Home boarding or kennels in Torquay?
Of the twenty-eight dog boarding, day-care and home-boarding businesses listed for Torquay, twenty-three are home boarders, licensed to keep dogs in their own house, and four run boarding kennels on a purpose-built site. The remaining business, Happy Dogs R Us, is a day-care business with its own premises rather than either of the two.
What a boarding kennels gives you
A boarding kennels means your dog has its own kennel and run on a site built for it, with set feeding and exercise times and more than one household's dogs on site at once. Torquay's four kennels are all outside the town itself: Cary Boarding Kennels, trading near Denbury since 1968, and Castleford Pet Centre, run by the same family near Newton Abbot since 1970, both in the Newton Abbot area; and The Dog Lodge, on 20 acres near Slapton, and Blackdown Rings Kennels & Cattery, on a 3-acre site at Loddiswell, both in the Kingsbridge & Salcombe area. The last two also board cats.
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. Torquay's twenty-three home boarders are spread across every other area: all six in Torquay town centre, twelve of the thirteen in Paignton, both in Brixham, both in Teignmouth & Dawlish and the one in Dartmouth.
Which suits your dog
A kennels tends to suit a dog that is happy with its own space and a set routine, and there is often more room left during a busy school-holiday week simply because a kennels takes more dogs at once. 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. Both types are licensed activities in England, so asking to see the certificate is the same question either way, though how far that licence can be checked against a register differs by council; see our council licences guide for the detail.
Businesses offering both day care and boarding
Nine of Torquay's twenty-three home boarders also offer day care, so a dog can have a day visit before a full stay is booked. See our day care or boarding guide for the day-care side of the picture.
Where each type sits
Torquay's home boarders and kennels are not evenly spread: Paignton has by far the most listed businesses of any area, thirteen in total and twelve of them home boarders, while Totnes has none of either. See our area-by-area guide for the full breakdown.
What the licence tells you, and what it does not
Whichever type you choose, the licence is issued for the premises, not for a particular member of staff or a particular dog's stay, so it does not promise how a specific booking will go. Ask a home boarder how many other households' dogs might be in the house on your dates, and ask a kennels to show you the actual run or kennel your dog would use, rather than relying on a general description of the site.