How much does your dog cost you per month?

[alwaysfuckingworried]

Especially if you use a dog walker or doggy daycare? I have longed for a dog for years, and curious if dog ownership costs are rising a lot.

£140 Dog walker 10 times a month
£50 food
£15 pet plan
£30 pet insurance
£20 treats toys
£25 vets

£280 total

it’s increased a lot over the years. Dog food used to be £30 per month for same product.

Another person here relieved that I held my nerve when DC campaigned for a dog. These costs are insane!

I've no idea how average families on average salaries budget for that level of monthly expense.

£30 per month insurance.
Approx £30 a month for food.
Dont buy treats.
Toys/ bones probably about £50 a year. He is gifted some by family but that doesn’t cost me.
Worming/ flea treatment done at home. Not sure what dp pays for these but not expensive.
Harness/ lead - current ones have lasted 3 years so no regular cost there.
That’s pretty much it. He has had two vets visits in his life. He’s 10.

Dog walker is 120 a month, insurance 160 (she is almost 9 and has had cancer, and has a spinal issue), 100 a month for medication, 15 a month for flea/worming tablets, food 100 a month....so a LOT! But I accept we have been unlucky with her health.

My lovely dog is considered geriatric now so insurance premiums are ridiculously high. Consequently I won't pay them - Instead I put a similar amount aside in a savings account each month when I can just in case.

I don't need a dog walker so there's no cost there.

Food? She's has always had a dodgy tummy so is on hypo-allergenic stuff which costs me about £15.00 per month (including chewy rawhide treats).
Along with maybe £10.00 per month vet fees to cover vaccination, flea stuff and worm stuff over the year. (My vet is a brilliant independent one who keeps costs as low as possible).

So she costs me around £25.00 per month on average.

But, it's a small price to pay given that the amount of joy, companionship, happiness and unconditional love she gives us every day is priceless...

2 middling-sized dogs:
£120 food
£10 treats & poo bags
£30 vet plan for vaccs etc
£160 total for two dogs.
I'd round it up to £200 to cover the odd vet bill (we don't insure as we have savings), extra laundry, toys, shampoo...

Plus kennels when we go away (££££)
Plus replacing stuff that wears out like collars etc.

I'll exclude the use of the car as if we didn't have the dogs we'd be doing something else that would entail driving.

I spend a lot on gundog training, but the dogs are one of my major hobbies. If I didn't have them, I'd be sharing a horse with someone by now which would cost a bloody bomb (yard, feed, farrier, vet...). Or have my own horse £££$$$£££

Dog food (raw) and dental sticks plus treats £100 max
Insurance £35
vet vaccine and worming plan £14
poo bags minimal
occasionally a frisbee or ball

dh works from home so no need for daycare.

on the flip side, he makes us walk every day whatever the weather so the health benefit is important. Plus I only managed to stay in work and not get signed off when I was being bullied and it made me genuinely ill (never known anything like it) because of him helping me sleep with his snuggles.

£50 medication
£30 - 40 food
£35 pet insurance
£5 - 10 treats
£5 - 20 toys and chews

Oh and plan for flea, worming, vaccinations and a couple of other things with the vet £20 pm

I’m not sure I want to add it all up as we have three, but….

vets scheme - £14 per month per dog
insurance - £69 per month for the boys plus £50 for the older dog
food - £125 wet food order every 5/6 ish weeks and £130 dry food order approx every 5/6 weeks (I always look for discount codes for the wet tinned food)
natural treats and chews - £60 per month
agility training - £96 a month (2 dogs)
flyball training - £32 a month
flyball competitions - £20 a month (usually - sometimes more if we enter more competitions through the summer)
agility competitions - £24 a month approx (depends on what’s on and what we enter)
obedience training - £31 for 8 weeks
digestion support treats - £30 a month
plus a bit more for other bits and pieces - although all our enrichment toys and training reinforcers last a long time

we don’t use daycare or dog walkers

wouldn’t be without them though and I love the fact that their training and dog sports works their body and mind

We save a bit of money buying repeat meds eg flea and tick tablets using pet drugs online. Much cheaper than buying from the vet (about a third of the cost of buying from the vet), but you still need a 6 month prescription grrr so it’s a bit of a rip off as that costs £17 just to write it, plus £70 for the 6 monthly consultation, when there is nothing wrong with the dog (age 11) and she just needs her chewable tick meds.

There is a gov consultation about whether the public is being ripped off by vets, just opened - by the competition and markets authority. I’m going to contribute: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cma-launches-review-of-vet-sector

We have two. this doesn't account for the expenses of things like petrol to different walks, a bigger car and things like dog beds which add up!

Healthy rescue:
Food:30
Treats:15
Chews: 15
Insurance: 30
Vet programme for vaccines, worming etc: 17
Training class 60
Toys: £5

Total: 172

Dog 2 (old and impossible to insure at this age)

Food: 40
Vet programme: 17
Regular Meds: £120
Joint supplements: £45 ish

Total: 222

Total: 394

We also have two Vet appt this month including blood tests which will be another 200. Dog 2 has cost us about £2000 in Vet bills ish this year

I mean it's a lot written like that!

For each dog (we have two)
£60 - food, chews and treats
£35 - insurance
£15 - toys, leads, vaccinations, poo bags etc. averaged out over the year

We've never had to visit a vet outside of routine appointments, don't have a dog walker and no grooming requirements (bar a bit of tomato sauce after 🦊 💩)

The ‘decorating’ cost to the house is the big one though - eg nasty immovable stain from ‘accident’, when poorly, hidden under rug, on beautiful solid light oak flooring, long dog height ‘shadow mark’ all along the painted landing wall where she’s rubbed herself along for the last 11 years, sad old carpets, where she rubs her head along them and occasionally digs to Australia etc.

We have 1

£60 per month dry food
£20 per month wet food
£28 per month medication
£30 per month insurance
£7 per month flea/tick treatment
£10 every 3 months for worming

also about 2 or 3 times a year we end up with a big vets bill as he’s always ill

Very informative thread, thank you. They can be expensive can't they!

What do you feed your daxie?

A bloody fortune, we've got 2 and a cat . There's food , medicine , treats insurance and the little one has just cost us a sling for field walks and a pram for flat walks .
There's new beds , blankets and vamoosh for the washing machine . It's endless lol 😂

About £300 per month including dog Walker, food and insurance. But then vet fees on top of that when the need arises. £50 last week, and earlier in the year about £300

She only cost £150 in the first place lol. But we adore her

£40-£50 a month on food
£10 on flea/worming
£25 on insurance

Then any extras - treat, toys etc

No walkers/daycare as someone is home each day. Not a breed that needs grooming. Young and healthy dog so will see how it goes up with age!

3 year old lab

Insurance- 22
Worms and flea (our cats a bloody hunter that's had worms years ago)- 17
Food - 90, make my own treats
Gundog training £120, his dad's a gundog owned by the trainer and it's a bit of a family affair, bloke works on lots of different things with all 6 of us, it's invaluable.
Dd12 buying him presents that I feel the need to reimburse £££

16yr old chihuahua
4 weekly vet visits at home plus injection for athritis £220
heart meds £80
liver meds £60
water retention meds £40
insurance £55 ( only covers each issue for a year which I’m past on all above )
food £50 ( will only eats fresh pet and chicken )
bloods every 3/4 months can jump vet bill to over £500 and if we have a call out even more.

it’s a lot but he’s very old and up until he was about 12 was just food and pet ins .. he needed one off surgery at 1 which cost £10,000 though.
my advise is to get the best pet insurance you can afford and sign up for a vaccination for life program at your vets and look after their teeth.

Insurance £60
Food £50
Training £60
Toys £30
Flea/Worm £20

He doesn’t currently have a dog Walker or day care. He is 4 months old

£90 insurance
£30 groomer (£60 every other month)
£50 medication
£60 posh treats and chews
£20 tick and flea pill
£60 posh food

Obscene amount of money each month really.