A dog boarding kennel runs on more than one job.
The staff list divides into six groups: kennel attendants who clean and feed, playcare attendants who supervise daycare playgroups, bathers and groomers where grooming is offered, front-desk staff who run check-ins, dog trainers at some locations, and a manager over the whole operation.
Here is what each role does day to day, and which one makes the strongest first application.
Kennel attendant: the care floor
The kennel attendant is the job the building runs on.
BLS's Occupational Outlook Handbook describes kennel attendants caring for pets, often overnight, in place of owners: cleaning cages and dog runs, feeding, exercising and playing with the animals.
Experienced attendants may take on more, BLS notes — basic healthcare, bathing animals and other basic grooming needs.
Titles vary by facility: O*NET's reported titles for animal caretakers include Kennel Attendant and Kennel Technician, and boarding companies add branded versions of their own.
Best Friends Pet Care, an employee-owned boarding and daycare company with 80+ locations, hires Animal Care Technicians for hands-on care covering personalized attention, proper feeding and medication administration.
At PetSmart's PetsHotel, the same floor job is the PetsHotel Specialist.
The company describes the role as handling check-ins and check-outs, leading playtime and keeping the hotel clean.
The schedule follows the animals.
BLS notes part-time work is common in the occupation, schedules can include evenings, weekends and holidays, and facilities that operate 24 hours a day, such as kennels, may need care around the clock.
Our kennel attendant career guide covers the duties, the cleaning routines and how to get hired in depth.
Notice, record, report
Playcare/daycare attendant: the playroom
Where boarding and daycare share a building, the playroom gets its own staff.
Best Friends Pet Care calls its version Day Camp Counselors and says they facilitate playgroups and enrichment activities.
The chains structure the play floor deliberately.
Dogtopia separates dogs into playrooms by size and temperament, calls its playroom attendants Canine Coaches, and says they complete a four-part training process.
Its published daycare day runs 8–10 hours of open play around a midday nap from 12 to 2 p.m., when staff serve lunches and clean the playrooms.
Hounds Town says it groups daycare dogs into packs by size, temperament, energy level and play style across 5+ play areas.
The craft here is dog body language: reading which dogs are fine together, spotting when play tips into bullying, and knowing when a dog needs a break.
Browse dog daycare attendant jobs or read the dog daycare attendant guide for the playgroup job in detail.
Bather/groomer: the grooming wing
A grooming wing adds two more jobs to the staff list.
Bathers wash, dry and brush — the prep work a haircut depends on — while groomers do the clipping and scissoring.
The jobs can blur where the teams share a building: BLS notes experienced kennel attendants may bathe animals and attend to other basic grooming needs.
Best Friends Pet Care lists Groomers & Stylists among its boarding-facility roles.
Bathing is the entry job into professional grooming: the dog bather guide explains the job and the move from tub to table, and dog bather jobs show what facilities are hiring for.
Front desk: check-in, check-out and the phones
Someone runs the counter, and boarding companies staff it deliberately.
Best Friends Pet Care lists Customer Service Representatives and an Operational Support Team among its roles.
At PetSmart's PetsHotel, check-ins and check-outs are a named part of the specialist's job.
The front desk owns the human side of a stay: greeting owners, taking down feeding notes and medication instructions, managing bookings and relaying each dog's care sheet to the care floor.
It is the job for someone who likes systems and people as much as dogs — and it is not a grooming job.
Trainer
Some boarding companies employ trainers directly — Best Friends Pet Care lists Dog Trainers among its roles — and big-box stores run training teams of their own; Petco lists Dog Training among its in-store roles.
PetSmart's path shows what employer-side training looks like.
Its trainers complete 16 hours of pre-work and 80 hours of hands-on shadowing, paid on the clock, before becoming certified PetSmart trainers.
That certification is PetSmart's internal program — not a credential you carry to the next employer.
If training is the goal, say so when you apply: trainer roles are listed separately from care-floor jobs.
The dog trainer career guide covers the route and the certifications in detail.
Manager: the rung above the floor
Above the care floor sits the manager.
Titles vary: Best Friends Pet Care lists Center Managers.
PetSmart's published PetsHotel ladder runs PetsHotel Specialist, then PetsHotel Lead, who holds store keys, then PetsHotel Leader, who supervises and trains the hotel's associates.
The job shifts from dogs to the operation: staffing and scheduling, client conversations, safety routines and the facility's numbers, with less scrubbing and more paperwork.
Pay has no exact federal line: BLS publishes no pet-resort-manager occupation.
The closest available figure is first-line supervisors of personal service workers (SOC 39-1022) — a median of $21.98 an hour, or $45,720 a year, in other personal services (NAICS 812900) in May 2025.
Employers post their own numbers.
PetSmart's PetsHotel Lead postings were hourly — for example, $14.21–$22.81 in Texas and $18.59–$33.59 in California.
A PetsHotel Manager posting in Texas listed $15.66–$27.50 an hour, plus a quarterly incentive based on eligible earnings and store performance.
Those are PetSmart's posted ranges, read in October 2026 — one employer's figures, not a market rate.
The pet resort manager guide covers the role, the ladder and the pay figures in full.
Which job to start with
Match the first application to the reason you want the building.
If what you want is hands-on animal time all shift, apply for the boarding-attendant side of the staff list: kennel attendant or daycare attendant.
BLS says animal care and service workers typically need a high school diploma or equivalent and no prior work experience in a related occupation, and learn the occupation on the job.
BLS notes many employers prefer candidates who already have animal experience.
If grooming is the goal, the bather job gets you into the tubs first.
If you like bookings, systems and owners, apply for the front desk.
Trainer roles are listed separately.
Whichever door you pick, expect physical work: BLS describes moving and cleaning cages, lifting heavy bags of food, and needing the stamina to kneel, crawl and lift supplies.
The qualities BLS flags for the occupation are compassion, customer-service skills, detail orientation, patience, physical stamina, problem-solving and reliability.
Progression is real inside one building: PetSmart publishes a Specialist-to-Lead-to-Leader ladder, and Best Friends Pet Care lists Center Managers.
Career information, not legal, tax, insurance or veterinary advice. Confirm each role's duties, schedule and pay with the employer you apply to, and any pet-health question with the owner's veterinarian.