Vaccinations, licences and what to ask in Sunderland

Twelve dog boarders and day cares are listed for Sunderland, and every one of them needs a council licence to operate in England, whether it runs from a fixed kennels or cattery, a day-care site, or a home boarder's own house. A licence is not optional signage a business chooses to display: it is a legal requirement, checked and renewed by the relevant council. This guide sets out what is worth asking about the licence, your dog's health and the stay itself, rather than assuming any of it.

Check the licence, and ask to see it

Eight of Sunderland's twelve listings fall under Sunderland City Council, which publishes no accessible online register at all, so no licence claim made by a business on its own site can be checked against the council's own records on this page. Three more — 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 register, but none of the three could be matched to a specific entry on it during this round of research. The twelfth, Barking Mad – Sunderland and Durham, is a host-family franchise that matches dogs with vetted local families rather than boarding them at one address of its own, so a single premises licence does not apply to it the way it does to the other eleven. In short, no business on this Sunderland page carries a licence fact this site can independently confirm. This is not the same as being unlicensed: it means the register cannot be read, the listing was not found on it, or, for Barking Mad, that a premises licence simply isn't how the model works. Whichever business you are considering, ask which council licensed it, for its licence number, and to see the certificate itself, rather than taking a website's word for it.

Vaccinations and kennel cough

Ask the business what vaccinations it requires before a stay, and how long in advance it needs to see proof. Requirements and timing vary between operators, so there is no single schedule to quote here, and this directory does not set or check one. Ask separately about its policy on kennel cough, since that also varies from one boarder or day care to the next.

Group size and what's on offer

Sunderland's twelve listings cover a wide range of scale: MyPetStop is a large multi-service centre in Washington offering boarding, a day and night crèche, grooming, training and hydrotherapy under one roof, while Adrian's Dog Buddy and Alpha Omega – Dog Walking Sunderland are single-operator home boarders working from their own house alongside their own family's dogs. Ask how many other dogs, and from how many households, will be there during your dates, and whether a home boarder's own dogs are counted in that number.

Medication, breed policies and a vet emergency

• Ask how medication is given during a stay, and whether there is an extra charge for it.
• Ask whether the business has any breed policies or conditions, including for an XL Bully with a valid exemption certificate.
• Ask what happens if your dog needs a vet while in the business's care, and who decides and pays.
• Ask whether the business holds public liability insurance, and ask to see evidence rather than take a website's claim on trust.

None of the businesses listed here publish a vaccination schedule or a stated insurance position beyond what a business may say about itself, so put these questions directly to the business, not to this directory. See our council licences guide for the detail on why no licence is confirmed here, and our choosing guide for the wider picture across all twelve.