How to choose dog boarding, day care or kennels in Wakefield

Twelve dog day cares, boarding kennels and home boarders are listed for Wakefield, all licensed by the single local authority, City of Wakefield Metropolitan District Council. Four hold a home-boarding licence, five hold a day-care licence and four hold a boarding-kennels licence; one business, Wragby Grange Daycare & Boarding, holds both a day-care and a home-boarding licence, and two of the kennels, Oakenshaw Boarding Kennels & Cattery and Westmead Kennels & Cattery, also board cats. What matters most when choosing depends on which of the three you need.

Home boarding, day care or kennels

Pet Stay Wakefield & Castleford and George's Pet Pals are both home-boarding franchise branches covering Wakefield city centre and beyond; Unleashed Pet Services is a home boarder covering the Pontefract area. As home boarders, all three are shown by area and town only, and give their address once you book. Wragby Grange Daycare & Boarding, near Wragby in the Horbury area, runs day care and home boarding from a working farm rather than a family home, so it keeps its full address on its listing. Barkley & Co, Muddy Pawz Serenity Ltd, Carter & Co Canine Care and Paddle & Play Pet Wellness Centre run day care from their own premises in Wakefield centre, Outwood and Normanton. Harefield Boarding Kennels, Waggin' Tails Boarding Kennels, Oakenshaw Boarding Kennels & Cattery and Westmead Kennels & Cattery are purpose-built kennels in the Ossett and Horbury areas, three of them on working farms with land for exercise. Ask a home boarder how many other dogs, and from how many other households, will be in the house during your dates.

Where they are, and where they are not

Wakefield centre and Horbury each have four listed businesses, the strongest of the town's areas researched so far. Outwood, Normanton and Ossett each have one, and Pontefract has one. No business is published this round in Wrenthorpe & Alverthorpe or Castleford, though the council's register does list home boarders in both areas; none of them had a phone number confirmed on their own page in time for this listing. Sandal & Agbrigg is a different kind of gap: the council's register names no business specifically in that area at all, so none is shown there rather than guessed from a neighbouring postcode.

The council licence

Every business listed here holds a current licence from City of Wakefield Metropolitan District Council, the single authority covering all nine areas of the town: a licence is a legal requirement in England for dog boarding, home boarding and day care, not an optional extra. The council publishes its register as a periodically updated document rather than a live searchable page, and every licence it issues carries a star rating from 1 to 5, tied to how often the business is reinspected. Ratings on this list run from 1 star (Carter & Co Canine Care and Paddle & Play Pet Wellness Centre) up to 5 stars (Pet Stay Wakefield & Castleford, Barkley & Co, Muddy Pawz Serenity Ltd, Wragby Grange Daycare & Boarding and Unleashed Pet Services); a star rating is the council's own inspection score, not a customer review, so treat it the way you would a food hygiene rating rather than a Google star. One listing, George's Pet Pals, shows no licence number here: its own site quotes a number the council's register lists against a different business, so no number is shown until that is resolved, though the council does separately license a Wakefield branch of the franchise for home boarding. Ask to see the current licence certificate and its number, and check it against the council's own register rather than taking a website's word for it.

Questions worth asking before you book

None of these are things this directory can answer on a business's behalf; they are worth putting to the business directly.

• 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 many other dogs, and from how many other households, will be there during my dates?
• 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?
• What does a second dog from my own household cost, and are bank holidays charged differently?

None of the businesses listed here publish a vaccination schedule or a stated insurance position beyond what appears on their own licence, so ask rather than assume an answer either way. Three of the twelve publish a price for at least part of what they do; see our Wakefield prices guide for the published figures and what they cover.