How to choose dog boarding or day care in Reading

Reading's 15 published dog boarders and day-care businesses are mostly individual home boarders rather than kennels: 12 hold a home boarding licence, 5 hold a day care licence and 3 hold a boarding kennels licence, with some holding more than one. Only four of them run from a dedicated business premises rather than someone's house: Rags & Bert's in Tilehurst, Bluejay Dog Wellness's day care site in Sonning Common, Dog Trouble in Wokingham, and Oscar's Daycare Centre at Cane End, near Caversham.

Home boarding, day care or kennels

A home boarder takes your dog into their own house, usually one household's dogs at a time, and is licensed at their home address; that address is not published here, only their area and town, and is given to you once you book. Day care is a booked day rather than an overnight stay: your dog goes in after breakfast and comes home in the evening. Boarding kennels are purpose-built premises with individual runs, better suited to a dog that would rather have its own space than join someone else's household. Reading's coverage this way is real but uneven: Reading town centre (RG1) currently has no dog boarder, home boarder or day-care business found on any of the four councils' registers covering this town, so anyone based there needs to look to a neighbouring area such as Tilehurst or Caversham.

What the council licence tells you

Every business listed here has a licence from one of four councils, depending on where it is based: Reading Borough Council, Wokingham Borough Council, West Berkshire Council or South Oxfordshire District Council. Only South Oxfordshire publishes a star rating for the licences in this data — the four businesses licensed there are all currently rated 5 stars — while Reading, Wokingham and West Berkshire do not show a star rating for the businesses covered here. A star rating is the council's own inspection score for the licence, not a customer review, so treat it as a separate fact from any Google rating a business might also have. Each listing links to the specific register entry or register page; ask to see the licence certificate as well, and check the expiry date where one is published.

Questions worth asking before you book

• Ask what vaccinations they require before booking — practice varies between kennels and home boarders, so do not assume.
• Ask about breed policies directly, including any XL Bully rules, since a business can set its own conditions.
• Ask whether the business holds public liability insurance; only a business's own published material can tell you this.
• For a home boarder, ask about the household: other dogs, children, a garden, and whether your dog will be alone at any point in the day.
• For day care or kennels, ask to see where your dog will actually stay or sleep, and how the group or day is supervised.
• For an overnight stay quoted "per 24 hours," ask how the first and last day are counted if you are dropping off and collecting at different times.