How Exeter's council licenses dog boarders
All twenty-two dog boarders, day cares and kennels listed for Exeter need a licence to operate in England, but which council covers a given address, and how much of its register can actually be checked, varies across the town's three council areas.
Exeter City Council: register not reachable this round
Exeter City Council covers the city centre, Heavitree, St Thomas, Pinhoe and Topsham. Its own licensing portal could not be reached at all when this town's research was carried out, so this is recorded as a register that could not be checked this time, not as a council with no register at all. Four businesses state an Exeter City Council licence on their own site — St Thomas Dog Boarding, Outward Hounds, Home for Hounds and A Dogs Day Out Pinhoe — and are shown here from their own published licence numbers only. Ford Farm Dogs has no licence details on record at all.
East Devon District Council: a working PDF register
East Devon District Council covers Exmouth and licenses eleven of Exeter's businesses in total. Its own PDF register is reachable and current: eight of the eleven are confirmed against it, all rated 5 stars — Barking Mad Exeter, Dogs Day Care, Just Purr-fect, The Dog Walking Company, Sandy Paws & Waggy Tails, Exe Valley Dog Walking, Tracks and Tails and Coastal Tails. The other three, Exmouth Canine Centre, Devon Doggies and Animals at Home Exeter, could not be matched to a line on the register under their trading names, so their licence details here are self-reported.
Mid Devon District Council: a working web register
Mid Devon District Council covers Crediton and Tiverton and licenses six of Exeter's businesses. Its own register page confirmed all six directly: Blackdown Boarding Kennels, Tiverton Dog Centre and Happy Holiday Dogs are rated 5 stars, and Orchard End Kennels & Cattery, Lapford Lodge Boarding Kennels & Cattery and Bunkersland Boarding Kennels are rated 3 stars.
What a star rating means here
Where a star rating is shown, it is the council's own inspection score, run from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest), never a customer review. No star rating is shown for any business licensed by Exeter City Council, or for the three unmatched East Devon entries, because neither situation gives an independently checked figure to show — ask to see the current certificate directly if you want to know one before you book.
Why this town has three different pictures
Exeter is a useful example of how uneven council licensing information can be even within one town: a business a few streets apart in the city centre and one in Exmouth or Tiverton can sit under completely different levels of transparency, purely because of which council happens to license their address. That is a fact about how each council publishes its register, not a reflection of how well any individual business is run.
See our Exeter choosing guide for which of the twenty-two listed businesses sit under which council.