How Wakefield's council licenses dog boarders
Dog boarding, home boarding and day care are licensed activities under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018, and in Wakefield that licence comes from a single authority, City of Wakefield Metropolitan District Council, which covers all nine areas on this page.
An unusual register format
Wakefield does not run a live, searchable database the way some councils do. Its animal-licences page links a periodically-republished document, "Licenced Businesses with Wakefield Council," delivered as a Word file rather than a live table or a PDF, stated as "correct as of 1st August 2026" and updated monthly. It lists every category of animal-activity licence, including home boarding, day care and boarding kennels, with a licence number, trading name, star rating and expiry date for each.
All twelve confirmed directly
Every one of the twelve businesses on this page is confirmed directly against that register, a more complete picture than most towns on this site can offer. Star ratings on this list run from 1 star, held by Carter & Co Canine Care and Paddle & Play Pet Wellness Centre, up to 5 stars, held by Pet Stay Wakefield & Castleford, Barkley & Co, Muddy Pawz Serenity Ltd, Wragby Grange Daycare & Boarding and Unleashed Pet Services. The four kennels — Harefield Boarding Kennels, Waggin' Tails Boarding Kennels, Oakenshaw Boarding Kennels & Cattery and Westmead Kennels & Cattery — all hold 3 stars.
A number withheld pending a discrepancy
George's Pet Pals is the one exception on this page: its own site quotes a licence number that the register lists against a different trading name, Rodneys Pals, so that number is not shown here. The register does separately license a Wakefield branch of the George's Pet Pals franchise for home boarding, rated 2 stars with a licence running to October 2026, and that rating is the one shown on its listing.
What a star score means, and what it does not
A star score is the council's own inspection score under a risk-based scoring matrix, tied to how often a business is reinspected; it is not a customer review, and this site never shows the two using the same star icon. It says something about premises standards and record-keeping at the last inspection, not about a specific stay.
Checking it yourself
You can read the register yourself at wakefield.gov.uk, which links the current document directly. Because it is updated monthly rather than live, a business's rating or expiry date may have moved on since this page was checked (19 September 2026), so it is still worth confirming a licence number directly with the business or the council if it matters to your decision.