Day care or boarding in Plymouth?
Day care and boarding solve two different problems, and several of Plymouth's 24 listed businesses offer both. Day care is a booked day: your dog goes in after breakfast and comes home at teatime, which suits a dog that would otherwise be alone through a working day. Boarding is an overnight stay, whether that's one night or a fortnight, in either somebody's home or a purpose-built kennels.
The numbers for Plymouth
Twelve of the 24 businesses listed for Plymouth mention day care among their services: Central Bark, Man's Best Friend and Beagles and Buddies in St Budeaux and Saltash; Pugs and Pals Devon in Ivybridge; Little Fluffs and Claire's Pet Care in the Plymouth city centre and Stonehouse area; Hartley Hounds in Mutley and Peverell; Mister Paws and DW Dog Walkers in Plymstock; Wet Noses & Muddy Paws and Happy Pets Doggy Day Care & Grooming Salon in Crownhill and Derriford; and Mutts About Dogs in Plympton. Of these twelve, all but one — Happy Pets Doggy Day Care & Grooming Salon — also offer an overnight stay, so day care on its own is genuinely the exception here rather than the rule.
Overnight boarding
Twenty-three of the 24 offer an overnight stay in some form: eighteen as home boarding, in the boarder's own house, and four as boarding kennels — Tri-Acre Kennels & Cattery and Grove Nurseries Boarding Kennels & Cattery, both near Saltash, and Orestocks Boarding Kennels and Longford Chase Boarding Kennels & Cattery, both near Tavistock — plus Pugs and Pals Devon, which offers both day care and boarding from the same site in Ivybridge.
What each actually costs
Only two of Plymouth's 24 listed businesses publish a price at all, both home boarders, so this guide can't compare a day-care rate against an overnight one across the board — see our Plymouth prices guide for the two figures that are published. In practice, a day's care is usually cheaper than a night away, since your dog goes home to sleep in its own bed, but ask every business you call for its own rate rather than assuming one carries over from the other.
Which to choose
If your dog needs looking after through a working day and comes home to sleep in its own bed, day care is the simpler option, and several of the twelve above also collect and drop off. If you need cover for a night, a weekend or longer, home boarding puts your dog in a house with far fewer other dogs at a time than a kennels would hold, while a kennels suits a dog that would rather have its own space than join a strange household. Ask any business that offers both which one it would actually recommend for your dog, rather than which one has a space free that week.
See our home boarding or kennels guide for more on choosing between the two overnight options.
Whichever you choose, ask how the price is worked out: by the hour, the day, or the twenty-four hours, since the difference can matter more than the headline figure once a real booking is priced up.