🐾 Guides, tools and blog

Help for running a dog daycare, from people who run one

We have run Duncan's Dog Co in Surrey since 2011. Here you will find the licence rules and what they cost, calculators for your prices, guides for changing your software, and everything we write about the job.

Sarah from the dog daycare waving, with her beagle, golden retriever and pug
Sarah from the dog daycare holding up a five-star certificate, with her beagle and pug at her feet

Know the rules

Licensing and reports

Every council in England sets its own licence fee, and the rules behind the licence run to dozens of pages. We read them all, checked each council's fee page, and wrote down what it means for a daycare like yours.

From the 2026 report

A new dog daycare licence costs £175 in Rugby and £1,410 in Westminster, for the same licence.

We read the fees on 230 council websites in September and October 2026.

See all 11 licensing pages
Sarah sitting on a stool with a calculator on her knee and her dogs beside her

Free calculators

Pricing and calculators

Most daycares set their price by looking at the one down the road. Our calculator starts from your own staff, rent and costs instead, and our price check shows what licensed daycares across England actually charge.

From our price check

The middle day rate across 238 licensed daycares is £32.50. In London it is £55.

  • London£55
  • South East£39.50
  • East of England£35
  • West Midlands£31
  • South West£30.75
  • East Midlands£30
  • North West£29.50
  • North East£27.50
  • Yorkshire£27.50

We read each daycare's day rate from its own website.

Sarah carrying a box of files to a laptop, with her beagle carrying a folder

Changing systems

Switching systems

Getting your customers out of your old system is the part everyone dreads. We read the help pages of 8 systems and turned each one into a checklist you can tick off as you go.

Pick your current system

Which system are you leaving?

Each guide shows every export step by step, what does not come out, and how much notice to give.

Read the switching plan →
Sarah writing in a notebook on a bench while her three dogs lie at her feet

From the daycare

Blog

We write about what we see every day at Duncan's Dog Co: which software suits a UK daycare, how to get paid on time, and how to keep dogs and staff happy.

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