Day care or boarding in Margate, Thanet and Swale?
Of the eighteen dog boarders, day cares and kennels listed across Margate, Thanet and Swale, seven list day care among their services and seventeen list some form of overnight boarding; six list both. The Paw Seasons in Birchington is the only business here offering day care without any overnight option.
Day care: a booked day, not a night
The Paw Seasons runs a dedicated day-care site at The Old Kent Barn, Birchington, open weekdays 9am to 5.30pm with an indoor and outdoor play arena and a dedicated XL Bully field, and describes itself as Thanet's first licensed commercial day care; it does not offer overnight boarding. Auntie Kirsty's Canine Care in Ramsgate, Milton Paws in Sittingbourne, Paws 'n' Play and Sandy Tails on the Isle of Sheppey are all home boarders that also offer day care alongside overnight stays, and Doggy Dream Garden Retreat near Ramsgate and Rosie's Retreat near Sandwich offer day care alongside boarding from a premises.
Overnight boarding: home or kennels
Eleven businesses here offer overnight boarding without a day-care option: Amble Dogs, MrDogStar, Nic's Dog Retreat, CallyWags and Pals With Tails as home boarders, and Bedima Boarding Kennels, Birch Abbey Boarding Kennels, Manston Boarding Kennels & Cattery, Tawnyhill Boarding Kennels, Jasmil Kennels and Cattery and Butterstone Pet Boarding as kennels-based businesses. See our home boarding or kennels guide for the difference between a home boarder and a kennels.
Choosing between them
A dog that goes home to sleep, and only needs cover during the working day, usually wants day care. A dog that needs cover overnight, for a night away or a longer holiday, needs one of the seventeen overnight options instead. If your dog needs both, asking one of the six businesses that offer day care alongside boarding — Auntie Kirsty's, Milton Paws, Paws 'n' Play, Sandy Tails, Doggy Dream Garden Retreat or Rosie's Retreat — may be simpler than booking two different businesses.
Booking ahead
Day care is usually easier to book at short notice than an overnight stay, since a business only needs a spare place for the day. Overnight boarding tends to fill up faster around school holidays and Christmas; several businesses here, including Sandy Tails and Doggy Dream Garden Retreat, charge a higher holiday rate at those times, so ask about both availability and price well ahead of the date you need. Read more about how day care works and how overnight boarding works across every town this directory covers.
What day care looks like here
Where day care is offered alongside home boarding, it is usually the same person looking after your dog either way, just without an overnight stay: Milton Paws, for instance, offers half-day and full-day care as well as 24-hour home boarding, all from the same home in Sittingbourne. The Paw Seasons is the one dedicated day-care premises among the eighteen, with a fixed site, set weekday hours and staff rather than a single carer.