Home boarding or kennels in Hinckley and Earl Shilton?

Three of the nine dog boarders, day cares and kennels listed for Hinckley and Earl Shilton board dogs in the boarder's own home; a further three run boarding kennels from farm sites; the remaining three offer a form of home boarding or day care from something in between — a farm or paddock rather than either a private house or a purpose-built kennel block.

Home boarding: an actual house

Watson's Dogs and Pampered Pets Inn, both in the Hinckley & Burbage area, and Desford Dog Care, in the Earl Shilton & Barwell area, board dogs in the boarder's own home. None of the three publishes a street address here; it is given once you book, in line with how this directory treats every home boarder. Pampered Pets Inn takes only one dog or cat at a time, with a separate room kept for cats; Watson's Dogs is run by Diane, who handles boarding and day care, alongside Brent's dog training and behaviour consultation; Desford Dog Care is run by a former emergency foster carer for rescue dogs.

Boarding kennels: purpose-built, off the A47

Wags Dog Care, Stanmaur Farm Boarding Kennels and A47 Boarding Kennels and Cattery all run boarding kennels rather than a home, with individual kennel runs on farm sites in the Earl Shilton & Barwell area. Stanmaur Farm and A47 both keep a separate cattery alongside the dog kennels, and A47 has traded under the same family for more than 40 years. A kennels suits a dog that is settled with its own space and a set routine, and having room for more than one or two dogs usually means a kennels has a better chance of a free space in the school holidays than a home boarder does.

The middle ground: a farm, not a house or a kennel block

Best Buddies Petcare and Nilz and Harley Pet Services both offer what they call home boarding from a farm rather than a private house: Best Buddies from seven to eight acres of paddock between Barwell and Kirkby Mallory, and Nilz and Harley from countryside paddocks in Stoke Golding. Neither is shown here as a home boarder in the privacy sense, since neither operates from an ordinary residential address, so ask directly how a stay there compares to a kennels or a home boarder if the distinction matters to you.

What to ask either way

Ask a home boarder how many other dogs, and from how many households, will be there on your dates. Ask a kennels or a farm-based boarder what a dog's day actually looks like between exercise times, and whether dogs from different households mix. None of the nine businesses here carries a council-confirmed licence detail, since Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council keeps no public register — see our licences and what to ask guide for what that means in practice.