House Sitter or Kennel? Choosing What’s Right for Your Animals

Two neighbours on the same street are going away the same week.

One has a young, bouncy Labrador who loves every dog he’s ever met. He goes to the kennel down the lane, where he spends the week in a play group, and comes home tired and pleased with himself.

The other has an elderly terrier with a heart condition, who growls at other dogs and sleeps on the same blanket every night. She stays at home with a sitter who gives her tablets at eight and eight, and walks her slowly to the end of the road and back.

Both owners made the right choice. They just made it for different dogs.

This choice often gets framed as one option against the other, and it isn’t. A kennel or cattery and a house sitter are different arrangements. One brings your animal to a place set up for animals. The other brings a person into your home.

The right answer depends far more on your animal, your home and your trip than on which is “better”. Kennels aren’t the enemy, and sitters aren’t the answer to everything.

• Your dog is sociable and adaptable. Some dogs enjoy the company and the change, and settle quickly somewhere new.
• You need certainty about your dates. A good kennel can usually take you if you book ahead. Finding the right sitter for particular dates takes more matching, and sometimes it doesn’t come together.
• Your animal’s needs are straightforward. Ordinary feeding, ordinary exercise, nothing that depends on one person’s close attention.
• You’d rather nobody stayed in your home. That’s a perfectly good reason. Your home is yours.
• It’s a short trip. For a few days, the change may matter less than it would over weeks.

• Your animal is anxious, older, or finds change hard. Staying in a familiar place, on a familiar routine, can matter a great deal to some animals.
• Your dog doesn’t like other dogs. A kennel has other dogs in it, and that’s hard to work around.
• You have several animals, or several kinds. Two dogs, three cats and the hens don’t all go to the same place. A sitter looks after the household as it is.
• Care needs a steady hand. Medication at set times, a special diet, gentle exercise. Ask any kennel whether they can manage it, and ask any sitter whether they’ve done it before.
• You’d like the home lived in. Post collected, plants watered, someone noticing the leak on the first day rather than the last.

For cats, the same choice usually means a cattery or someone at home. Some cats cope well with a visiting feeder who pops in once or twice a day; others are better with someone living in. And some animals, like rabbits, birds, fish or the chickens, rarely fit a kennel at all. Think about each animal, not just the one you worry about most.

Visit before you decide. If it’s a kennel or cattery, ask to see where your animal would sleep and exercise, and ask how they handle a vet visit, medication and an animal who won’t eat. Ask too what licence or inspection they’re under. In England, a business that boards cats or dogs, whether a cattery, kennels, home boarding or dog day care, needs a licence from the local council (the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018, schedule 1). Elsewhere, check the rules where you live.

Meet before you decide. If it’s a sitter, meet them with your animals, and ask the questions that matter (we have a guide to those).

If you’re a sitter reading this, it’s worth knowing that some homeowners weigh you against a kennel before they ever think about a sitter. Be honest if an animal’s needs are beyond what you’ve done. “I’ve never managed diabetes, and your vet might be the better judge of whether I can” is the kind of answer that earns trust, even if it costs you the sit.

Reputable Sitters is for the sitter route: an agreement between a homeowner and a sitter, built from questions you each answer from your own side, including meeting first and the urgent vet decision, the two that weigh most when you’re choosing between a sitter and a kennel. One of you proposes, the other answers, each line matches or isn’t matched yet, and once you’ve both signed, you can each download a copy.

If a kennel or cattery is right for your animal, that’s a good outcome too. They’ll have their own booking terms, so read those as carefully as you would an agreement.