How to choose dog boarding or day care in Telford
Twelve dog boarders, day cares and kennels are listed for Telford, split across six areas: Telford & Wellington, Oakengates & Donnington, Madeley & Ironbridge, Newport, Bridgnorth, and Market Drayton & Whitchurch. Six are home boarders, five run boarding kennels from a dedicated premises, and one, We Love Pets Telford, is a franchise branch that boards dogs through a network of hosts rather than one fixed address. Coverage is uneven: Market Drayton & Whitchurch has five listed businesses, Madeley & Ironbridge has three, and Telford & Wellington, Oakengates & Donnington, Newport and Bridgnorth each have only one. Several further home boarders and premises are known to hold a Telford & Wrekin or Shropshire Council licence but are not listed here because no verified phone number was found for them at the time of research, so a thin or single-listing area does not necessarily mean nothing else operates locally — it is worth also asking the relevant council for its current list.
Home boarding, kennels or a franchise branch
Six businesses board dogs in the boarder's own home: The Dog Nanny Shropshire, Hayden's Home Dog Boarding and Wagging Tails Ironbridge in the Madeley & Ironbridge area; Train Me & My Dog and Pets Au Pair in the Market Drayton & Whitchurch area; and Wrickton Hall Dog Boarding in the Bridgnorth area. A home boarder usually takes far fewer dogs at a time than a kennels, so ask how many other dogs will be in the house during your dates and whether they are all from one family or several; only the area and town are given for each on this site; the address is theirs to give you once you book. Five run boarding kennels from a dedicated site: Cottage Boarding Kennels and Cattery in Redhill, Chetwynd Firs near Newport, Hound Hall and Acorn Kennels and Primchurch Kennels and Cattery around Market Drayton and Whitchurch. We Love Pets Telford is different again: a local branch of a national franchise offering home boarding, day care, dog walking and pet sitting across Telford and several surrounding areas rather than from one address, and it has no matching entry on the Telford & Wrekin Council licence register at the time of writing.
What the council licence shows here
Every home boarder, kennels or day care listed here has to hold a council licence to operate legally in England. Telford falls between two councils: Telford & Wrekin Council covers the Telford & Wellington, Oakengates & Donnington, Madeley & Ironbridge and Newport areas, and Shropshire Council covers Bridgnorth and Market Drayton & Whitchurch. Neither council publishes a register readable directly on its own website; both are only reachable through the animal-licensing.uk third-party mirror, which does not show a star rating for any Telford or Shropshire entry, so no council star rating is shown anywhere on this site's Telford listings, even where a business is licensed. Ask any business for its licence number and which council issued it, and check that number against the register yourself rather than taking a website's word for it. Eleven of the twelve businesses listed here were found on the register; We Love Pets Telford is the exception, with no matching entry found.
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?
- Are you insured, and can you show evidence of current cover?
- 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?
- How many other dogs will be there during my dates, and from how many households?
None of the businesses listed here publish a vaccination schedule or a stated insurance position beyond their licence, so ask rather than assume an answer either way. See our Telford prices guide for what the three businesses that publish a price actually charge.