How to choose a dog boarder in Fareham and Gosport
This page covers four areas: Fareham (6 listings), Gosport (1), Wickham & Southwick (1) and Bishop's Waltham (13), 21 businesses in total. Fourteen are licensed home boarders who take dogs into their own house; the rest are premises-based: four boarding kennels (including the RSPCA's Stubbington Ark, which boards dogs alongside its rescue and rehoming work) and three day cares.
Home boarding, day care or kennels?
A home boarder looks after your dog in their own house, usually alongside their own pets and family, and most of the fourteen listed here take a small number of dogs at a time rather than running a commercial site. A boarding kennels — Lone Valley Kennels, the RSPCA's Stubbington Ark, Harfields Pet Retreat and Three Oaks Boarding Kennels here — is a purpose-built premises with individual kennel runs, generally licensed for far larger numbers (Harfields for up to 68 dogs, Three Oaks for up to 78). Day care is different again: your dog goes home each evening rather than staying overnight, and Fareham's Dog Day Care Ltd, CB Canine Care and Elite Canine Services here offer it as their main service, with a few home boarders and Just Like Home and Kelly's Pet Care offering it alongside boarding.
The council licence in this area
Three councils cover this page's postcodes. Fareham Borough Council licenses the six Fareham listings and Gosport Borough Council licenses the one Gosport listing; neither council publishes its own online register, so these licences were confirmed through the national animal-licensing.uk directory, which records the licence type held but does not always carry a star rating — which is why Fareham and Gosport listings on this page mostly show no star line. Winchester City Council, which covers Bishop's Waltham and the Wickham & Southwick area under this page's postcodes, publishes its own register with a star rating (1 to 5) for every operator it lists, which is why the fourteen Winchester-licensed listings here do carry one, from Wickham Walkies' single star up to several 5-star home boarders and kennels. A council star rating is a licence inspection score, not a customer review, and none of the businesses on this page are shown with both.
Gosport and Wickham & Southwick are thin
Gosport has one confirmed listing here and Wickham & Southwick has one, against six in Fareham and thirteen in Bishop's Waltham. That is a genuine gap in coverage rather than a sign there are no other licensed boarders in those areas: Gosport's own council register lists dozens of home boarders under personal names with no confirmed trading presence or phone number, so most could not be published here yet. If you are in Gosport or Wickham, it is worth widening your search to Fareham or Bishop's Waltham, or asking a local vet or dog-walking group for a recommendation while this page's coverage catches up.
Questions to ask before you book
- What vaccinations they require before a stay or a day — ask the business directly, since practice varies between boarders and this page does not set vaccination rules.
- Whether they have any breed policies, including for an XL Bully or other restricted breed, and what paperwork they will want to see.
- How they handle kennel cough and what their own policy is if a dog shows symptoms while boarding.
- How many dogs a home boarder takes at once, and whether your dog will be alone with them or mixed with other dogs and family pets.
- What a typical day or night includes: walks, feeding routine, and where the dog sleeps.
- What happens in an emergency, including how quickly they can reach you and which vet they would use.
None of the businesses on this page have been checked by Roskosh Media for insurance, staff training or safety arrangements beyond what the council licence itself covers, so ask each business directly about anything that matters to you before booking.