How to choose dog boarding or day care in Carlisle
Ten dog day cares, boarding kennels and home boarders are listed for Carlisle, spread across Cumberland Council's licensing area in the west of the town and Westmorland and Furness Council's area around Penrith to the east. One business runs day care, three are home boarders, and six run boarding kennels, three of which (Allenwood Kennels, Moorfield Boarding Kennels and Cattery, and Fingland Pet Hotel) also take cats. Stanwix & Kingstown has no published listing at all: research found one possible boarding kennels on the Kingstown Industrial Estate but could not confirm its trading name, so nothing is shown for that area for now.
Home boarding, day care or kennels
Three of the ten -- Cumbria Dog Training and Home Boarding and Woof Terrain Dog Services in the Penrith area, and Solway Dog Walkers & Home Boarding in the Wigton & Silloth area -- are home boarders. Your dog stays in the boarder's own house rather than a kennel block, so only the area and town are shown on each listing, never a street or village, even where a business publishes its own address elsewhere. Top Dog Doggy Day Care, in Carlisle city centre, is the town's only day care licence, running Monday to Friday with an early bird drop-off from 7:45am. The remaining six -- Allenwood Kennels and Moorfield Boarding Kennels and Cattery near Brampton, Berrier Boarders near Penrith, Fingland Pet Hotel and Biggards Kennels near Wigton, and Hairy Hound Hotel near Keswick -- run boarding kennels for overnight stays.
The council licence in this area
Carlisle sits across two post-2023 unitary councils. Cumberland Council licenses Top Dog Doggy Day Care, Allenwood Kennels and Moorfield Boarding Kennels and Cattery, all in the Carlisle centre and Brampton areas, with current star ratings of 5, 3 and 5. Westmorland and Furness Council licenses Cumbria Dog Training and Home Boarding, Woof Terrain Dog Services and Berrier Boarders around Penrith, and Hairy Hound Hotel near Keswick, with star ratings of 3, 5, 3 and 3; Hairy Hound Hotel's premises sits in a postcode area usually associated with Cumberland Council, but its licence is held by Westmorland and Furness. A council star rating is the council's own inspection score, not a customer review, so read it the way you would a food hygiene rating rather than a Google star.
Cumberland Council does not currently publish a register covering the former Allerdale area, which takes in Wigton, Silloth, Cockermouth and Keswick. Three businesses here -- Fingland Pet Hotel, Biggards Kennels and Solway Dog Walkers & Home Boarding -- each state a licence number and issuing council on their own site, but none could be matched to a live council register during this research, so no licence panel is shown for them. Ask any of these three to show you their current licence certificate before booking, rather than relying on the number printed on a website.
Questions to ask before you book
- What vaccinations do you require, and how long before the stay do you need to see proof of them?
- What is your policy on kennel cough?
- Do you have any breed conditions, including for a dog with an XL Bully exemption certificate?
- How many other dogs will be there during my dates, and are they all from one household?
- Can I see your current council licence certificate?
- What happens if my dog needs a vet while in your care, and who decides and pays?
None of the businesses listed here publish a vaccination schedule or an insurance position beyond what appears on their licence, so these are questions to put to the business directly, not something this directory can answer on their behalf. See our Carlisle prices guide for the one published price in the town, and ask about cost, availability and what is included when you call.