Home boarding or kennels in Folkestone, Dover and Deal?
Home boarding and boarding kennels are two different ways of housing a dog overnight, and the mix in Folkestone, Dover and Deal leans heavily toward one of them: seven of the eight businesses listed are home boarders, and one, Bowesfield Kennels and Cattery near Dover, runs a boarding kennels.
The real difference
A home boarder takes your dog into their own house, alongside their own routine, family and often their own dogs, usually with far fewer dogs at a time than a kennels holds. A boarding kennels is purpose-built, with individual runs or pens and staff on a working rota, and can usually take more dogs at once under one roof. Neither is automatically better than the other; it depends on how your dog copes with a new house and possibly other resident dogs, set against a purpose-built but less domestic setting. Group size in particular varies a great deal even among the home boarders listed here: Hella's Happy Hounds, in Deal, typically takes only one or two dogs at a time, while others do not publish a fixed number, so ask directly rather than assume either way.
The seven home boarders
Come Stay Play, Harry's Home Boarding and Daycare and Lesleys Pet Services are all in the Dover area; Hella's Happy Hounds is in Deal; Home From Home is in Folkestone; and Spring Rise Canine Care Services and Top Dogs & Tails Day Care & Boarding are both in the Hawkinge and Lyminge area. As home boarders, only the area and town are shown for each on this site, never a street address, in line with the same privacy approach taken for every home boarder listed here; a full address is something you get once you book directly with the business.
The one boarding kennels
Bowesfield Kennels and Cattery, near Dover, is licensed by Dover District Council for both dog and cat boarding, and also offers day care and hydrotherapy alongside standard kennel stays. It is the only business listed here with a fixed, purpose-built site rather than a private home, and the only one that also boards cats. Its council licence covers up to 49 dogs and 20 cats at once, a scale a home boarder working from an ordinary house could not match; a home boarder's licence, by contrast, typically caps the number of dogs well into single figures, on top of any dogs the boarder already owns themselves.
Licensing applies to both
Both kinds of business need a current council licence to operate legally in England, whether they take one dog at a time in a spare room or dozens in purpose-built runs; the licence sets a maximum number of dogs either way, so the type of business does not decide how carefully it is regulated, only the setting your dog will actually be in.
Questions either way
- How many other dogs will be there during my dates, and are they from one household or several?
- What does a typical day look like for my dog while I am away?
- Where does my dog sleep, and where is it exercised?
- What happens if my dog does not settle well in the first day or two?
Whichever type you choose, ask to see the space your dog will actually use before booking, if the business is able to arrange a visit.