Dog boarding & daycare in Colorado Springs, CO

Six of 41 Colorado Springs-area facility websites say whether anyone is there overnight, against one of 48 in Denver, and two of the six say nobody is. The median published boarding rate is $48 a night, $13 below Denver's.

Colorado Springs is a Tier A market. Under the Pet Animal Care and Facilities Act, every commercial boarding kennel, daycare, groomer and boarding veterinary practice in Colorado needs a license from the state Department of Agriculture, and the department publishes its full list of active licenses as a spreadsheet refreshed weekly. Of the 52 listings here, 34 carry a matched record on that list. Seven more were searched by hand against the full list and no record was found under the names we hold: Fusion Dog Training, Trails & Tails Dog Adventures, Aavondale Pet Care Center, ChampDog Park, Animal Hospital of Colorado Springs, Centennial Animal Hospital and Camp Bow Wow Colorado Springs Central. That is not the same as unlicensed. A facility licensed under a parent company or an owner's personal name will not match. The other 11 listings joined the index after the list was checked on 2026-08-06 and have not yet been matched. What the license cannot tell an owner is how an inspection went: the only public source of inspection outcomes stops in 2018.

The market is the counties of the Census metro area plus places within 30 miles of downtown: 52 listings, 42 of them dedicated boarding and daycare facilities, four veterinary practices that board, three groomers and three trainers. Thirty-eight have a Colorado Springs address. The rest are in Monument, Peyton, Fountain, Elbert, Woodland Park and Florissant. Forty-five publish a website, and we reached and reviewed 41. Every disclosure share below uses those 41 as the denominator, which means one website moves a share by about 2.4 points.

Six of the 41 address overnight staffing, 14.6 percent. Denver's figure is one of 48. Dallas sits at 13.7 percent and Chicago at 20.9, so Colorado Springs is unusual only beside its neighbor. Four say a person is on site. Two say so because the owners live there: Double J Dog Boarding Kennel calls it "Our Peace of Mind Promise: Owners Live on Site," and Jackson Creek Kennel says "The owners live on-site and actively care for boarding dogs throughout their stay." Pinnacle K9 says "We are onsite 24 hours a day to ensure the best care for your pet," and Aavondale Pet Care Center advertises "24/7 On-Site Care." Three of those four have Peyton or Elbert addresses, on the rural edge of the market. Two say plainly that nobody stays. Centennial Animal Hospital "does not have staff on premises after hours." Serenity Paws, a groomer that boards, gives its hours instead: "we ALWAYS have someone here 6 days a week 11 hours a day." Both answers are more useful to an owner than the silence of the other 35 sites.

The supervision numbers are empty. Not one of the 41 publishes a staff-to-dog ratio, a playgroup cap, a capacity, a policy for injuries or fights, or a vet on site or on call. The closest anyone comes to a capacity is Stubby's Dog Wash and Grooming Salon: "We maintain a small number of dogs." One site, Humble Paws, says its staff are trained in first aid and CPR. One, Jackson Creek Kennel, says how it sorts dogs, by size and temperament.

Seven describe a play model. Three run all-day open play: The Dog Stop, Canine Campus and Boardmoor Pet Resort, which offers "All-day play." Two run structured play, Dogtopia of Woodmen Rd. and Humble Paws. Smiths Dog Lodge runs open play with rest, and Mountain Dogs Basecamp crates dogs overnight and says "Dogs will nap in kennels for 3 hours a day from 11am-2pm." Only three sites say how long a dog spends out of its kennel. Tumbleweed Country Kennels gives the most specific answer: "we like to have the dogs outside for 6-8 hours per day in three different rotations." Three describe an option for a dog that cannot join a group, and at Under The Sun Dog Training and Daycare it is a paid add-on. Black Forest Dog Resort answers a question most sites skip: "All kennels have an attached outdoor run, and dogs have access to the run 24/7."

Sixteen of the 41 publish a vaccination list, 39.0 percent against 43.8 in Denver. All 16 require rabies and distemper. Fifteen require Bordetella. The exception is Falcon Kennel, whose list is "rabies, parvo and distemper." Canine influenza is required by two, Smiths Dog Lodge and Woodmoor Veterinary Hospital. Boardmoor Pet Resort states the middle position outright: "Canine Influenza is not required." The other 13 lists do not mention it. Leptospirosis is required by four. Five sites say how long before arrival Bordetella must be given, from one day at Mountain Dogs Basecamp to seven at Boardmoor. Nine say they want the records, not an owner's word. None require a fecal test. Trails & Tails Dog Adventures frames its rule as the state's: "Per CO state law, we require copies of all dogs vaccination records."

Four of the 41 publish a spay and neuter policy. Double J and The Dog Stop require it, The Dog Stop for dogs over seven months in daycare. Mountain Dogs Basecamp and Canine Campus require it of males only, from six and seven months. A later, deeper read found two more. Double D Ranch Dog Boarding and Training says "We do not accept unaltered males or females (except puppies under 7 months old)." Jackson Creek Kennel takes intact males and prices them separately: "All intact males are a flat $55 per day." Four publish a trial-day rule, and at Mountain Dogs Basecamp the first day is free. Six publish a tour policy. Tumbleweed, Boardmoor and Camp Bow Wow Central offer tours, Smiths Dog Lodge by appointment, and Dogtopia offers a 3D tour online. Black Forest Dog Resort says "We do not allow tours," citing liability. A refusal published in advance is still an answer. Breed rules diverge as sharply. Double D Ranch names breeds it does not accommodate, among them German Shepherds and Rottweilers, while 4 Paws Country Kennels says "every dog is welcome, including reactive and non-social dogs."

Price is where this market departs most from Denver. The median published overnight rate is $48, across 22 of the 52 listings, and 22 of the 45 websites we crawled had a rate on them, 48.9 percent. The middle half of those rates runs from $43 to $56, a spread of 1.3 times. Denver's median is $61, and its 25th percentile is $56, so the dearer quarter of Colorado Springs rates starts where the cheapest quarter of Denver's ends. Published rates here run from $30 a night at Countryside Kennel and Sunrise Kennels to $75 at Serenity Paws. The median daycare rate is $35 a day across 11 facilities, against $43 in Denver. Nine sites publish a cancellation rule. They run from Black Forest Dog Resort's "There is no fee for changes or cancellations" to Smiths Dog Lodge, which keeps holiday deposits outright.

Two structural caveats belong on every number here. Three of the 52 listings are Camp Bow Wow locations answering from one franchise website. Sunrise Kennels and Woodmen Kennels are separate listings at 780 and 740 Dublin Boulevard with separate phone numbers, but the state list shows both licenses held by Sunrise Kennels, Inc., and their websites differ by a hyphen. On a base of 41 reviewed sites, a single operator's choice moves the market.

None of this is a ranking and none of it is a judgment. Colorado already licenses these facilities and names them on a public list. Operators disagree in good faith about whether a person in the building overnight is essential or an expense that a well-run kennel does not need, and the state's license does not take a side. What the index measures is narrower: which of these facts you can find out before you pick up the phone.