How to choose dog boarding or day care in Bracknell and Crowthorne

Fourteen dog boarders, day cares and kennels are listed across Bracknell and Crowthorne's four areas. Twelve are home boarders, taking your dog into their own house rather than a kennel block; the other two run from a premises. Thirteen of the fourteen sit under Bracknell Forest Council's licensing area; the fourteenth, Claire's Canines, is licensed by Hart District Council on the Yateley side of the Sandhurst and Yateley area.

Home boarding or a premises business

In the Bracknell area, eight businesses are home boarders: Berkshire Canine Company, 4 Paws and Pals, The Little Pup Lodge, Poochies Palace, Active Paws, Amy's Animal Allsorts, Tails on Trails and Bravo Dog Training. Crowthorne has one, Katy's K9s. Sandhurst and Yateley has three: The Dog Boss, Happy Dogz and Catz and Claire's Canines. Ascot and Sunningdale has no business confirmed with a live phone number in this research pass. The remaining two listings run from a fixed site rather than a home: Ryslip Group Ltd, a long-established boarding kennels and cattery near Binfield that also offers pet travel, export and quarantine services, and Hot Dogs Grooming and Doggy Day Care, a day care and grooming business in Warfield that closes for day care on Saturdays. A home boarder is shown by area and town only on its listing; the address is given once you book.

What the council licence tells you here

Ten of the fourteen listings currently carry a live Council licence block, confirming a current dog home boarding or day care licence with a number and an expiry date. Two more, Ryslip Group Ltd and Katy's K9s, could not be matched to a register entry under their trading name, so no licence block is shown for either; ask both directly for their current licence position. Two further licences on record, for 4 Paws and Pals and Amy's Animal Allsorts, have passed their recorded expiry date with no renewal found, so their blocks have dropped from the listing until a current licence is confirmed — ask either business to show a valid, in-date licence before booking. None of the three councils covering this town's postcode districts (Bracknell Forest Council, Hart District Council and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead) has adopted the third-party register we read from as its own, so no star rating is shown on any Bracknell or Crowthorne listing, even where that register records one; treat every licence here as confirmed by its number and expiry only, not by a score.

Questions worth asking

• 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?
• How many other dogs, and from how many households, will be in the house or kennels during my dates?
• How is medication given during a stay, and what happens if my dog needs a vet while in your care?

None of the businesses listed here publish a vaccination schedule or an insurance position beyond their licence, so these are questions to put to the business directly, not answers this directory can give on its behalf. See our prices guide for why no figures are published locally and what to ask about cost.

Thin areas

Crowthorne and Ascot and Sunningdale are the two weakest areas in this research pass. Crowthorne's only listing, Katy's K9s, has no matched register entry, so its licence status is unconfirmed rather than absent. Ascot and Sunningdale has no listed business at all: the one local licence holder found there, Just Pawz, has no confirmed phone number and so is not published under this directory's phone rule. If you are in either area, it is worth calling Bracknell Forest Council or the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead directly and asking for their current list of licensed home boarders, day cares and kennels.