Day care or boarding in Brighton?
Day care and overnight boarding solve different problems, and in Brighton most of the businesses listed do both: sixteen of the seventeen dog day care, home boarding and boarding-kennel businesses here offer some form of day care alongside overnight or home boarding, and one, Little Bones in Southwick, offers day care only, for small dogs, with no overnight stays at all.
Day care
Day care is a booked day rather than a night: your dog goes in after breakfast and comes home at teatime, either in a small group at a home boarder's house or, for Little Bones, in a dedicated garden setting for small dogs. It suits a dog that would otherwise be alone through a working day, and it is licensed in its own right in England, so ask to see the day-care licence as well as where your dog will spend the day.
Overnight boarding or home boarding
Overnight and home boarding cover your dog staying the night, whether for one night or a fortnight. Fifteen of the seventeen businesses here board dogs in the boarder's own home rather than a kennel block, and the other, Benwick Kennels & Cattery near Peacehaven, runs purpose-built kennels and a cattery on around five acres. A home boarder usually takes far fewer dogs at once than a kennels, so ask how many others will be there during your dates and from how many households.
Which to choose
If your dog just needs company and exercise during the working day and goes home to sleep in its own bed, day care is the simpler option. If you are away overnight or longer, you need boarding, and the choice between a home boarder and a kennels comes down to whether your dog would rather have the run of a house with one family's dogs, or its own space in a kennel block among more dogs overall. One business can often cover a single busy week and a fortnight's holiday alike.
The sixteen offering both
These sixteen businesses combine day care with overnight or home boarding, so the same call can sort out a working week and a longer holiday: Barker's Dogs, Beach Barkers Pet Services, Brighton Barkers, Dog Star, FURB&B (FurBee Dog Holidays), Nordic Paws, Paws at Home, Pix's Paradise, Positive Paws at Zoe's, Snobby Doggy, Wendy's Walk & Board, Waggy Days, Sticks and Tricks, Mystery Paws, Waves & Waggy Tails and Benwick Kennels & Cattery. Not every one of them takes a dog for both a single day and a fortnight on the same terms, so confirm what each actually offers for the length of stay you need.
Where to look next
See our guide to choosing a boarder in Brighton for the full list by area, and our Brighton prices guide for the one published price found among these seventeen businesses.