How to choose dog boarding or day care in Rotherham
Eleven dog boarders, day cares and kennels are listed for Rotherham: four are home boarders and seven operate from a fixed site — a kennels, a cattery-and-kennels combination or, in one case, a kennels, cattery, day care and grooming business together. They sit across the town's five areas, but unevenly: Rotherham east currently has only one listed business, the home boarder Paws Express, so a search there is thinner than in the other four areas.
Home boarding or a fixed site
A home boarder takes your dog into their own house, usually alongside far fewer other dogs than a kennels would board at once. Rotherham's four home boarders are We Love Pets Rotherham (Kimberworth, Wingfield & Rawmarsh area), Paws Express (Rotherham east), Play, Paws, Repeat (Maltby & Wickersley) and Animals at Home Rotherham (a franchise covering the whole borough, based in Rotherham centre). As with any home boarder, only the area and town are shown on the listing here; the street address is given once you book. The remaining seven — Old Flatts Farm, Netherlands Boarding Kennels, Vale Boarding Kennels, Wath Kennels, Clayton Lane Boarding Kennels, Jaycliffe Pets and Sandy Lane Kennels & Cattery — run from a fixed kennels site, several also taking cats, so ask about a viewing before you book if the business allows one.
What each business actually offers
Several combine services rather than doing one thing: Wath Kennels and Jaycliffe Pets each run boarding, day care and grooming from one site, and Jaycliffe Pets also offers dog hydrotherapy; Old Flatts Farm adds animal Reiki and applied zoopharmacognosy alongside its canine lodge boarding; Sandy Lane Kennels & Cattery offers separate family dog enclosures for more than one dog from the same household. If you need day care rather than overnight boarding, only Wath Kennels, Paws Express and Play, Paws, Repeat currently list it; check the Rotherham prices guide for what they charge.
Rotherham's council licence
Every one of these businesses needs a licence from a local council to board or care for dogs in England — it is a legal requirement, not something a business opts into. Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council licenses home boarding, boarding kennels and day care locally, but, checked in September 2026, it publishes no public register of any kind: its own licensing pages link none, its online public-register portal has no animal-licensing category at all, and no third-party mirror exists for this council. Several businesses here quote their own licence number or a council star rating on their own site, but none of these can be checked against a register, so they are shown only as something the business states about itself, not as a confirmed fact. One listing, Clayton Lane Boarding Kennels in Thurnscoe, is a slight exception: the village itself is administered by Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council rather than Rotherham, so Barnsley, not Rotherham, is its actual licensing authority. Whichever business you call, ask to see its current licence certificate rather than relying on a number printed on a website.
Questions to ask before you book
- Which council licensed the business, and can they show you the current licence certificate?
- What vaccinations do they require, and how long before the stay do they need to see proof?
- For a home boarder, how many other dogs will be in the house during your dates?
- For a kennels, can you visit and see where your dog will actually stay?
- What is the price for your dog's size and your exact dates, and does it change for a bank holiday or a second dog?
- May they have breed policies, including for an XL Bully — check directly rather than assuming.
- What are the arrangements for drop-off and collection?