How to choose dog boarding or day care in Maidstone
Twelve dog boarders, day cares and kennels are listed for Maidstone. Three run boarding kennels, eight are home boarders, and one is a dog grooming school that also offers day care but whose day-care licensing status could not be confirmed on the council's register. What matters most when choosing depends on which of these three you need.
Home boarding, kennels or day care
Eight of Maidstone's twelve listed businesses board dogs in the boarder's own home rather than a kennel block: Elite Pet Services and Parsley and Pals in the Bearsted, Grove Green & Weavering area; Bark and Ride K9 Services in the Headcorn area; Kate's Doggie Daycare in the Loose & Tovil area; Linda's Happy Hounds and The Best (Not Very Exotic) Doggy Hotel in the Coxheath, Boughton Monchelsea & Chart Sutton area; The Kent Dog Hotel in the Larkfield, Ditton & East Malling area; and Wags n Walkies in Maidstone town centre. 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 household or several. Chart Sutton Boarding Kennels Ltd, East Dean Kennels and Pets Holiday Home run boarding kennels rather than home boarding, and all three also take cats. Kent Dog Grooming Academy, based in Lenham in the Coxheath area, is primarily a grooming training school that also advertises day care, but no register match for it was found at the time this was checked, so ask directly about its licensing before booking day care there.
What the council licence means here
Maidstone Borough Council is the only licensing authority covering the town, and it publishes no searchable register of its own; every licence fact shown for Maidstone comes from animal-licensing.uk, a third-party mirror of the council's records, linked from each listing as "register entry (third-party mirror of the council register)". A licence is a legal requirement in England for dog boarding, home boarding and day care alike, not an optional extra, and all eleven licensed businesses listed here hold one. The mirror lists a star rating for most of these businesses, but because it is a third-party copy rather than the council's own register, no star is shown on any Maidstone listing here; only the licence number and expiry date are published, and the block disappears from a listing once its licence has expired. Ask to see the current licence certificate when you visit or book, and ask how many dogs it covers, since a licence can cap this below what the house or kennels could otherwise hold.
Areas with no business listed
Aylesford and Allington have no dog boarder, day care or kennels listed at present. If you are nearby, the closest listed businesses are in Larkfield, Ditton & East Malling (The Kent Dog Hotel) and Maidstone town centre (Wags n Walkies); it is worth calling Maidstone Borough Council directly to ask whether a newer licence holder has since appeared in either area.
Questions worth asking
- 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?
- How many other dogs will be there during my dates, and are they all from one household?
- How is medication given during a stay, and is there an extra charge for it?
- What happens if my dog needs a vet while in your care?
None of the businesses listed here publish a vaccination schedule or a breed policy on their own sites, so these are worth putting to the business directly rather than assuming an answer either way.
Prices
Three of the twelve businesses listed publish a price; see our Maidstone 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.