Guide · updated 19 September 2026

How to choose dog boarding or day care in Portsmouth

Nineteen dog boarders, day cares and kennels are listed for Portsmouth, split across two licensing authorities: nine sit in the four areas covered by Portsmouth City Council — Portsmouth centre, Southsea, Fratton, Baffins & North End, and Cosham, Drayton & Port Solent — and ten sit in Waterlooville & Denmead and Havant, the two areas covered by Havant Borough Council. Within that second group, eight are confirmed against Havant's own register; the other two, Muirburn Holiday Boarding for Dogs & Cats (actually licensed by East Hampshire District Council) and A Dogs Day Pet Services, could not be matched to a register entry. Fifteen of the nineteen are home boarders, three run day care from a fixed premises, and one runs boarding kennels with a cattery. What matters most when choosing depends on which of these you need.

Home boarding, day care or kennels

Fifteen of Portsmouth's nineteen listed businesses are home boarders, taking dogs into their own house rather than a kennel block: We Love Pets Portsmouth & Southsea, Holiday Hounds and Homes and Hounds in Portsmouth centre; Haven4Hounds and The Pet Butler in Southsea; The Pukka Pooch and M-Bark Boarding & Walking in Cosham, Drayton & Port Solent; All Pawz, Barney and Sam's Pet Services, Pooch & Co and The Doggy Centre in Waterlooville & Denmead; and Semley Dogs, All Weather Walkies, A Dogs Day Pet Services and Bourner Boarding in Havant. Three more run day care from a fixed premises rather than a home: BusyB Pet Care in Southsea, Nanny Sue's Doggy Day Care in Fratton, Baffins & North End, and DoggieVille Pet Services in Waterlooville & Denmead. Muirburn Holiday Boarding for Dogs & Cats, near Horndean in the Waterlooville & Denmead area, is the town's one boarding-kennels business, and the only one that also takes cats. Fratton, Baffins & North End has only that single listing, the thinnest area on the map; if you are looking specifically there, it is worth calling Portsmouth City Council directly, since a small or newly licensed operator can take time to appear in research like this.

What the council licence tells you here

All nineteen businesses need a licence to operate in England, whether for home boarding, day care or kennels, but what you can check varies sharply by council in this town. Portsmouth City Council, covering Portsmouth centre, Southsea, Fratton, Baffins & North End, and Cosham, Drayton & Port Solent, keeps no public register of its animal-boarding licences at all: its own licensing pages do not list one, so the nine businesses in those four areas are shown here without a licence block, and any licence number a business quotes about itself, as Haven4Hounds does, could not be checked independently. Havant Borough Council, covering Waterlooville & Denmead and Havant, does publish a register, as a PDF list of licensee name and licence number; eight of the ten businesses in those two areas are confirmed against it. That PDF does not include a star rating or an expiry date for any listing, so neither is shown for these eight either — that is a gap in what Havant publishes, not a mark against any business on the list. The other two businesses in Havant's area are shown without a licence block: Muirburn Holiday Boarding for Dogs & Cats states its own East Hampshire District Council licence number and star rating on its own site, but this has not been checked against that council's register, and A Dogs Day Pet Services could not be matched by name to an entry on Havant's list at all.

Questions worth asking

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

Which council licensed you, and what is your licence number?
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 other households, will be there 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 it is in your care?

None of the businesses listed here publish a vaccination schedule or a stated insurance position beyond what appears on their own site, so ask rather than assume an answer either way. See our Portsmouth prices guide for what the five businesses that publish a price charge, and what to ask everyone else.