Home boarding or kennels in Cambridge?

Of the 20 dog boarders, day cares and kennels listed for Cambridge, 13 hold a home boarding licence and 7 hold a boarding kennels licence. No business here holds both.

Home boarding

A home boarder takes your dog into their own house, usually alongside their own family and any dogs of their own, rather than dogs from several households kennelled separately. Because it's somebody's home, we show a home boarder's area and town only, never a full address — the exact address is normally given once you've booked. Cambridge's 13 home boarders are spread across five areas: five in the Ely area (Paws Doggy Day Care, Carol Ford Bespoke Pet Service and Gundog Training, Catherine Adams Pet Sitting, Falkor Dog Boarding and Little Critters Pet Services), four in the Histon area (The Hound Dog Hotel, Lingwood Dog Day Care, Norman's Dog Day Care and Oscar & Co), two in the Sawston area (Penny's From Heaven and We Love Pets South Cambridgeshire), one in the Cambridge area (Home from Home) and one in the Cherry Hinton area (Cambridge Paws).

Boarding kennels

A boarding kennel is purpose-built premises with individual runs and set feeding and exercise times, run as a business rather than a household, and generally able to take more dogs at once than a single home boarder can. Six of Cambridge's seven kennels sit in the Ely area — Cloverleigh Dog Boarding Kennels, Mitchells Farm Boarding Kennels, Third Bridge Holiday Home for Dogs, Amberlea Country Kennels & Cattery, Cosy Kennels & Cattery and Meow Bow Wow Country Hotel for Cats & Dogs, three of which (Amberlea, Cosy and Meow Bow Wow) also take cats — and one, Oakington Dog Day Care Centre, sits in the Histon area despite trading under a day-care name.

Which suits your dog

A sociable dog that is used to living as one of the family, and to other dogs in the house, tends to do well with a home boarder. A dog that likes its own space, or that relies on fixed meal and exercise times, is often happier in a purpose-built kennels. Whichever you lean towards, ask how many dogs will be there on your dates and how much of the day yours would spend alone or in company, rather than reading that off the licence type. See how home boarding works and how boarding kennels work across the site.

Booking ahead

Home boarders in this directory generally take on fewer dogs at once than a kennels business, so the more established ones can book up well ahead of school holidays — it's worth asking early rather than assuming a place will be free. Few of Cambridge's businesses of either kind publish a price list online; where a figure is published, it's set out in the prices guide.