How to choose dog boarding or day care in Canterbury

Eleven dog boarders, day cares and kennels are listed for Canterbury, all of them licensed by Canterbury City Council. Ten are home boarders — Muddy Pups and K9 Kindergarten in Sturry, Handy Pet Services also in the Sturry area, We Love Pets Canterbury & Whitstable based in the city centre but covering Whitstable and Herne Bay too, Jenkins Canine Services, Milo & Co, Red Lion Canines and Whitstable Dog Care in the Whitstable area, and Bay Pawz and Barking Mad (Canterbury & Herne Bay) in Herne Bay. One, Pet Lodge Boarding Kennels & Hydrotherapy Centre near Whitstable, runs purpose-built boarding kennels rather than home boarding. What matters most when choosing depends on which of the two suits your dog.

Home boarding or kennels

A home boarder takes your dog into their own house, usually alongside far fewer other dogs than a kennels would board at once; the address is not published here and is given once you book. Muddy Pups caps its day care at eight dogs a day even though its licence also covers home boarding, and Whitstable Dog Care caps its home boarding and day care at five dogs at a time. Pet Lodge Boarding Kennels & Hydrotherapy Centre, by contrast, is a purpose-built site at Bogshole Farm near Whitstable with a separate hydrotherapy centre alongside the kennels, and its own site currently advises booking early because it often runs at high capacity. Two of the ten home boarders, We Love Pets Canterbury & Whitstable and Barking Mad (Canterbury & Herne Bay), are local franchises of national brands rather than sole operators, so ask which named person will actually be looking after your dog.

What Canterbury City Council's register shows

Every business listed holds a current licence from Canterbury City Council, which publishes its own public register grouping licensed catteries, kennels and home boarding businesses. The register gives a trading name, postcode and a star rating from 1 to 5, but — unlike some other councils' registers — it shows no licence number and no expiry date for any entry. Where a business quotes a licence number on its own site, as Handy Pet Services, We Love Pets Canterbury & Whitstable and Barking Mad (Canterbury & Herne Bay) each do, that number is not one the council's own register publishes, so it is stated here as the business's own claim rather than a confirmed register fact. The star rating itself is the council's own inspection score, not a customer review, and should be read the way you would a food hygiene rating rather than a Google star. Of the eleven, four hold a 5-star rating (Muddy Pups, We Love Pets Canterbury & Whitstable, Jenkins Canine Services and Barking Mad, all home boarders), two hold 4 stars (Whitstable Dog Care and Bay Pawz), and the remaining five, including Pet Lodge's boarding kennels licence, hold 3 stars.

Areas with little or nothing listed

Coverage is uneven across the town's seven defined areas. Whitstable & Tankerton has the most listings, with five; Sturry, Blean, Rough Common & Hersden has three; Herne Bay has two; and Canterbury city centre has only one, We Love Pets Canterbury & Whitstable, which is based there but named for its wider coverage. Wincheap, and Chartham & Chartham Hatch, and Bridge, Bossingham & Barham currently have no business listed with a confirmed phone number, so if you are in one of those areas, it is worth calling Canterbury City Council directly and asking for its current list of licensed boarders, since a genuinely local operator can take time to appear in research like this.

Questions worth asking

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 many other dogs, and from how many other households, will be there during my dates?
• 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 their licence or website, so ask rather than assume an answer either way. See our Canterbury prices guide for what the four businesses that publish a price actually charge.