How to choose dog boarding or day care in Bristol

Twenty-five dog boarders, day cares and kennels are listed for Bristol, spread across Bedminster and Southville (6), Fishponds, Kingswood and Longwell Green (10), Filton and Bradley Stoke (4), Portishead (3), Clifton and Redland (1) and Keynsham (1). Bristol city centre and Harbourside currently has none: a genuine gap on Bristol City Council's own register, most likely because it is a dense city-centre postcode with little private garden space for a home boarder or a kennel run, not a research failure. Four different councils cover the seven areas — Bristol City Council, South Gloucestershire Council, North Somerset Council and Bath and North East Somerset Council — and, as explained below, they publish very different amounts of information.

Home boarding, day care or kennels

Twenty-one of the twenty-five businesses board dogs in the boarder's own home rather than a kennel block or a dedicated day-care site: five of the six in Bedminster and Southville (all but Walks with the Pack), eight of the ten in Fishponds, Kingswood and Longwell Green, all four in Filton and Bradley Stoke, The Dog Retreat in Clifton and Redland, and all three in Portishead. A home boarder usually takes far fewer dogs at a time than a kennel, so ask how many other dogs will be in the house during your dates, and whether they are all from one family or several. Wag Tails Doggy Day Care, in a converted forge in Stapleton, and Walks with the Pack, running small groups from a Bedminster and Southville base, offer day care rather than boarding, without living in the boarder's own home. Cottage Kennels & Cattery near Hambrook and Latchets Kennels & Cattery near Keynsham are the town's two boarding kennels, both also boarding cats alongside dogs.

What the council licence means, and why it differs by area

A licence is a legal requirement in England for dog boarding, home boarding and day care, not an optional extra, but how easy it is to check one varies sharply here. Bristol City Council publishes its own register with a star rating for every entry it lists, and its licensing covers seventeen of the twenty-five entries on this page. Sixteen of those seventeen businesses are shown here with a licence confirmed directly against that published register. The seventeenth, Walks with the Pack, is not: the council's own register states plainly that no other premises are licensed for animal boarding beyond those it lists, and this business does not appear in it, so no licence block is shown for it here even though another site online makes a claim about one — only the council's own record is used. South Gloucestershire Council, North Somerset Council and Bath and North East Somerset Council do not publish an accessible public register at all for the areas this page covers. The remaining eight businesses rely on a licence number the business states about itself, which is recorded here as its own claim rather than an independently checked fact: four in Filton and Bradley Stoke or Fishponds, Kingswood and Longwell Green, three in Portishead, and Latchets Kennels & Cattery in Keynsham. None of these self-stated licences comes with a star rating here, since a rating is only shown once it is read from a published council register. Where a council rating is shown, it is the council's own inspection score, tied to how often the business is reinspected, and should be read the way you would a food hygiene rating rather than a customer review.

Questions worth asking about vaccinations, breed rules and insurance

None of these are things this directory can answer on a business's behalf; they are worth putting to the business directly before you book.

• 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 is medication given during a stay, and is there an extra charge for it?
• What happens if my dog needs a vet while in your care?

None of the businesses listed here publish a vaccination schedule or a stated insurance position beyond what appears on their own licence or website, so ask rather than assume an answer either way.

Prices and extras

Seven of the twenty-five businesses listed publish a price; see our Bristol 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 is included or priced separately.