How Bradford's council licenses dog boarders
Every one of the ten dog boarders, kennels and catteries listed for Bradford is licensed, or has been licensed, by City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018. That licence covers the LS29 postcodes around Ilkley, Menston, Addingham and Burley in Wharfedale too, even though the postcode itself is a Leeds prefix: those addresses sit inside the Bradford district, not the Leeds one, so Bradford MBC is the licensing authority for the whole area this page covers.
Where the register actually lives
Bradford's own council website does not publish a searchable licence register: its pages explain how to apply for a licence, but do not list who already holds one. The register actually used for this page is run by a separate operator, published as part of the wider "animal-licensing.uk" family of sites under the domain aws.scoresonthedoors.org.uk, branded "Paws on the Doors." It is a third-party mirror of the council's licensing data rather than a page the council runs itself, and its own detail pages record when each entry was last refreshed from Bradford MBC.
Why no star rating is shown here
Where an English council issues a public star rating for animal boarding, alongside the licence itself, this site shows it as a separate "council licence rating" line, kept clearly apart from any customer review rating. Bradford is different: because the working register for this town is a third-party mirror rather than a page published directly by the council, no star score is shown on any Bradford listing here. The licence number and expiry date shown on each Bradford listing come from that mirror and are worth double-checking against the current licence itself, which is why our questions to ask guide suggests asking to see it in person.
A licence does not always mean a listing here
The council's own register lists many more licensed home boarders across the district than currently appear on this page. Most of those additional entries hold a genuine, current licence but have no independently checkable website, social media page or phone number that this directory could confirm, so, per our own rule of only publishing a business with a confirmed phone, they are not listed yet. That is a gap in what we can independently confirm, not a sign that Bradford has fewer licensed home boarders than it does.
Lapsed dates worth asking about
Two of the ten businesses listed here, Morton Villa Pet Hotel and Sunnymead Ltd, currently show a recorded licence expiry on the register that has already passed. Neither appears to have closed, and a lapsed register date often just means a renewal has not yet reached the published snapshot, but it is a good reason to ask to see the current, valid licence certificate before booking either one, rather than relying on any date shown online.
For the questions worth asking about a licence, vaccinations and group size before you book, see our Bradford questions to ask guide.