Home boarding or kennels in Rotherham?
Of the eleven dog boarding, day-care and home-boarding businesses listed for Rotherham, four are home boarders, licensed to keep dogs in their own house: We Love Pets Rotherham, covering the Rotherham north area; Paws Express, in Rotherham east; Play, Paws, Repeat, in Maltby & Wickersley; and Animals at Home Rotherham, a franchise covering the whole borough from a base in Rotherham centre. The remaining seven run from a fixed site: a kennels, a cattery-and-kennels combination, or in Wath Kennels' and Jaycliffe Pets' case, a kennels, cattery, day care and grooming business together.
What a boarding kennels gives you
A boarding kennels means your dog has its own space on a site built for it, with more dogs on site at once than a home boarder would typically take. Sandy Lane Kennels & Cattery, in Bramley, has 25 heated dog kennels plus separate family dog enclosures for up to four large dogs or five small dogs from one household. Jaycliffe Pets, in Thurcroft, is one of the larger combined operations found here, adding a cattery, day care, grooming and hydrotherapy to its kennels on one site open all year round.
What a home boarder gives you
A home boarder means your dog lives in somebody's house instead, usually alongside far fewer other dogs at a time; the address is given once you book, not published here. We Love Pets Rotherham is the local franchise branch run by franchisee Dave Lang, with a company-wide policy of never walking more than four dogs at once. Paws Express and Play, Paws, Repeat are both smaller, home-based operations that also offer dog walking and day care alongside overnight boarding. Animals at Home Rotherham is run by an operator named on its own site only as Jen, and covers the whole borough rather than one fixed area.
Which suits your dog
A kennels tends to suit a dog that is happy with its own space and a set routine; a home boarder tends to suit a dog that finds a kennels environment stressful, or one that is used to living in a house rather than a run. Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council licenses both kennels and home boarding under the same rules, though neither type can be checked against a public register here, so asking to see the certificate is the same question either way. See our council licences guide for why that is.
Ask about group size either way
Whichever type you choose, ask how many dogs will be there at the same time and from how many households, since a home boarder's small scale is its main selling point over a kennels, and a kennels' larger capacity is not in itself a mark against it. Clayton Lane Boarding Kennels, in Thurnscoe, is licensed by Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council rather than Rotherham, since Thurnscoe itself is administered by Barnsley, so its licensing position is genuinely different from the other ten even though it sits inside this town's own Wath & Swinton area.