How Dudley and Stourbridge's councils license dog boarders
Every dog boarder, day care provider and kennels needs a council licence to operate in England. Dudley and Stourbridge's twelve listed businesses fall under three different councils, and how much of that can be checked against a public register varies sharply between them.
Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council
Seven listed businesses — Pet Comforts Hotel, Doggy Dayz, Poppy's Pad, Mann's Dynamic Dogs, Pauls Pet Minders, Thirlmere House Dog Boarding and Wollaston Dog Walking — are licensed by Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, which publishes its register as an HTML list on its own site. It gives a trading or personal name, a postcode and a council star rating, but no licence number or expiry date for almost every entry. Star ratings recorded here run from Pauls Pet Minders' 2 stars to five businesses at 5 stars. One conflict is worth flagging: Thirlmere House Dog Boarding's own site states a 4-star rating, but the council's register shows 5; the register is treated as the authoritative figure, so 5 stars is shown here.
South Staffordshire Council
Four listed businesses — Long Meadow Pet Resort, Woodfarm Boarding Kennels and Cattery, Wagatails Dog Day Care and Iverley Lodge Boarding Kennels & Cattery — sit administratively in South Staffordshire, in villages such as Himley and Kinver that carry a DY postcode despite being outside Dudley borough. South Staffordshire Council publishes its register as a dated PDF, most recently updated in August 2026, giving a licence number, address and star rating for each business, though no expiry date. Ratings here run from 3 stars (Woodfarm, Iverley Lodge) to 5 (Long Meadow, Wagatails).
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
Tipton Tails, the only listed business in Tipton, states on its own site that it holds a Sandwell licence, with a licence number it publishes itself. Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council states plainly on its own site that it does not currently publish an online licence register, so this claim could not be checked against any council source, and no star rating or confirmed licence is shown for this business.
What a star rating means
Where a star rating is shown here, it is the council's own inspection score, from 1 to 5, and not a customer review — the two are never the same thing, and this site never uses the same star symbol for both. A higher star rating generally means a longer licence period as well as a better inspection outcome, but it says nothing about a business's price, personality or availability, so treat it as one fact among several rather than the whole picture.
Kinver and Himley, both carrying a DY postcode, sit administratively in South Staffordshire district rather than Dudley borough, which is why the four businesses near them fall under South Staffordshire Council's register rather than Dudley's, whatever the area name on this site suggests.