Vaccinations, licences and what to ask in Oxford

Twenty-four dog boarders, day cares and kennels are listed for Oxford. Home boarding, boarding kennels and day care are all licensed activities in England, so every one of them is legally required to hold a council licence, and asking to see it is a reasonable question rather than an awkward one. Fifteen of the twenty-four listings here carry a matched council licence panel with a licence number and expiry date; the other nine, mostly in the Kidlington & Yarnton and Witney areas, could not be matched to a specific register row within this research, even though several state their own licence number on their own site. See our council licences guide for which council covers which area and why some entries were harder to match than others.

Questions about the licence itself

• Can I see your current licence certificate, including the licence number and expiry date?
• If your listing here shows a council star rating, what does that score mean and when was it last inspected?
• If your listing here shows no star rating, can you show me your certificate directly anyway?

A bare claim of being "licensed" is worth little on its own: ask which council issued it and when it was last checked, since a licence that has quietly expired can still sit unchanged on a website.

Vaccinations and health

Ask what vaccinations a business requires before a stay or a day-care place begins, and how long beforehand it needs to see proof. None of the businesses listed here publish a stated vaccination policy on their own site, so this is a call to make rather than an assumption to hold. Ask, too, what its policy is on kennel cough: practice varies between businesses and there is no single rule to expect.

Breed rules and insurance

A boarding or day-care business can set its own conditions on breed, including for a dog with a valid XL Bully exemption certificate, so ask directly what its policy is rather than assuming your dog will be accepted. Ask, too, whether the business holds public liability insurance and whether it can show evidence of it; this directory has no way to verify insurance, and none of the twenty-four Oxford listings state a position on it.

Group size and what happens if things go wrong

Sixteen of Oxford's twenty-four listed businesses are home boarders, so ask how many other dogs will be on the premises or in the house during your dates and whether they come from one household or several — this matters more with a home boarder than at a purpose-built kennels with separate runs. Ask, too, what happens if your dog needs a vet while in a business's care, who decides and who pays, and what its cancellation or early-collection policy is. None of this is something this directory can answer on a business's behalf.