half the base on a capped plan), or turn the surcharge off and keep one flat price.
- Convert the configuration into a two-dog tier: double the capped inclusions, set the price to about base plus what you would have charged the second dog, and name it for the household size.
Existing members stay on the price they signed up at when you change a plan's price. Moving a household onto a new tier is a Change Plan action, not an invisible rewrite of their allowance.
Build the shape that matches the day
Open Memberships in Petboost and build a single plan or a group of plans. If you want a sanity check on which shape fits your menu, speak with the team or start from the memberships feature page.
More depth: the complete memberships guide, daycare membership plans, memberships as recurring revenue, the maintenance grooming model, and pricing.