How Plymouth's council licenses dog boarders
Every dog boarder, home boarder, day care and kennels in England needs a council licence; it is a legal requirement, not a badge a business chooses to display. Plymouth is licensed across four separate councils, and how current a licence this site could actually confirm depends entirely on which one issued it.
Cornwall Council — St Budeaux and Saltash
Cornwall Council publishes its own animal boarding register online, dated correct as of 4 August 2026 — the freshest of the four registers found for this page. Five St Budeaux and Saltash businesses carry a licence confirmed against it: Central Bark and Man's Best Friend, both rated 5 stars, The Whippet House, rated 4 stars, and Tri-Acre Kennels & Cattery, rated 3 stars. That star rating is the council's own licence inspection score, not a customer review, and is shown here only because it came directly from the register. Cornwall Council deliberately withholds addresses and contact details from its published register, which is also why this site shows its Saltash home boarders by area only. Grove Nurseries Boarding Kennels & Cattery states it is licensed by Cornwall Council too, but could not be matched to a named entry on the register checked for this page, so no star rating is shown for it and its licence should be asked about directly.
West Devon Borough Council — Tavistock
West Devon Borough Council's register reaches this site through the animal-licensing.uk mirror rather than the council's own page directly, and gives a licence number and expiry date for each of Tavistock's three listed businesses — Barking Mad, Orestocks Boarding Kennels and Longford Chase Boarding Kennels & Cattery — but no star rating, since the mirror does not carry one for West Devon's entries.
Plymouth City Council — the rest of the city
Plymouth City Council licenses the thirteen remaining businesses, in Plymouth city centre and Stonehouse, Mutley and Peverell, Plymstock, Crownhill and Derriford, and Plympton, but the newest public register this site could find for it is a PDF dated March 2023 — over three years old. A licence number or star rating quoted from a register that stale cannot be treated as current, so none of these thirteen listings shows a confirmed licence panel; each states only the licence it has told this site it holds. Ask any of them to show you their current certificate before booking.
South Hams District Council — Ivybridge
South Hams District Council, which covers Ivybridge, runs no public register that this site could reach at all. Pugs and Pals Devon, Beach Buddies and Cadleigh Tails are shown the same way as Plymouth City Council's businesses, on their own word rather than a confirmed register entry, because there is simply no register to check them against.
Whichever council licenses the business you're considering, the same rule applies: ask to see the current certificate and its expiry date yourself, rather than relying on a number quoted on a website. See our vaccinations, licences and what to ask guide for the fuller list of questions worth putting to any of Plymouth's 24 listed businesses.