Home boarding or kennels in Worcester?
Eleven of Worcester's nineteen listed dog boarders and day cares hold a home boarding licence, and eight hold a boarding kennels licence, with Hillview Canine Centre and Archbridge Farm Boarding Kennels holding both. Nine of the nineteen are genuinely home-based — the boarder's own house rather than a fixed site — while the rest, including all eight boarding kennels and two of the eleven home-boarding licence holders, run from a dedicated premises. The difference is worth understanding before you compare two quotes.
Home boarding
A home boarder takes your dog into their own house: your dog sleeps where the family sleeps, walks where the family walks, and usually shares one household's routine rather than a rota of staff shifts. Worcester's nine home-based boarders — among them Worcester Woofers B&B, St Johns Walkies, Wagadoodle, Malvern Happy Paws, Bed and Bone Homestays and Barklife — are shown here by area and town only, never by street address; the exact address is theirs to give you once you have booked. Ask how many other dogs, and from how many households, will be in the house during your dates.
Boarding kennels
A boarding kennels is purpose-built accommodation away from anyone's living room: an individual kennel with its own bed and run, set feeding and exercise times, and staff working shifts. Danemere Kennels & Cattery, Five Oaks Boarding Kennels, Rowan House Boarding Kennels, Wits End Kennels, Bolstrode Kennels and Holborn Boarding Kennels are licensed for boarding kennels only, while Hillview Canine Centre and Archbridge Farm Boarding Kennels combine a kennels licence with a home boarding one on the same fixed site.
Which suits your dog
Neither is better in general: a nervous dog that struggles in a group often does better with one-to-one attention in a home boarder's house, while a dog that is boisterous with other dogs or prefers its own space may settle better with its own kennel and run. A kennels also tends to have more room during school holidays than a single home boarder. Ask either kind of business how they would introduce your dog to any others already there, and whether you can visit beforehand to see exactly where your dog will stay.
Booking practicalities
A kennels can usually confirm space over the phone since it has a fixed number of runs, while a home boarder often needs to check how many dogs are already booked in over your dates before it can say yes. Whichever you choose, ask to see photographs or, better, to visit in person before the first stay.
See our day care or boarding guide if you are still deciding what kind of stay you need, and our Evesham & Pershore area page, home to four of Worcester's eight boarding kennels.