How to choose dog boarding or day care in Ashford and Tenterden

Ten dog boarders, day cares and kennels are listed for Ashford and Tenterden, all within Ashford Borough Council's single licensing area. Four are home boarders, four run boarding kennels from a dedicated site, and two run day care. What matters most when choosing depends on which of these you need.

Home boarding, day care or kennels

Four businesses board dogs in the boarder's own home rather than a kennel or day-care building: Ashford Pet Care, run by Suzie in the Ashford area; We Love Pets Ashford, a franchise branch covering Ashford North and Kennington and surrounding villages; Brook Farm Home Boarding, on a 30-acre farm in the Ashford Villages and Wye area, which also holds a day-care licence; and By the Bridge Home Dog Boarding, also in the same area. As with any home boarder, only the area and town are shown on the listing, not a street address; ask how many other dogs will be in the house during your dates, and whether they are all from one family or several. The Dog Lodge (registered as Etchden Kennels, near Bethersden), Haven Boarding Kennels & Cattery (Laws Lane), Ransley House Kennels and Cattery (Mersham) and Courtfield Kennels & Cattery (Great Chart) run boarding kennels from a dedicated site; Haven, Ransley House and Courtfield also take cats alongside dogs. Lizzie's Dog School and Daycare, in Bilsington, and Tails of the Lake, in Woodchurch, run day care rather than overnight boarding; Lizzie's combines this with one-to-one dog training.

Ashford North and Kennington is thin

Ashford North and Kennington has only one listed business, We Love Pets Ashford, a home-boarding and dog-walking franchise branch with no fixed premises of its own. No day care or boarding-kennels business with a confirmed phone number was found in this area during research. If you are in Kennington and need a kennels or a dedicated day care rather than a home boarder, the nearest listed choices are in the Ashford or Ashford Villages and Wye areas.

What the council licence tells you here

Ashford Borough Council's register was checked for this page only through animal-licensing.uk, a third-party mirror of the council's own register, not the council's own published pages, so no star rating is shown on any Ashford listing here even where the mirror itself carries one — treat any star rating you see quoted elsewhere with some caution and ask to see the current certificate. Eight of the ten businesses have a current licence confirmed on the mirror. One of those, We Love Pets Ashford, quotes a different licence number on its own branch page to the one the mirror gives for the same operator; the number shown on this listing is the mirror's, since that is the register this page checked. The remaining two, By the Bridge Home Dog Boarding and Courtfield Kennels & Cattery, both say on their own websites that they are licensed by Ashford Borough Council, but neither could be matched to an operator on the mirror checked here. This does not mean either is unlicensed, only that this research pass could not confirm it independently; ask both businesses directly for their licence number and check it yourself on the council's register.

Questions to ask

• What vaccinations do you require, and how long before the stay do you need to see proof of them?
• Do you have a policy on kennel cough, and what is it?
• Do you have any breed restrictions or conditions, including for an XL Bully with a valid exemption certificate?
• Are you insured, and can you show evidence of current cover?
• How many other dogs will be there during my dates, and from how many households?
• What happens if my dog needs a vet while it is in your care?

None of the businesses listed here publish a vaccination schedule or a stated insurance position beyond what appears on their own site or licence, so these are questions to put directly to the business, not answers this directory can give on its behalf.

Prices

Two of the ten businesses listed publish a price; see our Ashford and Tenterden prices guide for the published figures and what they cover. Whichever type of boarding or day care you choose, ask what a second dog from the same household costs, whether bank holidays are charged at a higher rate, and whether collection outside normal hours is included or priced separately.