How to choose dog boarding or day care in Cambridge

Twenty dog boarders, day cares and kennels are listed for Cambridge, across three licensing councils: Cambridge City Council for the core CB1 to CB5 districts, East Cambridgeshire District Council for Ely and the wider district sharing the CB6 and CB7 postcodes, and South Cambridgeshire District Council for the villages sharing Cambridge's outer postcode districts around Histon and Sawston. Thirteen board or care for dogs from the boarder's own home, six run boarding kennels, and two run day care from a dedicated site (one of the six kennels, Meow Bow Wow Country Hotel for Cats & Dogs, also runs day care). Trumpington has no listed business at all: a dedicated search found nothing, and this may be a genuine gap or a limit of the registers checked, rather than there being no service at all nearby. Chesterton also has no listed business: the one register entry found there has no confirmed phone number, so it is not published.

Home boarding, kennels or day care

Thirteen businesses board dogs in the boarder's own home rather than a kennel block, all shown here by area and town only, never by street or village, since a home boarder's address is theirs to give you once you book: Paws Doggy Day Care, Carol Ford Bespoke Pet Service and Gundog Training, Catherine Adams Pet Sitting, Falkor Dog Boarding and Little Critters Pet Services in the Ely area; Home from Home in the Cambridge area; The Hound Dog Hotel, Lingwood Dog Day Care, Norman's Dog Day Care and Oscar & Co in the Histon area; Penny's From Heaven and We Love Pets South Cambridgeshire in the Sawston area; and Cambridge Paws in the Cherry Hinton area. 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. Cloverleigh Dog Boarding Kennels, Mitchells Farm Boarding Kennels, Third Bridge Holiday Home for Dogs, Amberlea Country Kennels & Cattery, Cosy Kennels & Cattery and Meow Bow Wow Country Hotel for Cats & Dogs run boarding kennels in the Ely area, all from a dedicated site with individual kennels rather than a private home; three of these, Amberlea, Cosy and Meow Bow Wow, also run a cattery alongside the dog kennels. Oakington Dog Day Care Centre, in the Histon area, and Meow Bow Wow both run day care from a dedicated site rather than a home.

What the council licence means

Every business listed here holds, or states it holds, a current council licence: a licence is a legal requirement in England for dog boarding, home boarding and day care, not an optional extra. East Cambridgeshire District Council's own register carries no address field at all, so every East Cambridgeshire licence in this file — eleven of the twenty listed here — is shown under the single "Ely" area, which in practice covers the whole East Cambridgeshire district, not literally Ely town itself. South Cambridgeshire's licences here are taken from a national licensing aggregator rather than the council's own register, which was not reachable directly this round; most of these records carry a licence type and council name but no star rating or expiry date, since the aggregator's summary page does not always show one. Cambridge Paws states on its own site that it holds a Cambridge City Council licence, but no matching entry was found on the register checked, so no licence block is shown for this listing; ask the business directly about this before booking. Where a council has issued a star rating, it runs from 1 to 5 and is shown on the listing; this is the council's own inspection score, not a customer review, so treat it the way you would a food hygiene rating rather than a Google star.

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 an independently confirmed insurance position, so ask rather than assume an answer either way.

Prices and extras

Seven of the twenty businesses listed publish a price; see our Cambridge 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.