Home boarding or kennels in Derby?
Eleven of Derby's twenty-four listed businesses are home boarders, licensed to look after dogs in the operator's own house rather than a purpose-built kennel block; the other thirteen run kennels, a cattery, or a dedicated day-care premises. The two are licensed separately in England, and neither is simply a cheaper or more expensive version of the other: they suit different dogs and different owners.
Home boarding
A home boarder usually takes far fewer dogs at a time than a kennels, often just one household's dogs alongside their own, so your dog gets somebody's sofa, garden and daily routine instead of a kennel run. Derby's home boarders are Furbelicious Paws (Alvaston & Boulton), Pretty Paws Parlour (Allestree), One Paw Ahead (Littleover), Melmo Home Boarding and Imperial Canine (both Belper), Hound Dog Haven, Pet Walk N Stay and K9 Doggy Daycare UK (all Ilkeston), and Poochie Play Centre (Chaddesden), which also runs day care from a separate premises. We Love Paws and Barking Mad Derby arrange home boarding through a network of host families rather than boarding dogs themselves. Because a home boarder's licence is issued to a person at an address, this directory names their area and town only, not a street. See our home boarding service page for how it works generally.
Boarding kennels
A boarding kennels is purpose-built accommodation away from anyone's living room, with an individual kennel and run, set feeding and exercise times, and staff on site. Derby's kennels include End Cottage Kennels and Barker's Retreat in the derby-centre and chaddesden areas, Longcroft Boarding Kennels & Cattery in Mickleover, Brookfield Farm Kennels & Cattery in Spondon, Kilburn K9's in Belper, Dogs R Us, Columbine Farm Kennels, Barkingham Palace Animal Hotel and Castlefield Kennels in Ilkeston, and Covert Canine Centre, Coppice Kennels and Cattery, and Ash Farm Boarding Kennels and Daycare in Chellaston & Melbourne. A kennels generally has more capacity than a home boarder, so is more often able to fit in a last-minute or school-holiday booking. See our boarding kennels service page for more on how kennels generally work.
Which suits your dog
A dog that settles well in a family home, or that would find a run stressful, is often better suited to home boarding; a dog that is boisterous with strangers, or one whose owner prefers it kept apart from a family's own pets, may do better in a kennels. Ask either kind of business how many other dogs will be there during your dates, and, for a home boarder, whether any are from a different household to yours, and how the two groups are kept apart during the day.
Both kinds of business need the same council licence checks: see our council licences and star ratings guide for how Derby's four councils differ.