How we check listings
Paws of London lists dog-friendly venues across Greater London. This page explains where the information in a listing comes from, what our labels mean, what has and has not been checked, and how to correct anything that is wrong. Published 2 September 2026; every figure quoted is dated.
1. What dog-friendly means on Paws of London
A venue appears in our dog-friendly lists because we checked it before listing it: we read the venue’s own website, its recent reviews and what we already knew about the place, and listed it only if that check said dogs are welcome somewhere on the premises. Stronger evidence can sit on top — a dated confirmation from the venue itself, or an explicit statement on the venue’s own website — and the listing says which applies. The label tells you a venue is worth checking; on its own it is not a guarantee.
It does not mean that we have visited, that the venue has told us directly (unless the listing says so), that dogs are allowed in every part of the venue, that there are no size, breed, lead or time restrictions, or that the policy is still current today. Vets, groomers, trainers, daycare and pet shops are listed because they serve dogs, not because they are places to take a dog for leisure.
If a visit matters — a booked table, a long journey, a large dog — call the venue first. Venue pages show the venue’s own phone number and website where we have them.
2. Where listing information comes from
Listings are built from five kinds of source. They are not equal: a dated statement from the venue outranks the venue’s own website, which outranks our editorial check, which outranks a third-party listing, and a visitor report that dogs were turned away is treated as a dispute until it has been checked.
Editorial check before listing
Every listing gets one, and nothing is published without it. Before a venue is added we review its own website, its recent reviews and what we already know about the place, and it goes on the site as dog-friendly only if that review says dogs are welcome. Where the category makes dogs the customer — vets, groomers, pet shops, daycare and trainers — we list by category instead and claim no dog-policy check, because there is no leisure policy to check. This is our own desk check, not the venue speaking, so it is labelled Checked by Paws of London, and it never outranks the venue’s own website: if that website says dogs are not allowed, the website wins.
Public business listings
Most venues enter the guide from publicly available business listings: the name, address, venue type, opening hours where published, and a general customer rating. A public listing tells us that a venue exists and where it is. It is not evidence of a dog policy.
Venue website extraction
Where a venue has its own website, we fetch it and read it for an explicit statement about dogs. The extraction records one of three things: a statement that dogs are welcome, a statement that they are not, or that no information about dogs was found. It stores the wording it relied on and the page it came from, and it notes amenities the site mentions, such as water bowls or a garden, as suggestions. A value is applied to the listing only when it is backed by that evidence and the field is empty; anything ambiguous waits for a person to review it, and an extraction never overwrites information a person has entered.
Direct confirmation by the venue
We email venues to ask whether dogs are still welcome. The email carries signed links so the venue can answer in one step: yes; yes, with restrictions; no; or stop contacting us. A yes is recorded with the method and the date, and it expires twelve months later. Restrictions are held for review before they appear on the listing. A no removes the verified badge immediately and sends the listing for review — nothing is deleted automatically. Telephone confirmation is planned but not yet in use. Venues can also confirm or correct their own listing: see For venues. How these contacts are handled is set out in our privacy policy.
Visitor corrections and reports
Anyone can report a venue as not dog-friendly from its page, with or without an account. Signed-in members can suggest edits to a venue’s description, opening hours and photos. Every report and suggestion is read by a person before anything changes; none is applied automatically.
3. Listing verification and dog-policy verification are different
Listing verification means the venue exists, at that address, with those contact details and opening hours. Dog-policy verification means dogs are welcome, where they are welcome, under what conditions, and when that was last checked. A venue can confirm that its listing is accurate without confirming every amenity or its dog policy, so the two are recorded separately.
Every venue page now carries a policy card that records the dog policy, the evidence behind it, the source and the date it was checked; it is described on Dog policy status labels. The older verified badge is narrower and still appears on venue cards in lists and search results: it is produced only by the venue answering our direct email that dogs are still welcome, so it is a dated, venue-direct policy confirmation. Neither yet records where in a venue dogs are allowed.
4. The policy status labels
Each listing carries one of nine policy statuses. They describe the evidence we hold, not how welcoming the venue is.
- Confirmed — The venue itself told us dogs are welcome, by email, telephone or its owner account, and the confirmation has not expired.
- Published — The venue’s own website states that dogs are welcome; we record the wording and the page.
- Editorially checked — Paws of London reviewed the venue’s website, its recent reviews and what we already knew about the place before listing it. It is our own check, not the venue’s word, and it never overrides what the venue’s own website says.
- Community confirmed — A visitor reported dogs being welcomed on a dated visit and a Paws of London reviewer accepted the report.
- Probable — Indirect evidence points to dogs being welcome, such as a third-party listing describing the venue as dog-friendly, but nothing from the venue itself.
- Unconfirmed — We hold no statement about dogs from the venue or its website; the listing rests on a third-party source.
- Disputed — Sources disagree, or a visitor has reported being turned away, and we have not yet resolved it.
- Not dog-friendly — The venue has told us, or its website states, that dogs are not allowed; the record is kept but the venue is not shown as a place to visit with a dog.
- Closed — The venue has closed, temporarily or permanently.
As of 2 September 2026, all 889 live listings are editorially checked, and no listing has yet been confirmed directly by its venue: verification outreach began on 2 September 2026, 109 venues have been emailed, and none has replied yet. Only a venue-direct confirmation moves a listing to confirmed; reviews, ratings, outdoor seating, venue type and website extractions never do. Live figures are published on our data quality page.
5. What missing information means
Missing is not negative. If a listing shows no opening hours, we do not know them; it does not mean the venue is open around the clock, and it does not mean it is closed. If an amenity is not marked, it has not been recorded; it does not mean the venue lacks it. A venue with no water bowl marked may well have one.
Some things are never treated as evidence of a dog policy: outdoor seating, the type of venue, a star rating, or the fact that the venue appears in this guide. A rating measures general customer reviews, not dog friendliness. A pub is not dog-friendly because it is a pub.
6. Confirmations expire
A direct confirmation is valid for twelve months from the date the venue gave it. When it lapses the badge is removed automatically and the listing falls back to the next-strongest evidence we hold — a statement on the venue’s own website, or our editorial check — until the venue is asked again. We contact a venue at most once or twice a year, and never for marketing. Each policy status carries its own checked date and expiry, so a statement read from a website is refreshed when the site is re-read rather than being treated as permanent.
If a venue tells us dogs are no longer welcome, the badge comes off immediately and the listing goes for review. Once a reviewer has confirmed the change, the venue leaves the dog-friendly lists; under the status model it is marked not dog-friendly. We do not delete listings automatically on a single report.
7. How to correct a listing
- On any venue page, use Report as Not Dog-Friendly to tell us dogs were turned away or the policy has changed. No account is needed, and a short note about what happened helps.
- Signed in, use Suggest Edit on the venue page to propose a corrected description, opening hours or photo.
- Write to us through the contact page, choosing Venue Information as the subject, or email hello@pawsof.london.
- If you run the venue, confirm or correct your own listing: see For venues.
Reports are read by a person and checked against the sources above before a listing changes. Correcting a listing is free. We will not charge venues to fix policy information.
8. AI-assisted extraction and editorial control
We use automated tools, including AI models, in three places: to read venue websites for statements about dogs and amenities; to draft the short introductions and questions on our area pages from the venues listed on them; and to turn website extractions into venue descriptions where a venue has none.
Each use is bounded. Website extraction stores its evidence alongside every value, and text that describes the web page rather than the venue is rejected before it can become listing copy. Area-page text is generated only from the venue records on that page and is rejected if it names a venue that is not there. No automated process can move a listing to confirmed; only a venue-direct confirmation does that. The editorial check in section 2 is the opposite kind of thing: a person reading a website and its reviews, not a model. People review the extraction queue and every report and suggestion, and can dismiss any automated result.
Pages that use generated text combine Paws of London venue records with information supplied by venues, published on venue websites and contributed by visitors. Rather than label every sentence, we publish this page so you can judge the process.
9. Paid placement
There is no paid placement on Paws of London, no paid badge, and no charge to be listed or to correct a listing. Venue owners can claim and manage their listing free of charge.
If sponsored placement is ever introduced, it will be labelled as sponsored wherever it appears, it will not change a listing’s policy status, verified badge or place in the evidence hierarchy, and a sponsored listing will still have to meet the same minimum standard of evidence as any other. Trust labels are never for sale.
10. Current data quality
The live figures — how many venues are listed, how many are editorially checked, how many carry a venue-direct confirmation, how many have a policy statement from their own website, and how many were checked in the last ninety days — are published on our data quality page and drawn from the database rather than typed by hand. Where this page states a number, it is dated so that you can tell how old it is.
Common questions
How does Paws of London know a venue is dog-friendly?
From the sources in section 2, in that order of strength. Every live listing has been through our editorial check, and the listing’s status label tells you whether anything stronger sits on top. As of 2 September 2026 none has been confirmed by the venue itself, so call ahead for anything time-sensitive.
How do I report a wrong listing?
Use Report as Not Dog-Friendly or Suggest Edit on the venue page, or the contact page. Section 7 has the details.
What happens if a venue stops allowing dogs?
Tell us, or the venue tells us. The badge is removed immediately and the listing is reviewed; section 6 explains what follows.
Is Paws of London more reliable than Google Maps for dog policies?
We do not claim to be. Google Maps and general directories list far more places. What we do is record where each dog policy came from and when it was checked, show you when we do not know, and let the venue and visitors correct us. We will publish measured comparisons when we have them, not before.