Animal Boarding Licensing: What Kennel and Cattery Owners Must Document

The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 replaced the old Animal Boarding Establishments Act 1963. The new regulations introduced a star rating system (1 to 5 stars), mandatory licence conditions, and a risk-based inspection regime. For the estimated 8,000-plus boarding establishments in England (kennels, catteries, home boarders, and doggy day care), the documentation requirements have increased substantially.

Licence conditions and the star rating

The regulations set minimum standards that all licensed premises must meet, plus higher standards for higher star ratings. A 1-star licence is renewed annually. A 5-star licence can be granted for 3 years. The difference between a 1-year licence costing 200 to 400 per renewal and a 3-year licence is significant, so there is a strong financial incentive to maintain documentation that supports a higher rating.

The licence conditions cover: accommodation standards (kennel size, ventilation, temperature, lighting), staffing ratios, disease control, emergency procedures, fire safety, record keeping, and animal welfare outcomes. Each condition translates into one or more documentation requirements.

Per-animal records

For every animal boarded, the operator must maintain a record that includes: the owner's name and contact details (including emergency contact), the animal's name, breed, age, sex, and description, vaccination status (with dates and certificates), any medical conditions or medications, dietary requirements, the veterinary surgeon's details, the dates of admission and departure, and any incidents or health changes during the stay.

A 30-kennel operation running at 80 percent occupancy boards roughly 1,800 dogs per year. Each one requires an admission record, a vaccination check, a feeding plan, a daily welfare check record, and a departure record. That is 9,000 or more individual records per year, most of which are currently completed on paper forms and stored in filing cabinets.

Vaccination records

All boarding kennels require proof of vaccination before admitting a dog. The minimum requirement is typically vaccination against canine distemper, parvovirus, leptospirosis, and infectious hepatitis, with kennel cough vaccination also commonly required. The operator must check that the vaccinations are current (not expired and not too recently administered) and record the vaccination dates and veterinary practice details.

This sounds straightforward until you deal with the reality: vaccination cards in different formats, handwritten dates that are difficult to read, owners who cannot find their vaccination records, titre tests as alternatives to boosters, and the need to verify that the vaccination course was completed (not just started). Each admission becomes a mini-compliance exercise.

Medication administration

Many boarded animals require medication. Arthritis tablets, eye drops, insulin injections, anxiety medication. The operator must record every dose administered: the drug name, dose, route, time, and the person who administered it. For a kennel with 20 animals on medication, that is potentially 40 to 60 medication records per day, every day, including weekends and bank holidays.

Medication errors in animal boarding are a real risk. A missed dose, a double dose, or medication given to the wrong animal can have serious consequences. The documentation serves as both a compliance record and a safety mechanism, but only if it is completed accurately and consistently.

Cleaning and disinfection logs

Disease control in a boarding environment depends on rigorous cleaning. The licence conditions require a documented cleaning protocol and evidence that it is followed. In practice, this means a cleaning log for every kennel or cattery unit, recording what was cleaned, when, with what products, and by whom. Isolation facilities require separate logs with enhanced cleaning protocols.

A 30-kennel operation produces 30 cleaning log entries per day, 365 days per year. That is 10,950 entries annually. Add in kitchen cleaning records, common area records, and isolation unit records, and the cleaning documentation alone generates thousands of records per year.

Exercise and enrichment records

Higher-rated facilities must demonstrate that animals receive appropriate exercise and enrichment. This means documenting daily exercise provision (duration, type, individual or group) and any enrichment activities. For day care operations where dogs are in groups, group composition records are also needed to demonstrate safe management of mixing.

Inspection preparation

Local authority inspections can be announced or unannounced. The inspector reviews documentation, checks premises, observes animals, and assesses staff competence. They score against the model licence conditions and assign the star rating. An operator who cannot produce records for a randomly selected animal, or who has gaps in cleaning logs, or whose vaccination checking process is inconsistent, will lose stars.

Preparing for an inspection means being able to produce, at a moment's notice: the admission record for any animal currently on-site, the vaccination evidence, any medication records, the cleaning logs for the past week, the fire safety check records, the staff training records, and the emergency plan. Most operators prepare by spending a full day reviewing and organising their paper records before a scheduled inspection.

What booking software covers

Systems like PetPond, Kennel Booker, and Revelation Pets handle bookings, customer management, and invoicing. Some offer basic record-keeping for vaccinations and dietary notes. But none provide a compliance management system aligned to the 2018 Regulations: star rating evidence tracking, cleaning log management, medication administration records, exercise documentation, and inspection preparation tools. The gap between running a booking system and running a compliance system is where the administrative hours accumulate.