Vaccinations, licences and what to ask in Peterborough

Peterborough City Council, Fenland District Council and Huntingdonshire District Council between them license all 19 dog boarding, day-care and home-boarding businesses listed for Peterborough, whether they board dogs in a purpose-built kennels, a home boarder's house, or run day care from a dedicated site. A licence is not a promise about any one stay, but it is the one document worth asking to see before you book, alongside a straight answer on vaccinations and any breed policy.

Vaccinations

Every kennels, home boarder and day care here sets its own vaccination policy, so ask what is required and how far in advance, rather than assuming the same rule applies at a boarding kennels in Whittlesey as at a home boarder in Yaxley. Several boarding businesses also ask about kennel-cough cover; practice differs from one to the next, so raise it directly when you call.

Licences: three councils, three different pictures

Fenland District Council, which covers Whittlesey and its neighbouring villages, and Huntingdonshire District Council, which covers Yaxley and Chesterton, can both be checked business by business through animal-licensing.uk, a third-party mirror of each council's own register; it gives a licence number and, for the Fenland-licensed businesses, an expiry date. Peterborough City Council, which covers the town centre and Orton, publishes a register that can only be searched by an applicant's name, not by licence category, so none of the ten Peterborough-area and Orton-area businesses listed here could be checked against it directly. Where one of them quotes its own licence number — Dixon's Dog Sitters (119691), All About Your Dog Day Care (078011) and Barking Mad Peterborough (A42611) — that is recorded as the business's own claim rather than a fact confirmed against a register.

Breed policies and insurance

A boarding or day-care business is entitled to ask about a dog's breed and set its own conditions, including for an XL Bully with a valid exemption certificate, so ask directly rather than assuming either way. Where a business states on its own site that it holds public liability insurance, treat that as something the business says about itself; this directory has no way to check an insurance claim independently, so ask to see evidence if it matters to your decision.

Questions worth asking before you book

• What vaccinations do you need before the stay, and how far in advance?
• Do you have a policy on kennel cough cover?
• Do you have any breed policies I should know about, including for an XL Bully?
• Do you say you hold public liability insurance, and can I see evidence of it?
• Will my dog share a room, run or exercise area with other dogs, and how often?
• What happens if my dog needs a vet while staying with you, and who decides that?
• If you are contacting a franchise branch, who is the actual host family and where are they based?

None of the businesses listed here publish a vaccination schedule or a stated insurance position beyond what appears on their own website, so ask rather than assume an answer either way. See our council licences guide for more on how each of Peterborough's three licensing authorities was checked.