How Telford's two councils license dog boarders
Dog boarding, home boarding and day care are licensed activities under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018. Telford's twelve listed businesses sit under two different licensing authorities: Telford & Wrekin Council, covering the Telford & Wellington, Oakengates & Donnington, Madeley & Ironbridge and Newport areas, and Shropshire Council, covering Bridgnorth and Market Drayton & Whitchurch.
Why the councils' own pages don't work
Neither council publishes a register that this directory could read directly on its own website. Telford & Wrekin Council's own licensing pages give application guidance only, with no working register link found. Both councils are reachable only through a separate third-party mirror, animal-licensing.uk, which lists operator name, licence type, licence number and expiry for most entries, but gives no address for home boarders and no phone or website for any entry on either council's page.
No star rating shown here
No council star rating is shown on any Telford listing, for either council, even where the mirror's own operator page displays one. That is a deliberate choice for these two authorities, not a sign that no rating exists on the page fetched; the site shows a council star rating only where it is confirmed as coming from the council's own register, and neither Telford & Wrekin's nor Shropshire's underlying register could be confirmed directly rather than through the mirror.
What that means for the twelve businesses here
Eleven of the twelve carry a licence number confirmed against the mirror: Cottage Boarding Kennels and Cattery (BTWAWL017), The Dog Nanny Shropshire (BTWAWL067), Hayden's Home Dog Boarding (BTWAWL070), Wagging Tails Ironbridge (BTWAWL065) and Chetwynd Firs (BTWAWL048) under Telford & Wrekin Council; and Hound Hall (23/03584/AIAL), Train Me & My Dog (22/03834/AIAL), Acorn Kennels (24/00038/AIAL), Primchurch Kennels and Cattery (AIAL579), Pets Au Pair (24/00781/AIAL) and Wrickton Hall Dog Boarding (22/00891/AIAL) under Shropshire Council. The exception is We Love Pets Telford, a franchise branch offering home boarding through a network of hosts; no matching entry was found for it on the Telford & Wrekin register at the time of research, so ask this branch directly about its licensing arrangements.
What to check yourself
Because neither council's own register can be read online directly, the most direct check is to ask a business for its licence number and, if you want it confirmed independently, to contact the relevant council's licensing team rather than relying only on a claim made on a business's own website, which this directory cannot verify either.
What a licence covers regardless of how hard it is to check
Whichever council issued it, every licensed boarder or kennels in Telford has been assessed against the same 2018 regulations covering space, exercise, feeding, record-keeping and how many dogs may be kept at once, and either council can revoke or refuse to renew a licence if a business falls below standard. A current licence is a meaningful check on its own, even where this directory could not read a star score directly from the council concerned.