Day care or boarding in Bristol?
Bristol's twenty-four listed dog boarders, day cares and kennels split fairly evenly between the two services: nine offer both day care and some form of overnight or home boarding, twelve offer only overnight or home boarding with no day care, and three offer day care only, with no overnight stays at all.
Day care
Day care is a booked day rather than a night: your dog goes in after breakfast and comes home at teatime. Three businesses here offer day care only, with no overnight boarding: Wag Tails Doggy Day Care, running from a converted forge in Stapleton; Precious Paws Pet-Care by Kirsty, offering day care and pet visits; and The Dog Village in Filton and Bradley Stoke. Day care is a licensed activity in its own right in England, so ask to see the day-care licence as well as where your dog will spend the day.
Overnight boarding or home boarding
Twelve businesses here board dogs overnight or take them into their own home, without also offering day care: Cannie Canines, Hannah Thorpe, Coco Pops Pet Services, Liza & Simba's Dog Walking & Grooming and Rips-Dips & Squirts Home Boarding in Bedminster and Southville; Daly Dog Care, Dogbwd, Emma's Dog House and Fun Time with the D's in Fishponds, Kingswood and Longwell Green; The Dog Retreat in Clifton and Redland; and Bristol's two boarding kennels, Cottage Kennels & Cattery and Latchets Kennels & Cattery. A home boarder usually takes far fewer dogs at once than a kennels, so ask how many others will be there during your dates and from how many households.
Businesses offering both
Nine businesses combine the two: Happy Yappers, Platinum Petcare (SW) Ltd, Willsbridge Walkies, Friends for Pets, House of Paws Bristol and Walks with the Pack, plus, around Portishead, Portishead Pet Services, We Love Pets Clevedon and Portishead and Friends for Pets North Somerset. A business offering both can often cover a single working week of day care and a fortnight's holiday boarding without you needing to find a second provider.
Which to choose
If your dog just needs company and exercise during the working day and sleeps at home, day care is the simpler option. If you are away overnight or longer, you need boarding, and whether that is a home boarder or a kennels comes down to whether your dog would rather share a house with one family's dogs or have its own space among more dogs overall. A dog that has never spent a night away from home might do better starting with a day at one of the day-care businesses before a first full stay, though this is a general suggestion rather than a policy any of these businesses states.
Where to look next
See our guide to choosing a boarder in Bristol for the full list by area, and our Bristol prices guide for what the seven businesses that publish a price charge.