Home boarding or kennels in Ipswich?

Home boarding and boarding kennels both mean an overnight stay, but they are not the same thing. Home boarding is your dog living in someone else's house for the length of the stay, usually alongside just one household's own dogs and routine. A boarding kennels is purpose-built accommodation away from anyone's living room: an individual run, set feeding and exercise times, and staff on site rather than a family. Of Ipswich's eighteen listed businesses, ten are home boarders and four hold a kennels or cat-boarding licence, with a few offering more than one type of care.

Home boarding in Ipswich

Ten businesses board dogs in the boarder's own home, or arrange a stay with one: Walking Paws Ipswich, Suffolk Fairydogmother and Petstay Suffolk in the Ipswich area; Foxhall Furballs and Walk and Play Sit and Stay in Kesgrave; We Love Pets Kesgrave and Woodbridge, covering Kesgrave and Woodbridge; Dogs Holiday Home near Woodbridge; Happytails Suffolk and Rossi's Doggy Day Care and Boarding in Felixstowe; and Barking Mad – Ipswich and Colchester. Two of these, Petstay Suffolk and Barking Mad, work as arranging services rather than boarding at one address themselves: they match your dog with an approved local carer, and it is worth asking exactly who that carer is and where they are based. As with every home boarder on this site, only the area and town are shown here; the full address is theirs to give you once you book.

Kennels in Ipswich

Four businesses hold a kennels or cat-boarding licence: Bourne Hill Boarding Kennels & Cattery near Wherstead, a 42-run site that also boards cats; Happi Days Dog Day Care & Kennels in Martlesham, which runs day care and kennels from the same premises; Happi Days Holiday Stays at Elm Cottage, Eyke, with 18 individual overnight rooms; and Harvest Kennels in Hadleigh, a smaller four-kennel site on 2.5 fenced acres. Primrose Hill Farm Boarding Kennels & Catteries near Needham Market also runs as a kennels but could not be matched to Mid Suffolk District Council's published register, so ask to see its current licence before booking.

Which suits your dog

A home boarder usually takes far fewer dogs at a time than a kennels — often just one household's dogs alongside your own — which can suit a dog that finds a busy site stressful, but means less room in the school holidays than a bigger kennels can offer. A kennels such as Bourne Hill or Happi Days Holiday Stays can usually take more dogs at once and has staff working set hours, which suits a dog that prefers its own space to a stranger's living room. Either way, ask how many other dogs will be on site or in the house during your dates, and what a typical day looks like.

See our day care or boarding guide if your dog also needs daytime care, and our choosing guide for the full picture across all eighteen businesses.