Do I need a licence to board dogs at home?

If you look after other people’s dogs for money, you may need an animal activity licence from your local council. Whether you do depends on what you offer and how much you earn. This guide explains the rules in England in plain terms, including the £1,000 question people most often ask.

The short answer

If you board or care for other people’s dogs commercially in England, you almost certainly need a licence under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018. This covers home boarding (overnight in your own home), dog day care (daytime at other premises) and boarding kennels. Caring for a dog in its own owner’s home, such as dog sitting or dog walking, is not licensable.

The £1,000 trading allowance

There is a genuine small-scale exception. If your trading income from the activity stays below the HMRC £1,000 trading allowance, you may not need a licence. But two things matter: your local council has the final say, and earning more than £1,000 does not automatically make you a business. Councils also weigh HMRC’s “badges of trade”, such as whether you advertise, do it regularly, and aim to profit. If you are at all unsure, ask your council before you start.

Which licence do you need?

It depends on how you care for the dogs:

• Overnight in your own home: home boarding licence.
• Daytime only, at premises that are not the dog’s home: dog day care licence.
• Overnight in purpose-built kennels: boarding kennels licence.
• In their own home (sitting): no licence needed.

What happens if you do not get a licence

Operating a licensable activity without a licence is a criminal offence. The penalty under the 2018 Regulations is an unlimited fine and/or up to six months in prison. You may also see older pages quoting “£500 or three months”, that is the repealed 1963 Act figure and is out of date.

How to get licensed

The process is the same across councils: you apply on your council’s form, pay the fee, prepare the written procedures and records the conditions require, and the council inspects your premises before granting the licence for one, two or three years with a star rating from one to five.

The written pack is the part that takes the longest. PetApproved builds it for you from a short questionnaire, tailored to your activity and mapped to each licence condition, so you can apply with confidence in about fifteen minutes.