Methodology

1. Licensing data

Every operator on this site has a licence entry on a council animal-activity licensing register. England’s licensing regime (Animal Activity Licensing Regulations 2018) requires councils to publish licence holders. We collect from these registers directly.

We do not list operators solely on the basis of directory claims, social media, or marketplace profiles. The council register is the primary source. If a council register is unavailable, operators from that authority are excluded until it becomes accessible.

What we collect from registers

• Operator or trading name
• Licence number
• Activities licensed (boarding kennels, home boarding, dog day care, etc.)
• Star rating (where published — not all councils publish ratings)
• Licence status (active / expired / suspended)
• Address or general area, per council’s published data

Freshness

We re-check each register source on a regular schedule. The date of our last check appears on every operator listing. If a source becomes inaccessible for more than 90 days, the operator is marked stale and demoted in listings until the source is recoverable.

2. Price observations

Prices are sourced from the operator’s own published website or direct written communication. We do not estimate or interpolate prices. We do not use marketplace prices as a proxy for direct prices.

Each price observation records:

• Service type (kennel night, home boarding night, day care day, etc.)
• Minimum price in GBP (ex. VAT where stated)
• Any conditions (e.g., small dogs only, midweek rate)
• Source URL
• Date observed

We apply a freshness threshold: price observations older than 12 months are flagged as potentially outdated. Observations older than 24 months are suppressed from listings unless no newer observation exists.

What we do not claim

• We do not claim to have the definitive or complete price for any operator — only the price we have directly observed.
• We do not guarantee prices are current. Always confirm with the operator directly before booking.
• We do not compare marketplace prices (Rover, Pawshake) with direct prices unless we hold independently observed prices for the same operator on both channels.

3. Publishability criteria

An operator is publishable (appears on public pages) only when all of the following hold:

1. A current licence appears on a council register.
2. The operator has at least one licensed dog activity.
3. The operator is not a duplicate of another entity already listed.
4. The operator holds at least 4 public claims (licence details count; price observations are additional).
5. The operator’s privacy status is safe for public display (home boarders at residential addresses are shown at town level only).

4. Address and privacy policy

Commercial premises (registered kennels, dedicated dog-care facilities) are shown with full address where the council publishes it.

Home boarders operating from a residential address are shown with town and outward postcode only. We do not display doorstep map pins for home addresses. Operators can claim their listing to confirm whether they wish to share a full address.

5. Transparency Score

The Transparency Score is a composite indicator of how much verifiable information we hold for a given operator. It is not a quality rating of the operator’s services. Full Transparency Score methodology.

6. What this site is not

• Not a booking platform.
• Not an endorsement of any operator.
• Not a substitute for verifying a licence directly with the relevant council before boarding your dog.

7. Corrections

If any data on this site is wrong, we want to know. Submit a correction request. We acknowledge within 5 working days.