Home boarding or kennels in Ashford and Tenterden?
Of the ten dog boarding, day-care and home-boarding businesses listed for Ashford and Tenterden, four run boarding kennels, four are home boarders, and two run a dedicated day-care site rather than either.
What a boarding kennels gives you
A boarding kennels means your dog has its own kennel and run on a site built for it, with set feeding and exercise times and more than one household's dogs on site at once. Ashford and Tenterden's four kennels are The Dog Lodge at Etchden Court Farm, Bethersden (licensed for up to 50 dogs, with 24-hour monitored CCTV), Haven Boarding Kennels & Cattery on Laws Lane (also a cattery, with its own on-site dog grooming salon), Ransley House Kennels and Cattery at Mersham, near Junction 10 of the M20 (licensed for up to 36 dogs and 12 cats, with collection and delivery), and Courtfield Kennels & Cattery in Great Chart, whose own site describes it as licensed and insured, though this couldn't be confirmed against the register checked for this listing.
What a home boarder gives you
A home boarder means your dog lives in somebody's house instead, usually alongside only one household's own dogs at a time; the exact address is given once you book, not published here. Ashford and Tenterden's four home boarders are Ashford Pet Care, run by Suzie, Brook Farm Home Boarding on a 30-acre farm, We Love Pets Ashford, the local branch of a national franchise covering Ashford, Kingsnorth, Charing, Challock, Shadoxhurst and Pluckley, and By the Bridge Home Dog Boarding, a small family-run service whose own site says it's licensed, though this too couldn't be confirmed against the register checked for this listing.
Which suits your dog
A kennels tends to suit a dog that's happy with its own space and a set routine, and there's often more room during a busy week simply because a kennels takes more dogs at once. A home boarder tends to suit a dog that finds a group of strange dogs stressful, or one that's used to living in a house rather than a run. Neither type is licensed to a higher standard than the other by default: Ashford Borough Council licenses both boarding kennels and home boarding under the same regulations, and asking to see the certificate is the same question either way.
The two day cares
Tails of the Lake and Lizzie's Dog School and Daycare don't fit either category: both are licensed for dog day care rather than overnight boarding, so they suit a dog that needs somewhere to spend a working day rather than a night away. See the companion guide on day care or boarding for more on how the two compare.
Extra services
A couple of Ashford and Tenterden's listed businesses offer more than boarding on the side: Haven Boarding Kennels & Cattery runs its own grooming salon, and We Love Pets Ashford also offers dog walking and general pet sitting alongside home boarding. If an extra service matters to you, ask directly whether it's available alongside a stay.
Capacity and how it's set
A licence sets the maximum number of dogs a business may keep at once, but a business can choose to run below that limit. The Dog Lodge and Ransley House Kennels and Cattery both publish their licensed capacity on their own council-facing records, at 50 and 36 dogs respectively; the smaller businesses here, including every home boarder and both day cares, don't publish a capacity figure at all, so ask directly how many dogs are typically on site when you're considering one of them.