A first stay at a Newcastle boarder or day care
Nineteen dog boarders, day cares and kennels are listed across Newcastle's seven areas, and most will want to meet your dog before a full booking, whether that is a settling-in visit before overnight home boarding with TynePets or PetStay Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside & South Northumberland, or a trial session at a day care such as Canine Camp or The Doggy Day Care Centre - Whitley Bay. A trial matters more with a home boarder than a kennels, since fourteen of the nineteen businesses here board dogs in their own house rather than a purpose-built kennel block.
Before the trial
Tell the business about your dog's routine, its food, any medication and how it behaves around other dogs, people and, where relevant, cats or children in the house. Ask what a typical day looks like, and whether your dog would spend the whole day with other dogs or have time on its own.
What to pack
Enough food for the whole stay in its usual packaging, clearly labelled medication with dosing instructions, a lead and collar with an up-to-date tag, and something that smells of home. Bring proof of whatever vaccinations the business has asked for in advance, since most want to see it before your dog is admitted rather than on collection day.
A good handover
A handover covering feeding times, any quirks and an emergency contact for you is worth the extra ten minutes, however busy the day. Ask how the business would reach you if your dog needed a vet while in its care, and what it would do next if it could not reach you straight away. This is a question worth putting to any of Newcastle's listed boarders, not something the directory can answer on a business's behalf.
Collection
Ask in advance how collection works, and whether an early or late pickup changes the price, since a boarder commonly counts the first and last day of a stay differently. If your dog boarded alongside others, ask how it settled, and whether a longer trial is worth arranging before your next stay.
If it's not a good fit
A trial that does not go well is useful information, not a wasted visit. Several Newcastle businesses, including Small Paws Pet Services and Sam's Dog Boarding & Pet Services of Whitley Bay, offer both home boarding and day care, so a business that does not suit an overnight stay may still work for occasional day care, or the other way round.
See our home boarding or kennels guide if you have not yet decided which kind of stay suits your dog, and our vaccinations, licences and what to ask guide for the questions worth putting to any of them first.