How to choose dog boarding or day care in Southampton

Fifteen dog boarding and day-care businesses are listed for Southampton, spread across five areas: Southampton city centre, Portswood & St Denys; Shirley, Freemantle & Bassett; Bitterne, Woolston & Sholing; Totton & Marchwood; and Hythe & Fawley. Most, ten of the fifteen, are home boarders who take a dog into their own house rather than a kennel block; the other four run boarding kennels, and one, in Hythe, combines day care with grooming at one site. Several of the home boarders also offer day care or dog walking alongside overnight stays.

Home boarding or a kennel

A home boarder means your dog lives as part of somebody else's household for the stay, usually alongside family dogs rather than kennelled dogs from several households. We list a home boarder by area and town only; the exact address is given when you book, since it is somebody's home. A boarding kennel is purpose-built accommodation with an individual kennel, a set feeding and exercise routine and, in Southampton's case, fixed drop-off and collection windows rather than all-day access. Which suits your dog usually comes down to whether it would rather have a family around it or its own space and routine.

What the council licence tells you, and doesn't

Southampton sits across two different licensing authorities, and they publish very different amounts. Totton and Hythe fall under New Forest District Council, which keeps a public register (reached here through an aggregator listing) giving each business's licence type and, for some, a licence number; this register does not show a star rating for any business covered by this directory. The city centre, Shirley and Bitterne fall under Southampton City Council, which keeps no public licensing register at all and will only confirm a specific address by emailing its animal welfare team directly. For the businesses in those three areas, any licence number a business quotes is what it states about itself, not something checked against a council register, so it is worth asking to see the certificate itself and, if in doubt, contacting the council to confirm it.

Vaccinations, breed policies and insurance: what to ask

• Ask what vaccinations they require before booking, and how much notice they need to see proof.
• Ask whether they require kennel cough cover and, if so, how far ahead of the stay.
• Ask whether they have any breed policies, including for an XL Bully, and what they need to see if your dog is an exempted breed.
• Ask whether the business states it holds public liability insurance, and ask to see evidence of this rather than taking a website claim at face value.
• Ask what happens if your dog needs a vet while in their care, and who makes that call.

What to ask about the stay itself

Ask exactly where your dog will spend its time (a home boarder's own house, or a kennel run), how the price is worked out (most turn on the dog's size and the length of stay), and whether a bank holiday or a second dog from your household costs extra. Ask what a typical day looks like: how many other dogs are there at once, whether there is a garden or an exercise routine, and how a nervous or elderly dog is settled in. None of the fifteen businesses listed here carries a customer rating from an independently linked review site, such as Google or Trustpilot, with at least three reviews; that isn't unusual for a niche this local, but it means there is no rating to check, so ask each business directly for a recent reference or to see reviews they can show you before you book.