How to choose dog boarding or day care in Chichester and Bognor Regis

Twelve dog boarders, day cares and kennels are listed across Chichester and Bognor Regis, spanning three council licensing areas: Chichester District Council, Arun District Council and East Hampshire District Council. Nine are home boarders and three run boarding kennels from a dedicated site; two of the kennels, Tharfield Pet Boarding and Carleton Canine Centre, also offer day care alongside boarding, and two of the home boarders, Dog Dotty and Muttlyns, offer day care alongside their boarding service.

Home boarding or kennels

Nine businesses board dogs in the boarder's own home rather than in kennels: Doggie TLC, Dog Dotty and Kate's K9 Companions in Chichester itself; Chichester Dog Sitters, Lisa's Dog Boarding and Walking and Sussex Petsitters around Selsey and the Witterings; Dog Vision near Midhurst; Allywags Pet Services in Petersfield; and Muttlyns near Bognor Regis. A home boarder usually takes far fewer dogs at a time than a kennels, and two here say so explicitly: Dog Dotty takes a maximum of six guest dogs alongside her own two, and Muttlyns is licensed for up to six dogs including the owner's own. Amberley Kennels near Hambrook, Tharfield Pet Boarding in Fishbourne and Carleton Canine Centre in Arundel run boarding kennels instead, each also offering day care or grooming alongside boarding.

Council licences in this area

Every business listed holds, or has been checked against, a council licence: this is a legal requirement in England for dog boarding, home boarding and day care, not something a business can opt out of. Nine of the twelve, all in and around Chichester itself, fall under Chichester District Council; two, Carleton Canine Centre and Muttlyns, fall under Arun District Council around Arundel and Bognor Regis; and one, Allywags Pet Services in Petersfield, falls under East Hampshire District Council. Chichester District Council's own register is a downloadable document rather than a searchable page, so licences here were checked against a third-party mirror of that register, animal-licensing.uk; that mirror does not count as this council's own adopted register for our purposes, so no star rating is shown for any Chichester-licensed business on these pages, only the licence type and, where a business publishes one itself, a licence number. Two Chichester-area businesses, Lisa's Dog Boarding and Walking and Sussex Petsitters, say on their own sites that they are licensed, but neither could be matched by name to a specific register entry this round, so no licence block is shown for them; ask to see their current certificate directly. East Hampshire District Council's register is not published online at all, so Allywags Pet Services' licence status could not be checked against any public register either.

Petersfield & Liss and Arundel & the Littlehampton edge are thin

Only one business is listed for Petersfield & Liss (Allywags Pet Services) and one for Arundel & the Littlehampton edge (Carleton Canine Centre). This reflects genuinely thin published registers in both council areas at the time of research, not a lack of businesses on the ground: East Hampshire's licence register is available only by contacting environmental health directly, and Arun District Council's own online register returned no usable result to a standard search. If your area shows only one listing, it is worth ringing the relevant council directly and asking for its current list of licensed boarders.

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?
• Do you have a policy on kennel cough, and what is it?
• Do you have any breed policies or conditions, including for an XL Bully with a valid exemption certificate?
• How many other dogs, and from how many other households, will be there during my dates?
• What happens if my dog needs a vet while in your care?
• Can I see your current council licence certificate?

None of the businesses listed here publish a vaccination schedule or a stated breed policy, and this directory does not set one on their behalf, so these are all worth asking directly rather than assuming an answer either way. See our Chichester and Bognor Regis prices guide for what the four businesses that publish a price charge.