How to choose dog boarding or day care in Gloucester

Nineteen dog boarders, day cares and kennels are listed for Gloucester, across four areas: Quedgeley, Churchdown & Innsworth, Hucclecote & Brockworth, and Tewkesbury. Gloucester city centre (GL1) has no listed business at the time of writing, so this page in practice covers Quedgeley, Churchdown, Brockworth and Tewkesbury rather than the city centre itself. Twelve of the nineteen are home boarders, working from their own house rather than a kennel block; the remaining seven run from a dedicated premises: three boarding kennels (Country Kennels & Cattery, Churchdown Cattery & Kennels and Henley Bank Kennels), two combined kennels-and-day-care sites (BJ's Pet Resort & Spa and Sunnyside Boarding Kennels & Cattery) and two day-care-only businesses (Barkeley Barks and DFor Day Care).

Home boarding or a kennels and day-care site

A home boarder usually takes far fewer dogs at a time than a kennels, so your dog spends the stay inside a household rather than in an individual run; ask how many other dogs, and whose, will be there on your dates. Several home boarders here also offer day care as well as overnight stays — Special Friends Retreat for Dogs, Paw Paws Doggy Daycare & Boarding and Happy Hounds Boarding and Daycare among them — so check which you actually need before you call. The kennels and day-care sites, BJ's Pet Resort & Spa, Country Kennels & Cattery, Churchdown Cattery & Kennels, Henley Bank Kennels and Sunnyside Boarding Kennels & Cattery, run individual kennel runs rather than a shared house, which can suit a dog that would rather have its own space than share a family's home.

The council licence in this area

Gloucester's businesses sit across two licensing authorities. Gloucester City Council's public register covers the postcode area assigned here to Quedgeley, while Tewkesbury Borough Council's register covers Churchdown, Innsworth, Brockworth and Tewkesbury town, even though those places share Gloucester's built-up area and postcodes. A licence is a legal requirement in England for boarding kennels, home boarding and day care alike, and where a council has issued a star rating it runs from 1 to 5 and is shown on the listing; it is the council's own inspection score, not a customer review, so treat it more like a food hygiene rating than a Google star. Two of the nineteen businesses listed, Henley Bank Kennels and Sunnyside Boarding Kennels & Cattery, could not be matched to either council's register during our research, so ask to see a current licence certificate before booking either one. Where a business's own site states a different star rating to the council register — Country Kennels & Cattery and Churchdown Cattery & Kennels both do — the register figure is the one shown on the listing here.

Questions worth asking

• Can I see your current council licence, and does it cover the number of dogs you are booking for?
• What vaccinations do you require, and how long before the stay do you need to see proof of them?
• Do you have a policy on kennel cough, and what is it?
• Do you have any breed restrictions or conditions, including for an XL Bully with a valid exemption certificate?
• Are you insured, and can you show evidence of current cover?
• How is medication given during a stay, and is there an extra charge for it?
• What happens if my dog needs a vet while it is in your care?

None of the businesses listed here publish a vaccination schedule or a stated insurance position beyond what appears on their own licence or website, so ask rather than assume an answer either way; these are questions for the business, not something this directory can confirm on its behalf. Only two of the nineteen, Special Friends Retreat for Dogs and Linds Furry Friends, publish a price; see our Gloucester prices guide for those figures, and ask everyone else for a quote based on your dog and your dates.