How to start a dog boarding business at home

1Decide what kind of boarding you are

There are two very different businesses that both get called “dog boarding”:

• In-home boarding. A handful of dogs stay in your house, sleep inside, and follow your routine. Low startup cost, high trust, limited capacity. This is what most solo boarders do and what this guide is about.
• A boarding kennel or facility. A dedicated building with runs or suites, staff and often daycare. It means commercial zoning, a kennel or facility license almost everywhere, inspections, and real capital. If you expect to regularly host more than a few dogs at once, plan for this route rather than stretching a house to fit.

Many home boarders also offer walks, drop-ins or home daycare. That is a good mix: the day services fill weekdays and feed you boarding clients who already trust you. If you are starting from scratch, our guide to starting a pet sitting business covers those services.

2Check zoning, HOA rules and kennel licenses

This is the step people skip and regret. Rules vary by state, county and city, so treat everything below as a list of questions to ask, not answers.

• Zoning. Call your city or county planning office and ask whether paid dog boarding is allowed as a home occupation at your address. Many residential zones cap the number of dogs per household (three or four is common), and some count boarded dogs toward that cap.
• Kennel or facility license. Some states license any paid boarding. Pennsylvania, for example, requires a kennel license for a boarding kennel open to the public or for any place that keeps or boards 26 or more dogs in a calendar year. Colorado licenses pet animal facilities, including boarding, under its Pet Animal Care Facilities Act. Other states leave it to counties or do not license small home boarders at all. Ask your state department of agriculture and your county animal services.
• HOA, lease and neighbors. Read your HOA covenants or lease for business-use and pet-count limits. A barking complaint from a neighbor is how most unlicensed home boarders get found.
• Business basics. A general business license, an LLC if you want to separate personal and business liability, and a free EIN from the IRS for banking.

Rover does not license you. Booking through a marketplace does not exempt you from local zoning or kennel rules. The platform is the booking service; you are still the one boarding dogs at your address.

3Get insurance that covers dogs in your home

When a dog lives with you for a week, the risk is higher than a 30-minute walk. You want:

• General liability for injury to people or property, such as a boarded dog biting a visitor.
• Care, custody and control coverage (also called pet bailee coverage). This is the important one: it pays when a dog in your care is injured, falls ill or goes missing. Check the limit per animal and whether vet bills are covered.
• Bonding is mostly for sitters who enter client homes. It matters less for boarding but is cheap if you also do visits.

Pet Sitters Associates and Pet Sitters International (PSI) both offer group insurance for pet care businesses, typically a few hundred dollars a year for a solo operator. When you get quotes, ask directly whether the policy covers boarding in your own home, since some policies only cover care at the client's home. Then call your homeowners or renters insurer: many policies exclude business activity, and some exclude dog bites from dogs you do not own.

4Set up your home for boarding

Dogs in an unfamiliar house try things. Walk your home like an escape artist would.

• Secure fencing. At least five or six feet for most breeds, no gaps underneath, self-latching gates. Check it every week.
• Double-door rule. There should always be two closed barriers between a dog and the street. Baby gates in front of exterior doors work.
• Separation. A way to split dogs into separate rooms or zones for feeding, sleeping and when you leave the house. Never leave unfamiliar dogs loose together unsupervised.
• Crates. Ask whether each dog is crate trained. Have a crate available in each size you accept, plus washable bedding.
• Dog-proofing. Food, medications, trash, cords and anything toxic (chocolate, xylitol gum, grapes) up and out of reach.
• Emergency plan. Your nearest 24-hour emergency vet, a backup person who can step in if you are sick, and a slip lead and recent photo for every dog.

5Decide how many dogs you will take

Start with two or three dogs at once, or one household's dogs at a time. Your true limit is the smallest of: what local rules allow, how many dogs your space can keep separated, and how many you can walk, feed and supervise without cutting corners. Your own dogs count toward that number.

Holidays will test this. Every client wants the same week in late December, and saying yes to all of them is how accidents happen. Decide your maximum before the requests arrive and raise prices on peak dates rather than squeezing in more dogs.

6Meet-and-greets, vaccines and contracts

Every new dog should do a meet-and-greet before its first stay. Watch how it reacts to your home, your dogs and being handled. Ask about bite history, separation anxiety, resource guarding, escape attempts and how it does in a crate. A short trial day or one-night stay is a good way to find out before you commit to ten nights.

Require proof of vaccination from the vet. The standard set is:

• Rabies, which state or local law requires for dogs in most of the US.
• DHPP (distemper, hepatitis, parainfluenza, parvovirus).
• Bordetella (kennel cough), since dogs sharing space pass it around.

Many boarders also ask for canine influenza and leptospirosis plus current flea and tick prevention.

Then get a signed boarding agreement covering rates, drop-off and pickup times, late pickup fees, cancellation terms, vet authorization and a spending limit for emergency care, what happens if a dog is not picked up, and a liability waiver. Our dog boarding contract template covers each clause. Pair it with an intake form for feeding, medications, vet contact and behavior notes; our client intake form checklist lists what to ask.

7Set your per-night prices

Boarding is priced per night, counted between drop-off and pickup. Rates vary widely by city, so look up what local home boarders and kennels charge before you settle on a number. As a rough guide for the US in 2026:

• In-home boarding, one dog: about $35-70 per night in most markets, $60-100 or more in major metros.
• Second dog, same household: usually an extra $20-35 per night, or 50-75% of your base rate.
• Holiday surcharge: 25-50% more, or a flat $10-20 per night, on Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year and summer holiday weekends.
• Extras: medication, puppies, special diets and late pickup are reasonable add-ons.

Do not price yourself at the bottom because you are new. Home boarding sells on attention and trust, not on being the cheapest option. The pet sitting pricing calculator gives you a starting range for your area, and the holiday rate calculator works out your peak-date pricing.

8Starting with little or no money

Home boarding is one of the cheapest pet businesses to start because you already have the building. A lean start looks like:

• Use the home, yard and crates you already have.
• Start on a marketplace so you do not need a website or ads on day one.
• Spend your first money on insurance and any required license. Those are not optional.
• Fix fencing gaps before you buy anything nicer than a crate.
• Hold off on an LLC and paid software until you have repeat clients, unless your area or insurer requires otherwise.

9Get your first clients

Most boarders start in one of two ways:

• Rover and similar apps. They bring you strangers who are already searching for boarding, and handle payment. The cost is the platform's cut on every stay, which hurts most on boarding because stays are large bookings. See how running your own clients compares with Rover.
• Your own clients. Friends, neighbors, coworkers, local Facebook groups and Nextdoor. Leave cards with vets and groomers who do not board. Ask every happy client for a Google review.

A common path is to use a marketplace to build reviews and experience, then grow a direct client list where you set your own prices and policies. Once you have that list, the first trip they book every year is a holiday, so keep in touch between stays.

10Run a daily routine and send updates

Boarded dogs settle faster with a predictable day: morning potty and walk, breakfast at their usual time, play or rest, midday break, an evening walk, dinner, a last potty trip and bed. Keep each dog on its home feeding schedule and log meals and medications as you give them.

Owners on vacation want to know their dog is fine. A photo and a couple of lines once or twice a day (ate breakfast, good walk, napping on the couch) is the single biggest reason boarding clients rebook. Tell owners about anything unusual the same day, including loose stools or a skipped meal.

11Use software built for nights, not visits

A paper calendar and payment apps work for your first few stays. Once you are juggling overlapping bookings and holiday requests, you want tools that think in nights. Nuzzo does this for home boarders:

• Per-night pricing. Set a nightly rate and an extra-pet rate; each stay is priced from its drop-off and pickup dates.
• A client booking link. Clients pick their own dates and see the number of nights and an estimated total before they send a request. Nothing is booked until you confirm.
• Peak dates. Add a per-night surcharge to holidays you choose (Team plan).
• Photo report cards so owners get updates during the stay.
• Vaccination records requests and e-signed agreements so the paperwork is done before drop-off.
• Invoicing where a multi-night stay is one line, not a pile of visits.

Nuzzo does not manage kennel runs or track occupancy, so you set and stick to your own dog limit. It costs $29 a month solo or $79 a month for a team of up to five, with a 14-day free trial and no card needed. Read more about dog boarding software for home boarders and small kennels.

12FAQ