Dog boarding

[BigBill]

Not sure whether to post this here or in money matters , has anyone made money from dog boarding? There are hundreds of ads of people offering dog boarding, so not sure if there's room for one more. would love to hear from anyone who has had some success doing this. TIA

Assuming you're in the UK, you will need a license from your council (anywhere between £150-500 per year) as well as various qualifications in first aid and animal care.

You'll have limits on the number of dogs you can take depending on the size of your home, your experience and number of employees (if any), and you won't be able to leave them alone for long - some licenses don't allow you to leave them at all.

Around here, daycares charge anywhere between £10-30 per day which includes all walks and a pick-up and drop-off service. There is money to be made in it but you're giving up your home and you'll need to account for damage, marking, accidents and make sure you know what you're doing when it comes to canine behaviour and first aid too.

Personally I looked into it and did a lot of research, but I make just as much (if not more) money doing dog-walking and drop ins, with the added bonus that I didn't need to turn my home into a workplace, lol.

The dog boarding I use for my dog, have a cottage in the middle of nowhere with 9 acres of land. The dogs sleep in the living room around a log burner. They have invested in CCTV and lots of good fencing. The owner barely leaves the property, which is how she likes to be.

She charges £45 for 24 hours.

@RIPWalter

The dog boarding I use for my dog, have a cottage in the middle of nowhere with 9 acres of land. The dogs sleep in the living room around a log burner. They have invested in CCTV and lots of good fencing. The owner barely leaves the property, which is how she likes to be.

She charges £45 for 24 hours.

I can almost guarantee that this person isn't licensed in accordance with the legislation and local policies. If they are they'll be limited in the number of dogs they can take and should not be taking dogs from different families. Also £45 is daylight robbery, £30 maximum is the usual rate.

@Nelliephant1 there's nothing to say you can't take dogs from different families - otherwise no boarder or daycare would be able to make a living.

What is it about that set-up that makes you assume they're unlicensed?

@fairylightsandwaxmelts

Assuming you're in the UK, you will need a license from your council (anywhere between £150-500 per year) as well as various qualifications in first aid and animal care.

You'll have limits on the number of dogs you can take depending on the size of your home, your experience and number of employees (if any), and you won't be able to leave them alone for long - some licenses don't allow you to leave them at all.

Around here, daycares charge anywhere between £10-30 per day which includes all walks and a pick-up and drop-off service. There is money to be made in it but you're giving up your home and you'll need to account for damage, marking, accidents and make sure you know what you're doing when it comes to canine behaviour and first aid too.

Personally I looked into it and did a lot of research, but I make just as much (if not more) money doing dog-walking and drop ins, with the added bonus that I didn't need to turn my home into a workplace, lol.

According to the DEFRA guidelines you don't need a license till you've made over £1000 a year ?

£45 is standard in London

Lots of folk on Rover and very high demand ! Almost crazy demand with lockdown pups and people returning to work .. not enough daycare spaces

£20-35 a day normal even with unlicensed boarders

Also if you are licensed you can take multiple dogs , just level of hygiene management / vax record collection etc

Look up places like Bruce's / crufty pups - licensed and take dogs from multiple homes

@stevalnamechanger this has been strongly debated amongst dog professionals.

All you need to do to make £1000 is board one dog a day for a month. Anyone doing this as a business is going to cross that threshold very, very quickly and will therefore need to be licensed by the council.

Insurance will also not cover you if you are boarding dogs without a license.

[quote fairylightsandwaxmelts]@stevalnamechanger this has been strongly debated amongst dog professionals.

All you need to do to make £1000 is board one dog a day for a month. Anyone doing this as a business is going to cross that threshold very, very quickly and will therefore need to be licensed by the council.

Insurance will also not cover you if you are boarding dogs without a license.[/quote]
Rover has its own insurance though no?

What if someone wasn't doing that much and only made a couple of hundred - they are under the threshold so do not need to be licensed ?

@stevalnamechanger it doesn't matter what insurance Rover does or doesn't have.

If you are insured to provide daycare or home boarding, your insurance (whether that's via Rover or a proper insurance company) will only be valid if you are following the law and are licensed as appropriate.

The first thing your insurance will do if you make a claim due to an incident that's happened at daycare will be to ask for your license and safety policies.

It doesn't matter whether you earn a "couple of hundred" or a couple of hundred thousand - you should be licensed if you are providing daycare or boarding services in your home for money.

If you are unlicensed (and therefore automatically uninsured) and you find yourself getting sued for poor practise (say, if two dogs fight and one requires extensive vet care) you could find yourself banned from owning or working with animals for anything up to a decade for not being licensed and for operating an illegal daycare.

support-uk.rover.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360060228652-Where-can-I-find-more-information-about-licensing-

Here.

Rover require you to be licensed in accordance with your local area in order for their terms of service to apply.

Even though they go on to say "occasional boarders don't require a license" - if you try and claim through them and they realise you're unlicensed, they are highly likely to reject your claim and refuse to cover you as you are not abiding by the law.

Rover is just a platform for dog sitters to advertise, it is not a professional company that goes through all the relevant checks before allowing people to advertise their services.

www.protectivity.com/knowledge-centre/your-guide-to-dog-boarding-licences/

@BigBill - Protectivity explain it well and explain what you need to do in order to be licensed and insured properly.

I can almost guarantee that this person isn't licensed in accordance with the legislation and local policies. If they are they'll be limited in the number of dogs they can take and should not be taking dogs from different families. Also £45 is daylight robbery, £30 maximum is the usual rate.

Well given the company is featured on the welsh government business website, I'll take their 'guarantee' over yours, and whilst £45 is expensive, my dog is settling well there, even climbing on to the owners lap for cuddles, which is a vast improvement over his kennels trial where he got so anxious that he shit himself standing up and had to be picked up within an hour of arriving. I would prefer not to have to pay £45 a night, but if it means I get a holiday abroad sometime in the next decade, then I will just have to roll with it.

I'm in London. Had no idea I'd require a licence! I wouldn't have more than 1 dog at a time and if there's not much money to be made, might not get over the £1 000 threshold. But sounds like insurance will be very important. Thanks for the answers x

@BigBill

I'm in London. Had no idea I'd require a licence! I wouldn't have more than 1 dog at a time and if there's not much money to be made, might not get over the £1 000 threshold. But sounds like insurance will be very important. Thanks for the answers x

You won't get valid insurance without a license.

Well, you'll be able to take it out, but if there's an incident, they won't cover you as you won't be following your council's licensing requirements, and if the customer decides to sue you (eg. if their dog gets badly injured in your care) you could end up with a fine and a ban on keeping/working with animals at best, a prison sentence at worst.

A license in London will cost you probably nearer £500 per year - you will need first aid qualifications as well as qualifications in animal behaviour in order for your application to even be considered, then they will come out and inspect your property.

You'll need all sorts of health and safety policies, a fridge to store medications, separate areas for separate dogs, a secure garden, a double-door system to stop dogs escaping etc etc.

I'm aware I probably sound like a bore but I work with animals and people who try and skip around the requirements (not saying you would, but in general) really piss me off as they give us all a bad name.

One of my friends does dog walking and pet boarding in south London. It's her only job so she must make a living out of it.

We are paying £50 a night in August for our pet boarding. We live in the midlands.

It's quite ironic the whole thing though ..

I know two daycare centres, one that takes 20 dogs a day ish , one that takes 6 , another that takes 15 or so all in my vicinity and none of them are licensed .

I have a friend who works via rover and takes one at a time and treats them as if their his own pet - rave reviews !

I'd rather leave any pet if mine with the latter , I agree the first camp should be licensed but I don't agree that an individual looking after one animal should be .

They're *

I know two daycare centres, one that takes 20 dogs a day ish , one that takes 6 , another that takes 15 or so all in my vicinity and none of them are licensed

I can't imagine any daycare centre taking 15+ dogs in the UK is able to operate without a license. How do you know they're unlicensed?

I'd rather leave any pet if mine with the latter , I agree the first camp should be licensed but I don't agree that an individual looking after one animal should be

I mean, of course you're entitled to your opinion, but the law sees it differently. Someone who is looking after cats or dogs in their home for profit requires a license. If you perform daycare without a license, you're opening yourself to a whole host of legal repercussions.

If they are unlicensed, they won't be able to get insurance, and insurance is pretty vital when you are looking after someone else's animals for a living, don't you think?

Then again, nobody thinks insurance matters until something goes wrong. It covers everything from lost keys to accidental negligence to injury and death. It also covers you if your dog is in the sitters care and gets into a fight with a strange dog, runs off and causes an accident or bites a passer by, to name a few scenarios.

Of course nobody thinks those things will happen, but I can tell you those things happen every day to professional animal carers - because we work with animals and they're not robots - equipment fails, dogs spook, dogs chase and get scared. You can do everything possible to prevent it but it's never going to foolproof.

Well they are two properties that do it , I know they aren't licensed because in discussions various friends mentioned they asked for this info when looking at places .

I've done some more research into this and the "below £1000" thing is a big sticking point / grey area it seems within professional forums as you say.

Am I right to say - You do need to be licensed to look after someone's dog in the owners home or walk it outside - it is possible to have insurance for these activities. This is based on my reading .

Odd that you need to be qualified in first aid if you're not at the owners home but are if it's your home .

*large properties .

I can even show you them 🤣

The one that takes six is just a lady from her apartment !

Omg sorry - you Do NOT need to be licensed in owners home or to dog walk ?

@stevalnamechanger that is right, dog walkers and pet sitters do not need to be licensed.
It is hoped that they will need to be licensed when the regs are revisited in 2023.

@stevalnamechanger

Omg sorry - you Do NOT need to be licensed in owners home or to dog walk ?

Correct.

Dog walkers and pet-sitters (who care for dogs and cats in the owners' home) cannot be licensed at present.

However as PP said, they are hoping to change that and sitters/walkers may need to apply for licenses going forward, but there's nothing concrete coming out yet.

Ironically borrow my doggy ( free dog sitting by doglovers ) is fully insured 🤣

@stevalnamechanger

Ironically borrow my doggy ( free dog sitting by doglovers ) is fully insured 🤣

Borrow My Doggy comes with all sorts of risks, though - it's pretty contentious amongst those of use who do pet care for a living.

The only reason they have "insurance" is because technically people on there are doing you a favour and it's not a business so money shouldn't be changing hands.

Still not something I would risk with my own dog, though. I would rather leave him in kennels than risk him ending up with someone dodgy.