How to choose dog boarding or day care in Poole and Wimborne

Nine dog boarders and day cares are listed across Poole and Wimborne's five areas: three in Poole town centre (K-Nines Boarding and Walking, Pooches of Poole, Walking Buddies), three in Parkstone & Branksome (Celine's Canines, The Dog Nook at Cranbrook, Doggy Day Care), two in Canford Heath & Broadstone (Walk-Ease, Wandering Paws Dog Services Poole) and one in Wimborne Minster (Doggy Day Care at Merley Mews). Upton & Lytchett Minster has no listed business at all — research found no licensed dog boarder, day care or kennels trading in that area. Every one of the nine is a home boarder: your dog would live in the boarder's own house for the stay, rather than in a kennel block or a dedicated day-care building, so the questions below focus on what that means in practice.

The council licence

All nine businesses are licensed by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council, whose public register covers Poole town centre, Parkstone & Branksome, Canford Heath & Broadstone, and reaches into the edge of Wimborne Minster around Merley — which is why the one Wimborne listing here is BCP-licensed rather than Dorset Council. Eight of the nine carry a 5-star rating on the register; The Dog Nook at Cranbrook carries 4 stars. Licences run out between April 2027 and August 2029, so check the current expiry on the listing rather than assuming it still holds. A council star rating is the council's own inspection score, tied to how often the licence is reinspected, and is not a customer review: read it the way you would a food hygiene rating, not a Google star. This register also covers Bournemouth, which has its own separate listing on this site; a business is shown once, under whichever town its address sits in.

Wimborne Minster proper, away from the Merley edge, is licensed instead by Dorset Council, which does not publish a downloadable or bulk-searchable register — only a tool to look up one business at a time. A handful of other Wimborne-area businesses found in research could not be confirmed against any register this way, and none of them had a verified phone number either, so none are published here; ask Dorset Council directly, or ask the business to show its current licence certificate, if you are considering one that is not listed.

What a home boarder means for your dog

A home boarder takes far fewer dogs at a time than a kennels or a day-care site, usually just one household's dogs alongside their own. Ask how many other dogs will be in the house during your dates, and whether they are all from one family or several. As with every home boarder on this site, only the area and town are shown on the listing; the street address is the boarder's own to give you once you have spoken to them and are ready to book.

Questions worth asking

None of these are things this directory can answer on a business's behalf; they are worth putting to the boarder directly before you book.

• What vaccinations do you require, and how long before the stay do you need to see proof of them?
• Do you have a policy on kennel cough, and what is it?
• Do you have any breed restrictions or conditions, including for an XL Bully with a valid exemption certificate?
• Are you insured, and can you show evidence of current cover?
• How many other dogs, and from how many households, will be in the house during my dates?
• How is medication given during a stay, and is there an extra charge for it?
• What happens if my dog needs a vet while in your care?

None of the nine businesses listed here publish a vaccination schedule or a stated insurance position beyond their council licence, so these are questions to ask rather than assume an answer to either way. See our Poole and Wimborne prices guide for what the three businesses that publish a price charge, and ask every other one for a quote based on your dog and your dates.