How to choose dog boarding or day care in Hemel Hempstead and Chesham

Twelve dog boarders, day cares and kennels are listed across the five areas that make up Hemel Hempstead and Chesham: Hemel Hempstead and Berkhamsted & Tring, licensed by Dacorum Borough Council, and Chesham & Amersham, Chalfont St Giles & Beaconsfield and Great Missenden, licensed by Buckinghamshire Council. Six are home boarders, four run day care from a fixed site, and two run boarding kennels. What matters most in choosing between them depends on which of the three you need.

Home boarding, day care or kennels

Six businesses board dogs in the boarder's own home rather than a kennel block: Pet Relief, Cosy Paws Dog Boarding and Auntie Kelz Dog Home Boarder and Day Creche in Hemel Hempstead; Poos and Doodles in Berkhamsted & Tring; The Puppy Dog Hotel in Chesham & Amersham; and Friends Paw Life, covering the Great Missenden area. A home boarder usually takes far fewer dogs at a time than a kennels, so ask how many other dogs will be in the house during your dates, and whether they are all from one family or several. K&M Animal Care in Hemel Hempstead, Harts and Hounds @ The Hayfields in Berkhamsted & Tring, Schnoodles Doggy Daycare in Chesham & Amersham and Dogtopia of Amersham (also in Chesham & Amersham, though its register entry is filed under home boarding rather than day care, worth asking about directly) run day care from a fixed site rather than a home. The Old Pastures Boarding Kennels near Tring and Arklow Kennels in Chalfont St Giles run purpose-built boarding kennels; Arklow also boards cats.

Chalfont St Giles & Beaconsfield and Great Missenden are thin areas

Only one business is currently listed in each of these two areas — Arklow Kennels in Chalfont St Giles & Beaconsfield, and Friends Paw Life in Great Missenden — not because nothing else is licensed there, but because most other licensed operators in these Buckinghamshire wards have not yet had a phone number confirmed against their own site, a call, or another accepted source. If you are in either area and want more options, it is worth asking Buckinghamshire Council directly for its current list of licensed operators near you.

The council licence in this area

Every business listed holds a current council licence: it is a legal requirement in England for dog boarding, home boarding and day care, not an optional extra. The two councils publish it differently. Dacorum Borough Council, covering Hemel Hempstead and Berkhamsted & Tring, publishes its own PDF register directly, giving a licence number, expiry date and star rating for each of its seven listed businesses here. Buckinghamshire Council, covering the other three areas, does not run its own public register page in a form this directory could read; its five listed businesses are checked instead against the animal-licensing.uk mirror, a third-party platform that republishes the council's licensing data. That mirror does show a star rating on its own pages, but because it is a mirror rather than the council's own register, no star rating is shown on the five Buckinghamshire listings here — only the licence number and expiry are carried over. Where a licence has expired since it was last checked, the licence panel is removed from the listing rather than shown as current; ask the business directly for its up-to-date licence number if you don't see a licence block.

Questions worth asking about vaccinations, breed rules and insurance

None of these are things this directory can answer on a business's behalf; they are worth putting to the business directly before you book.

• 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?
• How many dogs, and from how many households, will be there during my dates?

Only Dogtopia of Amersham states a specific condition here — that dogs must be over a year old, neutered or spayed and fully vaccinated, including against kennel cough, before starting — and even that is worth confirming directly rather than assuming it covers every situation. No business listed for this town publishes a stated insurance position beyond its licence, so ask rather than assume an answer either way.

Prices and extras

Four of the twelve businesses listed publish a price; see our Hemel Hempstead and Chesham prices guide for the published figures and what they cover. Whichever type of boarding or day care you choose, ask what a second dog from the same household costs, whether bank holidays are charged at a higher rate, and whether collection is included or priced separately.