Home boarding or kennels in Stoke-on-Trent?

Home boarding and boarding kennels both mean your dog stays overnight away from your own house, but the setting is very different. Of Stoke-on-Trent's 17 listed businesses, eleven board dogs in the boarder's own home, five run purpose-built kennels, and one runs day care only.

Home boarding

Eleven businesses board dogs in their 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. A twelfth, PetStay Staffordshire, also based in the Leek area, arranges home boarding through a network of carers rather than boarding dogs in its own house, so it works a little differently from the other eleven. A home boarder gives your dog a household's routine, its sofa and its garden, usually alongside only that household's own dogs. Home boarding is a licensed activity of its own, and the licence is issued to a person at an address; we show home boarders here by area and town only, and the address is theirs to give you once you book.

Boarding kennels

Five businesses run purpose-built kennels: Eardley Hall Kennels and Audley Lodge Luxury Boarding Kennels, both near Kidsgrove; Ashenhurst Kennels and Lapwing Hall Farm Boarding Kennels, both near Leek; and New Buildings Farm Boarding Kennels near Stone. A kennels gives your dog an individual space with a bed and a run, set feeding and exercise times, and staff on site, and generally has more room in the school holidays than a home boarder taking one dog at a time.

Day care, not overnight, at one business

Doggy Day Care in Silverdale, Newcastle-under-Lyme, runs a dedicated day-care site rather than boarding dogs overnight in either sense above, so if you need an overnight stay it is not the business to call.

Which suits your dog

A nervous dog, an older dog, or one that has never spent a night away from people, often does better in a home than a kennel run. A dog that would rather have its own space can suit a kennels well. Either way, ask how many other dogs, and from how many other households, will be there during your dates; our vaccinations and licences guide has the full list of questions worth asking.

The licence either way

Home boarding and boarding kennels are both licensed activities, but the licence sits with different people: a home boarder's licence is issued to a person at their address, and a kennels licence to the premises itself. Fifteen of the sixteen home boarders and kennels covered in this guide are confirmed against the relevant council's own register; only Happy Waggers & Sleepy Whiskers is not. See our council licences guide for the full picture across all four councils involved.