How to choose dog boarding or day care in Stoke-on-Trent

Seventeen dog boarders, day cares and kennels are listed for Stoke-on-Trent, spanning four different councils: Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, Staffordshire Moorlands District Council and, for the thinly served Stone area, Stafford Borough Council. Eleven are home boarders, five run boarding kennels and one runs day care from a dedicated site. What matters most depends on which of the three you need and where in the city you are.

Home boarding, kennels or day care

Eleven of the seventeen board dogs in the boarder's own home: CJ's Home Boarding for Dogs in Hanley & Stoke; Home2Home4Dogs and The Dog Stop in Longton & Fenton; AXP Dog Service in Burslem & Tunstall; Your Dog At Our Home in Trentham & Blurton; Waggy Walkers and Happy Waggers & Sleepy Whiskers in Kidsgrove; The Dog Retreat in Newcastle-under-Lyme; and Ruddy Paws and The Peak Dog Retreat in Leek. PetStay Staffordshire, also based in the Leek area, is different again: rather than boarding dogs itself, it arranges home boarding through a network of carers. As with any home boarder, only the area and town are shown on these listings; the address is given once you book, and a home boarder usually takes far fewer dogs at a time than a kennels, so ask how many other dogs, and from how many other households, will be there during your dates. Five run purpose-built boarding kennels instead: Eardley Hall Kennels and Audley Lodge Luxury Boarding Kennels in Kidsgrove, Ashenhurst Kennels and Lapwing Hall Farm Boarding Kennels near Leek, and New Buildings Farm Boarding Kennels near Stone. One, Doggy Day Care in Silverdale, runs day care from a purpose-built indoor arena rather than boarding dogs overnight.

Areas with little or no choice

Coverage is uneven across the town's eight areas. Stone has only one confirmed business, New Buildings Farm Boarding Kennels, which sits just outside the town but is actually licensed by Staffordshire Moorlands District Council rather than the Stafford Borough Council register that nominally covers the Stone area; research found no other dog boarder or day care based in Stone itself. Burslem & Tunstall and Trentham & Blurton each have only one listed business too. If your area shows little, it is worth ringing the relevant council directly and asking for its current list of licensed boarders, since a new licence can be issued between one check of a register and the next.

What the council licence tells you

Four councils cover the eight areas here, and each publishes its register differently. Stoke-on-Trent City Council, covering Hanley & Stoke, Burslem & Tunstall, Longton & Fenton and Trentham & Blurton, runs a searchable online register giving a licence number, star rating and expiry date. Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, covering Kidsgrove and Newcastle-under-Lyme itself, publishes a page of its most recently issued licences rather than a full historical register; one business here, Happy Waggers & Sleepy Whiskers, states a licence number on its own site that could not be confirmed on that page, so its listing carries no licence block until that is resolved. Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, covering Leek and the kennels near Stone, publishes a single district-wide PDF register giving a star rating for every entry but no expiry date. Where a star rating is shown, it runs from 1 to 5 and is the council's own inspection score, not a customer review, so treat it the way you would a food hygiene rating rather than a Google star. Ask any business to see its current licence certificate and number, and check that against the relevant register yourself rather than taking a website's word for it. See our Stoke-on-Trent prices guide for what the five businesses that publish a price charge.

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 in the house or kennels 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 businesses listed here publish a vaccination schedule or a stated insurance position, so these are all questions to put to the business directly, not answers this directory can give on its behalf.