How to choose dog boarding or day care in Dudley and Stourbridge

Twelve dog boarders, day care providers and boarding kennels are listed across Dudley and Stourbridge's five areas, licensed under three different councils: Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council for Dudley & Sedgley, Kingswinford and most of Stourbridge; South Staffordshire Council for kennels and home boarders around Himley, Kinver and other villages that carry a DY postcode but sit in Staffordshire; and Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council for Tipton, which publishes no register at all. Eight of the twelve are home boarders, one runs day care from a dedicated site, one runs a home-based day care, and three run boarding kennels alongside a cattery. Brierley Hill (DY5) has no listed business, and Tipton (DY4) has only one, Tipton Tails; both areas are thin because so few licence holders in those postcodes have a phone number the business itself publishes.

Home boarding, day care or kennels

Eight businesses board dogs in the boarder's own home rather than a kennel block: Pet Comforts Hotel in Dudley & Sedgley; Doggy Dayz and Poppy's Pad in Kingswinford; Mann's Dynamic Dogs, Pauls Pet Minders, Thirlmere House Dog Boarding and Wollaston Dog Walking in Stourbridge; and Tipton Tails in Tipton, which runs a home-based day care rather than overnight boarding. A home boarder usually takes far fewer dogs at a time than a kennel — Poppy's Pad takes one household's dogs at a time and Doggy Dayz takes a maximum of two — so ask how many other dogs will be in the house during your dates. Wagatails Dog Day Care runs from a purpose-built site in Kingswinford with a heated indoor hall and outdoor space, rather than from a home. Long Meadow Pet Resort and Woodfarm Boarding Kennels and Cattery, both near Himley in the Dudley & Sedgley area, and Iverley Lodge Boarding Kennels & Cattery near Kinver in the Stourbridge area, run boarding kennels for overnight stays; all three also keep a cattery alongside the dog kennels.

Two council registers, and one with none

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council publishes its register as an HTML list on its own site, giving a trading or personal name, a postcode and a star rating — but no licence number or expiry date for almost every entry. South Staffordshire Council publishes a dated PDF register instead, which does give a licence number for each business, plus a star rating, but still no expiry date. Seven of the twelve businesses here are licensed by Dudley MBC, four by South Staffordshire and one, Tipton Tails, by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, which covers Tipton and states on its own site that it does not currently publish a register online at all, so Tipton Tails' own claim of a Sandwell licence number could not be checked against any council source and is not shown as a confirmed licence. Where a star rating is shown, it runs from 1 to 5 and is the council's own inspection score, not a customer review — Pauls Pet Minders' licence, for instance, carries 2 stars on Dudley's register, shown here exactly as the register gives it, with no comparison implied to any other business.

Questions worth asking about vaccinations, breed rules and insurance

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 will be in the house or kennel block during my dates?
• 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 what appears on their own licence or website, so ask rather than assume an answer either way.

Prices

Two of the twelve businesses listed publish a price; see our Dudley and Stourbridge prices guide for the published figures and what they cover. For everyone else, ask what a second dog from the same household costs, whether bank holidays are charged at a higher rate, and whether collection or drop-off is included.