Home boarding or kennels in Carlisle?

Overnight boarding in Carlisle comes in two different shapes: a home boarder, who takes your dog into their own house, or purpose-built kennels, where dogs stay in individual runs or pens on a dedicated site. Three of the town's ten listed businesses are home boarders; six run boarding kennels. Top Dog Doggy Day Care, the tenth, offers day care only, with no overnight stays, so it sits outside this comparison.

Home boarding

Carlisle's three listed home boarders are Cumbria Dog Training and Home Boarding, run by Janet Ardley near Penrith, who limits guest dogs to four at a time and combines boarding with dog training and behaviour work; Woof Terrain Dog Services, also near Penrith, offering home boarding alongside day care and countryside walks; and Solway Dog Walkers & Home Boarding near Wigton, run by Andrea and Mark, who also offers dog walking, pet sitting, horse care and a pet taxi. Both Cumbria Dog Training and Woof Terrain hold a Westmorland and Furness Council home boarding licence, at 3 and 5 stars respectively; Solway Dog Walkers & Home Boarding's own stated licence could not be matched to a current register, so no star rating is shown for it. As with any home boarder, only the area and town are shown on the listing; the address is given once you book.

Boarding kennels

Carlisle's six boarding kennels are spread across three of the town's areas: Allenwood Kennels, trading since 1986, and Moorfield Boarding Kennels and Cattery near Brampton, both of which also take cats and both holding a Cumberland Council licence, at 3 and 5 stars respectively; Berrier Boarders, a small farm kennels near Greystoke with a 3-star Westmorland and Furness Council licence; Fingland Pet Hotel and Biggards Kennels near Wigton, neither of which could be matched to a current council register; and Hairy Hound Hotel, with 12 individual heated rooms near Keswick, licensed by Westmorland and Furness Council at 3 stars. Top Dog Doggy Day Care is the only business here to publish a price, from £17 for a day-care session; see our prices guide for the figure, and our council licences guide for the detail behind each star rating.

Which suits your dog

A nervous dog, or one used to a lot of one-to-one attention, may settle better with a home boarder than in a kennel block, while a dog that copes well away from a family home, or an owner who wants a fixed, staffed site with set hours and a published council star rating for six of the ten businesses here, may prefer purpose-built kennels. Ask either type of business how it introduces a new dog to its routine, and see our first stay guide for what a trial visit usually covers.