How Sunderland's councils license dog boarders
Every one of the twelve dog boarders and day cares listed for Sunderland needs a council licence to operate: it is a legal requirement in England, not something a business can opt out of, though how that licence shows up varies with the model. Confirming that licence independently, though, is not possible for any business on this page.
Sunderland City Council: no accessible register
Eight of the twelve listings — Ferry Farm Boarding Kennels & Cattery, West Hall Boarding Kennels, Doggy Digzzz and Cat Club, Take The Lead Doggy Day Care, Alpha Omega – Dog Walking Sunderland, Dogs Are Us, MyPetStop and Maid in the North East — fall under Sunderland City Council. The council's own licensing pages could not be read during this round of research, and no third-party mirror of its register exists either, unlike many other councils' registers used elsewhere on this site. Several of these businesses state a specific licence number or star rating on their own site — Ferry Farm and Maid in the North East both quote a 5-star licence, for instance — but a rating a business gives about itself is not shown here as a council fact; it is a claim to check with the council directly, not something this site can confirm. Sunderland City Council publishes no readable register at all, so no licence fact is shown for any Sunderland business on this basis, however confident the claim on its own site.
Durham County Council: a live register, no match found
Three listings — Mighty Mutt House's Washington and Seaham sites, and Adrian's Dog Buddy in Seaham — sit under Durham County Council instead, which does publish a working register. None of the three could be matched to a specific entry on it during this round, even though Mighty Mutt House states it is licensed by Durham County Council across its sites with an expiry it gives as August 2026. A business not being found on a register is not the same as a business being unlicensed: it can mean the listing uses a different trading name or address on the register, or that the entry was added or renewed after this round's check.
Barking Mad: a franchise, not one premises
The twelfth listing, Barking Mad – Sunderland and Durham, works differently again: it is a host-family franchise that matches dogs with vetted local families for home boarding, rather than boarding them at one address of its own. Because each dog stays in a different host's home rather than one fixed premises, a single premises licence of the kind shown for the other businesses here does not apply to it in the same way; ask Barking Mad directly how its host families are checked and licensed.
What no licence shown here means
None of Sunderland's twelve listings show a council licence fact or a star rating on this site at present. This is a gap in what could be confirmed this round, not a mark against any business named here — ask any of them directly for their current licence number, the council that issued it, and to see the certificate itself, and consider asking the council directly for its current list of licensed boarders if you want to check further before booking.