How to choose dog boarding or day care in Salisbury

Twenty-two dog boarders, day cares and kennels are listed for Salisbury, spread across three council areas: Wiltshire Council covers Salisbury itself, Amesbury & Durrington and Warminster & Westbury; Test Valley Borough Council covers Andover; and Winchester City Council covers Winchester. Sixteen of the twenty-two are home boarders and six run day care or boarding kennels from a dedicated site. What matters most when choosing depends on which of the three you need, and which council licenses the business you are looking at.

Home boarding, day care or kennels, by area

Salisbury itself is thin: only three businesses are listed in the Salisbury area proper (SP1, SP2) — Cathedral View Canine Creche, a day care at East Harnham Farm, and two home boarders, Pad and Paws and The Salisbury Dog Retreat. Amesbury & Durrington has six: Clearway Kennels and Stones Doggy Daycare run from dedicated sites, and Sue's Doggy Day Care & Boarding, Paws Adored Daycare and Home Boarding, Flo and Friends Pet Services and Trendy Dogs Amesbury are home boarders. Andover, under a different council, has the most listings at seven, six of them home boarders — The Dogchester Hotel, Harley's Hounds, Muttrails Boarding, Sallys Dogs Tails, My Best Friend Andover and Bramble Cottage Dog Boarding and Training — alongside one day care, Coco's Canine Creche. Winchester has four: three home boarders (Sunrise Wiggles, Tina and Pals, Your PetPal) and one day care, ScenterBarks. Warminster & Westbury has two: Court Lane Kennels, boarding kennels and day care, and The Sighthound Lounge, a home boarder for sighthounds only. A home boarder usually takes far fewer dogs at a time than a kennels or a dedicated day care site, so ask how many other dogs will be in the house during your dates, and whether they are all from one family or several.

What the council licence means, and what each source shows

Eleven of Salisbury's twenty-two listed businesses sit in Wiltshire Council's area (Salisbury, Amesbury & Durrington and Warminster & Westbury). Wiltshire's own online register and PDF lists block automated checks, so this directory uses the third-party mirror animal-licensing.uk instead; the mirror confirmed a licence, licence number and expiry date for seven of those eleven, but no star rating is shown for any of them, since a mirror figure cannot be cross-checked against the council's own primary record. The other four Wiltshire-area businesses — Pad and Paws, The Salisbury Dog Retreat, Court Lane Kennels and The Sighthound Lounge — could not be matched to a register entry at all; three of the four state on their own site that they hold a Wiltshire Council licence, but this directory could not confirm it, so no licence details are shown for them. Andover's seven listings are licensed by Test Valley Borough Council, read from the council's own published PDF register, which lists licence number, activity, town and dates but carries no star rating, so no star is shown for them here. Winchester's four listings are licensed by Winchester City Council, also from the council's own published PDF: three are rated 5 stars and one, Tina and Pals, is rated 3 stars. None of the unconfirmed Wiltshire listings should be read as unlicensed — only that this directory could not independently confirm it — ask to see the current licence certificate when you call, and ask what the maximum number of dogs it covers is.

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.

• 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?
• 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 in your care?

Five of the twenty-two businesses listed here publish a price; see our Salisbury prices guide for the published figures and what they cover. Whichever type of boarding or day care you choose, ask what a second dog from the same household costs, whether bank holidays are charged at a higher rate, and whether collection is included or priced separately.