How to choose a boarding facility

Daytime care gets most of the attention, but a boarding stay is decided at night. Write down where your dog sleeps at home, whether it is crate-trained, how often it goes out after dark, and how it reacts to strange noises. Add meals, measured, and any medication with its times. Note what unsettles it: other dogs barking, being shut in, thunder. A dog that sleeps through anything and a dog that paces until 2 AM need different things from a facility.

Then pin down the trip. How many nights, which dates, and whether the stay touches a holiday, which is when overnight space is hardest to find. Check that Rabies, DHPP and Bordetella will still be current on the last night and that the city dog license is up to date. Decide who can authorize treatment if you cannot be reached, and have your own vet's number ready. Every answer you collect later is measured against this list.

Massachusetts law defines a commercial boarding or training kennel as a place that boards, holds, provides day care or overnight stays for other people's animals for pay, and the city or town clerk licenses it outside Boston. Ollie's Law, signed September 20, 2024 and in effect December 19, 2024, requires an animal control inspection before a license is issued and at least once a year after. The detailed MDAR regulations it calls for were due in 2026 and had not been released as of the March 18, 2026 advisory committee minutes.

That means any claim to comply with final Ollie's Law rules is premature, wherever you hear it. What you can check today is the license, the maximum number of animals it names, the last inspection and how injuries are reported. The AKC's boarding advice adds the practical test: a reputable facility lets you see where the dogs stay, and a short test stay shows how your dog copes before a long one does.

Every new overnight guest at Dogtown completes the free evaluation first, on a weekday between 6:30 and 9:30 AM at 210 Eastern Ave in Gloucester: a temperament test, then a few supervised hours in a group. Bring the vaccine records and the city license. Then book the trial night: $78 for the suite, with the daytime playgroup and 24/7 monitoring included, and the Classic bundle at $10 a night or the Deluxe at $15 if you plan to use one on the trip.

Call 978 491-5922 if your dog takes medication, is older, has never slept away from home or has a history that worries you, and we talk through the stay before you book it. Sunday drop-off and pick-up for overnight guests runs 8 to 10 AM and 4 to 6 PM, and the Pup Van covers Rockport, Gloucester, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea at $10 each way.