Day care or boarding in Exeter?
Twenty-two dog boarders, day cares and kennels are listed for Exeter, and several combine more than one kind of care under one licence. This guide splits the town's listings by what each one actually offers, to help you find the right kind of care for your dog rather than just the nearest business.
Day care
Five businesses run day care from a dedicated site rather than boarding overnight as their main service: Home for Hounds and A Dogs Day Out Pinhoe in the city, Dogs Day Care in Pinhoe, Exmouth Canine Centre in Exmouth, and Tiverton Dog Centre, which also runs boarding kennels. Two more businesses, Outward Hounds and Ford Farm Dogs, combine a day-care licence with home boarding rather than running day care as a separate premises-based service. Day care suits a dog that needs company and exercise during the day but sleeps at home at night.
Overnight boarding
Thirteen of the twenty-two listed businesses are home boarders, taking your dog into their own house: St Thomas Dog Boarding, Outward Hounds, Barking Mad Exeter, Ford Farm Dogs and Animals at Home Exeter in and around the city centre and St Thomas; and, spread through Exmouth and beyond, Just Purr-fect, The Dog Walking Company, Sandy Paws & Waggy Tails, Exe Valley Dog Walking, Tracks and Tails, Coastal Tails, Devon Doggies and Happy Holiday Dogs near Tiverton. Five businesses run boarding kennels rather than home boarding: Orchard End Kennels & Cattery, Lapford Lodge Boarding Kennels & Cattery and Blackdown Boarding Kennels in Crediton, and Bunkersland Boarding Kennels and Tiverton Dog Centre in Tiverton. Three of the five, Orchard End, Lapford Lodge and Blackdown, also run a cattery alongside the dog kennels.
Which to choose
If your dog is anxious away from home, day care or home boarding in a household setting is usually a gentler introduction than a kennels block. If you also need cover for a cat at the same time, Orchard End, Lapford Lodge and Blackdown are the town's only listed businesses that combine dog kennels with a cattery. Whichever you choose, ask how many other dogs will be there during your dates and, for day care, what a typical day actually looks like.
Mixing the two
Some owners use day care regularly through the week and only need overnight boarding occasionally, for a holiday or a work trip; where a business offers both, as Outward Hounds and Ford Farm Dogs do, your dog is already known to the carer rather than meeting them for the first time on the night of a longer stay. If that matters to you, start with the businesses that combine the two services rather than booking separately with two different ones.
Browse every listing by area on our Exeter area-by-area guide.