Day care or boarding in Liverpool?
Day care and boarding solve two different problems, and several of Liverpool's 20 listed businesses offer both. Day care is a booked day: your dog goes in after breakfast and comes home at teatime, which suits a dog that would otherwise be alone through a working day. Boarding is an overnight stay, whether that's one night or a fortnight, in either somebody's home or a purpose-built kennels.
The numbers for Liverpool
Thirteen of the 20 businesses listed for Liverpool mention day care among their own services. Five of those thirteen are day-care-only businesses with no overnight stay on offer: Baileys Doggy Daycare in Wavertree & Childwall, Faye's Doggy Boutique in Aigburth & Allerton, Tails in the City, also in Aigburth & Allerton, Woof Wonderland in Liverpool city centre, and Yappy Days in Anfield & Walton. The other eight day-care businesses also offer home boarding, so day care alone is only about a quarter of Liverpool's total supply.
Overnight boarding
Fifteen of the 20 offer an overnight stay: fourteen as home boarding, in the boarder's own house, and one, Nursery Farm Boarding Kennels in Huyton & Prescot, as a purpose-built kennels. The Collar Club, also in Huyton & Prescot, is licensed for both boarding and home boarding, so ask it directly which applies to your dog's stay.
What each actually costs
Only two of Liverpool's 20 listed businesses publish a boarding price, both home boarders — see our Liverpool prices guide for the figures. In practice, a day's care is usually cheaper than a night away, since your dog goes home to sleep in its own bed, but ask every business you call for its own rate rather than assuming one carries over from the other.
A training price, not a boarding one
Crosby Dog Care, a home boarder in Crosby & Bootle offering both day care and overnight stays, publishes a price for a separate training session rather than for either service — a reminder that a published figure on a boarder's own page is not always for the service you're actually asking about, so check what a quoted price actually covers before comparing it with anyone else's.
Which to choose
If your dog needs looking after through a working day and comes home to sleep in its own bed, day care is the simpler option. If you need cover for a night, a weekend or longer, home boarding puts your dog in a house with far fewer other dogs at a time than a kennels would hold, while Nursery Farm's kennels suits a dog that would rather have its own space than join a strange household. Ask any business that offers both which one it would actually recommend for your dog, rather than which one has a space free that week.