Vaccinations, licences and what to ask in Newbury and West Berkshire

Nine dog day cares and home boarders are listed for Newbury and West Berkshire, and every one of them needs a licence to operate in England, whether it works from a fixed site or from an individual home boarder's own house. A licence is not optional signage a business chooses to display: it is a legal requirement, checked and renewed by West Berkshire Council, the single licensing authority across the Newbury, Hungerford, Thatcham and Newbury-villages areas covered by this site.

Check the licence, and where its details come from

West Berkshire Council's own licensing page could not be read directly during research, so the licence number, type and expiry shown on each business's page here come from the animal-licensing.uk register mirror instead. West Berkshire Council has not adopted that mirror as its own register, so this site does not show a council star rating for any Newbury or West Berkshire business, even where the mirror itself displays one — that is a rule about the source, not a mark against any business. Treasured Pets Pet Care Services' listed licence expiry, 4 July 2026, has already passed as of this check, so no licence panel currently shows on its page; a mirror can lag behind a genuine renewal, so ask it directly for its current licence rather than assuming it has lapsed. We Love Pets Newbury and We Love Pets Hungerford share the same licence, number 25059, since both are branches of the same operator, Julie Turner's We Love Pets West Berks Ltd. Whichever business you are considering, ask for its licence number and to see the certificate itself.

Vaccinations and kennel cough

Ask the business what vaccinations it requires before a stay, and how long in advance it needs to see proof. Requirements and timing vary between operators, so there is no single schedule to quote here, and this directory does not set or check one. Ask separately about its policy on kennel cough, since that also varies from one home boarder to the next.

Group size and how they work

Wessex Dog Boarding works differently from the rest: rather than running its own single home, it matches your dog with one of a network of home carers, and states that each carer only ever looks after one customer's dog or dogs at a time. We Love Pets Newbury and We Love Pets Hungerford state a policy of never walking more than four dogs together. None of the other six businesses listed here publish how many dogs they take at once, so ask directly how many other dogs, and from how many households, will be in the home during your dates.

Medication, breed policies and a vet emergency

• Ask how medication is given during a stay, and whether there is an extra charge for it.
• Ask whether the business has any breed policies or conditions, including for an XL Bully with a valid exemption certificate.
• Ask what happens if your dog needs a vet while in the business's care, and who decides and pays.
• Ask whether the business holds public liability insurance, and ask to see evidence rather than take a website's claim on trust; Doggy Day Care Thatcham and Newbury and Fluffy Friends both state on their own pages that they are insured, which is worth confirming covers your dog specifically rather than assuming it.

See our council licences guide for the detail behind each business's licence number and expiry.