Day care or boarding in Chelmsford?
Day care and overnight boarding solve different problems, and in Chelmsford several businesses offer both under one licence. Of the 17 dog boarding, day-care and home-boarding businesses listed here, five hold a day-care licence: Canine Advisory Ltd, Epic Tails, Golden Paws Essex, Little Doggy Daycare and Stan Dins Doggy Day Care.
When day care fits
Day care suits a dog that would otherwise be alone through a working day. Canine Advisory Ltd, based at a farm near Writtle, is the one day-care-only business here, open Monday to Friday from 7am to 6pm and closed on bank holidays, with no overnight boarding on its licence. The other four day-care providers also hold a home-boarding or boarding-kennels licence, so a dog could move between a day and a night away with the same business if needed: Epic Tails and Golden Paws Essex both combine day care with home boarding, Stan Dins Doggy Day Care does the same from its Broomfield-area base, and Little Doggy Daycare, in Chelmer Village, combines day care with overnight kennel boarding on the same purpose-built site.
When overnight boarding fits
The other 12 businesses listed for Chelmsford offer an overnight stay, either in a boarding kennels or in a home boarder's house, without day care as a separate service. That includes the three remaining boarding kennels, Bylake Boarding Kennels and Cattery, Harvesters Farm Kennels and The Fig Tree Kennels & Cattery, and nine home boarders, four of them run through a national franchise or matching network (Barking Mad, Home From Home, Petpals and We Love Pets) and five trading independently.
Ask which one you actually need
If you are not sure whether your dog needs a day or a night away, describe your situation directly to the business: how long the dog is away from you, whether it has stayed away from home before, and whether it needs medication or gets anxious around other dogs. Epic Tails specifically mentions taking older dogs and rescues that would find a busier day care overwhelming, which is worth raising if that describes your dog.
Collection for day care
L B Pet Service runs a collection and drop-off round reaching into Brentwood as well as the CM3 villages, and Pooches And Me includes pick-up and drop-off as part of its day care and home boarding from its base in the CM3 villages. Not every business here runs a collection round, so ask directly if a daily drive to a day-care site is what would put you off day care altogether.
Cats and other pets
Two of Chelmsford's boarding kennels, Bylake Boarding Kennels and Cattery and The Fig Tree Kennels & Cattery, also board cats, and Bylake takes parrots and other small furry pets too. If you need cover for more than one kind of pet at the same time, ask directly whether a business can take both under one booking.