{"id":1819103,"date":"2026-09-16T16:35:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T14:35:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/articles\/how-to-open-a-dog-day-care-in-the-uk-currentyear\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T16:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T14:02:13","slug":"how-to-open-a-dog-day-care-in-the-uk-currentyear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/articles\/how-to-open-a-dog-day-care-in-the-uk-currentyear\/","title":{"rendered":"How to open a dog day care in the UK 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

UK Pet Food’s 2026 Pet Population Survey, based on 8,951 online interviews carried out in January 2026, estimates 15.5 million dogs in UK households, against 12.5 million five years earlier. Commercial dog day care has been a licensable activity in England since 2018, and the licence sets the number of dogs the premises may take. This article sets out what opening one involves.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Day care for dogs sits inside the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018<\/strong>, alongside kennel boarding, home boarding and cat boarding. Those regulations cover England only. Scotland and Wales license boarding, including day care, under the older Animal Boarding Establishments Act 1963<\/strong>, and Northern Ireland runs a separate system again. Tax, wages, National Insurance and company registration are UK-wide. The sections below flag which nation each point applies to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is a dog day care business?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A dog day care business, often called doggy day care, provides daytime housing and supervision for other people’s dogs at a fixed premises, without overnight stays, and in England it requires an animal activity licence from the local authority before it trades. Defra’s statutory guidance is explicit that keeping dogs overnight is not allowed under a day care licence and that the premises must be a fixed site. That single line separates day care from boarding: an operator wanting both needs both licences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The activity is licensable when it is carried on commercially. Defra directs local authorities to HMRC’s badges of trade in deciding whether an operation is a business, and states that someone trading below the HMRC trading income allowance does not need a licence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How to open a dog day care in the UK, step by step<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In England, a day care cannot legally take its first dog until the licence is granted. Local authorities are told to aim for a decision within 10 weeks<\/strong> of receiving a new application, and the inspection happens before the grant, so the premises has to be finished and the paperwork written before any income arrives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a day care in England needs in place before it opens:<\/p>\n\n\n\n