Home boarding or kennels in Taunton and Somerset?
Of the eight dog boarding, day-care and home-boarding businesses listed for Taunton and Somerset, six are home boarders, licensed to keep dogs in their own house: Bark Place Dogs, E S Pet Care, Barking Mad Taunton and Animals at Home Taunton & South Somerset in the Taunton area, and Hylands Dog Care and Animals at Home Mendip & Bristol West in the Frome & Shepton Mallet area. The remaining two work differently again: Steart Dog Lodge, near Minehead, runs boarding kennels, and LittleDogs (or not so Little Dogs) runs day care and social boarding from a farm rather than either a private home or a kennel block.
What a boarding kennels gives you
A boarding kennels means your dog has its own space on a site built for it, with set feeding and exercise times and more dogs on site at once than a home boarder would take. Steart Dog Lodge, at Steart Farm near Minehead, is Taunton and Somerset's one boarding kennels on this page, and it runs without individual cages: dogs are kept together in the farmhouse and in large walk-in kennels rather than kept apart.
What a home boarder gives you
A home boarder means your dog lives in somebody's house instead, usually alongside only one household's own dogs at a time; the address is given once you book, not published here. Bark Place Dogs and E S Pet Care are both based in the Taunton area, alongside two franchises, Barking Mad Taunton and Animals at Home Taunton & South Somerset, which match your dog with one of a network of vetted hosts rather than boarding at a single fixed address. Hylands Dog Care, near Shepton Mallet, describes dogs living in the home as part of the family, with countryside walks and garden play rather than kennel accommodation; Animals at Home Mendip & Bristol West, covering Shepton Mallet, Wells, Glastonbury, Bruton, Frome and Street, works on the same franchise model as its Taunton counterpart.
The farm-based middle option
LittleDogs (or not so Little Dogs), at New Fosse Farm near East Pennard, does not fit neatly into either category: it is neither a private home nor a caged kennels, with staff living on site and large outdoor play areas, and it only takes dogs on a regular or semi-regular basis so they build friendships with the resident group. It also asks that entire male dogs be neutered by the age of two. Ask directly what a placement there involves before assuming it works like either a home boarder or a kennels.
Which suits your dog
A kennels tends to suit a dog that is happy with its own space and a set routine; a home boarder tends to suit a dog that finds a group of strange dogs stressful, or one that is used to living in a house rather than a run. Neither type is licensed to a higher standard than the other by default: Somerset Council licenses both boarding kennels and home boarding under the same regulations, so asking to see the certificate is the same question either way. See our council licences guide for which of the eight have a licence confirmed directly.
Where each type sits
Taunton and Somerset's home boarders and kennels are not evenly spread: the Taunton area has four home boarders and no kennels, Frome & Shepton Mallet has two home boarders and the farm-based LittleDogs, and Minehead & Burnham-on-Sea has the page's only kennels. No business is currently listed for Wellington or for Glastonbury & Street. See our area-by-area guide for the full breakdown.