Home boarding or kennels in Cheltenham?

Home boarding and boarding kennels both mean an overnight stay away from your own house, but the setting is genuinely different, and Cheltenham and the north Cotswolds are overwhelmingly a home-boarding town: twenty of the twenty-six businesses listed here are home boarders, against two dedicated boarding kennels and four day-care-only or grooming-led businesses.

What a home boarder actually is

A home boarder is licensed to board dogs in their own house: your dog joins their household, sleeping in the same rooms, on the same routine, usually alongside far fewer other dogs at once than a kennels would take. Smudgers Mutts, Walk 'n' Stay, On Howliday, We Love Pets Cheltenham, Kerry's K9s, Hurcombe Hounds and Picture Pawfect all board from Cheltenham centre this way, alongside Bright Eyes Dog Care, Canine Country Club Cotswolds, Whoswalkingme and Find The Lead in Cheltenham west, Watson Pet Care, Odi's Oldies, Paws4ward Dog Care, Our Dog Walkers and S&J Dog Walking around Prestbury and Bishops Cleeve, Hounds and Hunters and Barney's Buddies in Charlton Kings and Leckhampton, and The Cotswold Pet Companion in Bourton-on-the-Water. Because a home boarder's premises is their own house, we show these listings by area and town only, never a street address; the business gives you that when you book, in the same way it would to any new client.

What a kennels or a site-based business is

A kennels is purpose-built, away from anyone's living room: individual runs, set feeding and exercise times, and staff working set hours rather than living alongside the dogs. Cheltenham Animal Shelter, run by the animal welfare charity GAWA, combines boarding kennels, a cattery and a dog day creche and holds the largest combined capacity on Cheltenham Borough Council's register at 48 dogs and 12 cats. Longhills Farm Boarding Kennels & Cattery, in Chipping Campden, is the other dedicated kennels here, though it could not be matched to a council register during our research. Three further businesses — The Dog Day Care Club, Shorty and Co, Bolts Buddies and Passion Grooms — run day care from a fixed site without offering an overnight stay at all.

Which suits your dog

A dog that is anxious in a group, or that would rather have the run of a house than share space with several unfamiliar dogs, often does better with a home boarder. A dog that is highly sociable, or whose owner would rather it had its own dedicated space and a stricter routine, might suit a kennels better. Neither is objectively "better" — it depends on the individual dog.

• How many other dogs will be in the house, or the kennels, during my dates?
• If it's a home boarder, will my dog have its own space to retreat to?
• What happens if my dog doesn't settle in the first day or two?

See our day care or boarding guide if what you actually need is a booked day rather than an overnight stay.