Home boarding or kennels in Canterbury?
Of the eleven dog boarding, day-care and home-boarding businesses listed for Canterbury, ten are licensed home boarders and one, Pet Lodge Boarding Kennels & Hydrotherapy Centre, runs a purpose-built boarding kennels. This is a home-boarding-led town: almost every business on this page keeps dogs in somebody's own house rather than in a kennel block.
What the one boarding kennels gives you
Pet Lodge Boarding Kennels & Hydrotherapy Centre, near Whitstable, is a purpose-built site with its own hydrotherapy centre alongside the kennels, plus dog training and canine first-aid classes. Its own site advises booking early because it often runs at high capacity, worth bearing in mind if you specifically want a kennels rather than a home boarder.
What Canterbury's home boarders give you
A home boarder means your dog lives in somebody's house instead, usually alongside far fewer other dogs than a kennels would board at once; the address is given once you book, not published here. Canterbury's ten home boarders are Muddy Pups, K9 Kindergarten and Handy Pet Services in the Sturry area, We Love Pets Canterbury & Whitstable based in the city centre, 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. Two of the ten, We Love Pets Canterbury & Whitstable and Barking Mad, are local branches of national franchises rather than sole operators, so ask which named person will actually be looking after your dog.
Which suits your dog
A kennels tends to suit a dog that is happy with its own space and a set routine, while a home boarder tends to suit a dog that finds a group of strange dogs stressful, or one that is used to living in a house rather than a run. Whitstable Dog Care and Muddy Pups both cap the number of dogs they take at once (five and eight respectively), which is worth asking any home boarder about directly since it affects how much individual attention your dog gets. Neither type is licensed to a higher standard than the other by default: Canterbury City Council licenses both boarding kennels and home boarding under the same register, so asking to see the certificate and star rating is the same question either way.
Specialist services alongside boarding
A few of Canterbury's home boarders combine boarding with another specialism: Bay Pawz is primarily a dog groomer that also holds a home-boarding licence, and Jenkins Canine Services and Red Lion Canines both pair boarding with dog training and behaviour work. If a specific extra service matters to you, ask directly how it fits around a boarding stay rather than assuming it is included.