How we check

Food answers

Every food page is written against named veterinary sources: the Pet Poison Helpline, VCA Animal Hospitals, the PDSA, the Kennel Club, Vets Now, Battersea and the MSD Veterinary Manual. The sources are linked at the bottom of each page, and we only claim what they say. Where sources disagree, the page says so rather than picking a side quietly.

Each page shows the date it was last updated. Veterinary review is the next thing we are adding: no page has been reviewed by a veterinary professional yet, and every page says so plainly rather than implying otherwise. When a page has been reviewed, it will carry the reviewer's name, their credentials and the date. WagGuide is general information, not veterinary advice, and every risky-food page carries the emergency routes: your own vet, Vets Now out of hours, and the Animal PoisonLine on 01202 509000.

Hydrotherapy centres

Hydrotherapy listings start from the official registers: NARCH (the National Association of Registered Canine Hydrotherapists) and the CHA (the Canine Hydrotherapy Association). A registration badge means the centre appears on that register, read on the date shown.

The address, phone number, facilities and any prices on a listing are then re-sourced independently from the centre's own website, not copied from the register, because register details sometimes go out of date. That is still not the same as us contacting the centre directly. Every listing says plainly whether we have confirmed its details by phone yet, and shows the date if we have.

Boarding and daycare

Dog boarding, home boarding and daycare are licensed activities in England, so unlike groomers this is a trade with a real legal register behind it. Every listing starts from the licensing council itself: the licence number, the star rating and the expiry date are read directly from that council's own published register.

The star rating is a welfare and compliance score set by the council, not a customer review. A business can be fully legal and well run at 2 or 3 stars, and every listing says so. As with hydrotherapy, holding a valid licence is not the same as us having spoken to the business, and each listing says plainly whether we have confirmed prices and availability by phone yet.

Pubs and groomers

Neither trade has an official register, and there are too many independent pubs and salons in the UK to phone each one, so we do not claim to have checked every listing directly the way we do for food and hydrotherapy.

For pubs, the scalable check is the chain policy: reading one published policy from a chain like Greene King or Wetherspoons tells you what to expect at hundreds of venues at once, and we say plainly that it is usually down to the manager on the day rather than an absolute promise. For independent pubs, and for groomers, where no register or chain policy exists, we publish guides on what to check yourself rather than a directory we cannot stand behind.

Where we do hand-verify a specific pub or groomer, by phone, that listing says so and shows the date. Everything else is clearly marked as guidance, not a confirmed listing. If you spot something out of date, tell us at hello@wagguide.co.uk.

What we never do

• No invented reviewers, ratings or review counts
• No health claims beyond what the cited sources say
• No listings copied from other directories
• No verdicts without sources shown on the page

Questions about how a specific page was checked? Start at the food checker or email us.