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.

£60 insurance
dog Walker around £250
food - RAW but use pre-made around £120
vets plan for yearly injections, flea/worm treatment - £16
groomed twice a year £120 - so £10 a month

Holiday care is around £20 a day min so need to factor that in if we plan a break away (haven’t been anywhere this year)

Shes worth it but I’m surprised how much she does cost!

Butternut box £140
Dog Walker 3 x per week £320 for 2 large breed dogs
Insurance/worming, tic treatments etc 0 (DH is a vet)
Natural dog treats £80 (rabbit ears etc)

@dontbenastyhaveapasty

WFH, no dog walker or dog daycare - what’s the point of having a dog and paying someone else to walk it?

People work or have other commitments?

People having someone to walk the dog if they go out for 4 hours? Grooming? I groom my dog myself with brushes, twice a week and you really shouldn't have a dog if you are out at work all day. They get unhappy.

Grooming is a bit more than brushing. I am not clipping my dog as that's what I consider a specialist technique.

And that's the point of this thread. If you work then most people employ a dog walker or doggie day care so the dog IS NOT unhappy as they aren't left on their own all day.

Not very much. Food and dental sticks. My friend is a vet and I get wormers, flea treatments etc at cost . No dog walking as she’s a working collie. No insurance as we’d just pay if something happened to her and friend is a vet anyway.
I wouldn’t have a dog if it cost me hundreds a month . I mean dogs are lovely but unless they’re useful I’m not sure I’d be bothered. I can’t tolerate the fur baby crap that seems to be everywhere too. They’re dogs!!! Not babies.

We lost our beloved Ddog last year but at that time he was costing us;

£40 food
£50 insurance (for a policy that only paid out £2k per condition per year after we cancelled our other policy that was costing £180 per month)
£20 Yumove
£150 dog walker

The flea treatments, worming, grooming, treats on top. As well as holiday care if we went away. Please 3 or 4 times a year vet appointment amd drops for ear infection which wasn't covered by the latest insurance policy

He cost us £1500 on top of what insurance paid out for cruciate ligament surgery only 7 months before he died.

He was worth every single penny and I would pay it all again and so much more to have my best friend back.

We haven't got another dog. Not because of the cost but because I only want him 😢

Good grief! I had no idea that keeping a pet dog was so expensive!

Insurance is £35 pm
Food is around £15 pm, good quality food
Vet for boosters £80 yr so £7 pm approx plus a bit more for worm and flea stuff.
I’d say £60 per month.

I don’t buy extras such as treats or new toys.

@AutumnSalad I work from home as mentioned in my post therefore if I go out for over 4 hours I like to get the dog walker in so that the dog isn't on their own for half the day. Example being I walk my dog every single day for an hour, however went into the office yesterday for 6 hours, dog walker popped in and walked him for an hour so I didn't have to rush about before going into the office. Surely that's a good thing 🤣

My two girls are cheap in comparison to some dogs. They are Lhasa Apso's. Flea, tic and worm treatment and shampoo about £15 per month each. Annual injections/pet passport/vet check £140 per dog per annum. Their food costs about £30 per month per dog. Treats including doggie ice cream £15 per month between them. Groomers every 8-9 weeks at £60 per dog. They are not insured but we do put money in the bank for them every month in case either of them needs treatment. We know we have enough in savings to cover any cost of treatment they might need. They have an occasional new toy, lead or coat but often for their birthdays or for Xmas. There is the initial set up cost of beds, bowls, toys, puppy pads and training lessons.

Doesn't you dog have an annual vaccination?

Agree.

My DH who grew up clipping the family dogs nails only clipped our pups once and caught her, she was terrified after that. The groomer we took her to built her confidence and pampered her, she loves it.

Same with puppy play dates, DH and I are home all day but I physically can’t control our dog so don’t take her out and although DH is WFH his hours change so our girl has a routine of going to puppy play dates where she spends 4/5 hours twice a week running round fields and yards with other like minded dogs. It dosnt mean we don’t care or take her for walks, the poor thing is run ragged with 3 kids but having her dog socialising time is invaluable.

German Shepherd so big boy

Food - £80 a month - he is raw fed and eats 1kg a day

Very healthy dog so beyond flea / worms / vaccines no additional vet costs so far so £30 a month health care if you average it out

Insurance £40 per month

Dog licence £12.50 a year

We do his nails and bath and brush him ourselves so no costs there - £20 a year for a bottle of shampoo and 50p electric every 6 weeks for the dog blaster

Toys and miscellanious - not a chewer so spent £50 a month for the first 12 months then he had everything he needed so didn't have spend more. New harness at 2 years old cost £65, use his food ration as training treats, he doesnt get free food as such so don't buy extra

Walk / train / socialise him ourselves so no costs there and he comes on holiday with us so no costs there

They cost money absolutely but don't have to hundreds a month to be well loved - depending on soze and breed I would expect £100 - £200 a month not including emergency vet bills

My adult son comes to stay in our home caring for our dogs when DH and I are on holiday and we take his cats when he goes on holiday.

I have a 13yr old large breeds mongrel

Food. senior and grain free £85
Treats £4
Poo bags £1.25
Insurance £54
Vet trip for allergy injection (£214) I pay £40 insurance covers the rest
Flea treatment £15.50 (Bravecto from Viovet + cost of vets prescription for a year's supply)
Wormers £6
Vaccinations approx £7

£212.75

Yikes I didn't realise it cost so much, although I did notice the doubling in prices of her grain free food this past year.

My dog became allergic to pretty much everything, so her food, diet, flea treatments etc are all governed by what she can tolerate, before allergies it cost a lot less to provide the basics.

I also had an unexpected vet bill last year, approx 3k, luckily the insurance paid most (£2100) but I had to pay the vets first, if I didn't have that 3k my dog would have been put to sleep despite having the insurance.

This will be my last dog :-(

We have 6 dogs so it's pretty eye watering. One is very old and one is epileptic so lots of medication required. Even though I'm a vet they are all insured. I treat most things myself and only pay cost price for drugs/materials at work which saves a fortune. We're absolutely on the high end of the dog expenditure scale but we can afford it and it works for us. As a rough idea:

Insurance: £210
Food: £300ish (mostly raw)
Medication for the oldie not covered by insurance: £60
Co-payments on the epileptic one's insurance as we have constant running claims for medication and blood tests: £20ish
Supplements (Riaflex, salmon oil, Yumega, CBD and MCT oil for the epileptic, Nutramind for the oldie): £80ish
Treats/chews (all natural stuff): £50ish
Worming/tick treatment: averages maybe £10/month across the year

Then there's toys, shampoos etc. that we buy as and when. They all have multiple collars, leads, harnesses, Equafleece jumpers, drying coats etc. I replace these when necessary or just buy more if I see something I like. Plus running a separate chest freezer just for the raw food. Plus the 2 big cars we run to transport them in, both with double Trans K-9 crates at £700 each.

I do gundog work and competitions with them, I'm not even going to begin to add up costs of fuel, entries, hiring facilities for training, gear etc.

'Unexpected' costs can be £0 or hundreds in any given month. I had to put two new insurance claims in last month in the space of a week, one for the cat and one for the elderly dog, so had to pay two excesses of £100 each, and there'll be a 20% co-payment for the dog as well.

Fortunately we never need dog walkers or daycare, I work part time and DP can WFH most of the days I'm at work. Any days we're both out at work or when we're on holiday, my DPs (retired, fit and active, also have dogs and live 2 minutes away) look after them.

We also have a cat but she's a lot cheaper than the dogs 😄

£15 per hour for dog walker ( more than im paid per hour)
prescription costs £50 a month!
his insurance went up to £225 a month ( claimed once) i have had to cancel it and pop abit away instead as I couldn’t afford it

You lot must all feed your dogs on caviar, or gold-leaf decorated bones - how do you spend so much on dog food?

Mine are labs so get through a 10kg bag each in just over a month, bags are £55. That's a good quality food but not the most expensive you can buy. Something like butternut box would be even more. Not many good quality foods are 15 quid for 25kg.

I 2 have small dogs. They cost around 30 quid a month.
Don't use dog walkers, no insurance, bog standard food. The biggest expense is grooming every 10/12 weeks.
They seem happy enough.

You lot must all feed your dogs on caviar, or gold-leaf decorated bones - how do you spend so much on dog food?

Two 15 kg sacks of dry last my two about a month - they're over £70 now. Then they also get a tin a day, which is about 1.50 each now so £90. And no they aren't even slightly fat!

£8 insurance (5yo with no health problems), £9 flea and worm per month. £40 every six months on food (chihuahua, we buy the huge bags and have food storage bins).

Occasional toys and treats but they're optional extras really. Honestly, I spend more on take out coffee. But he is a tiny chihuahua, so there's that. I wfh so he's never alone to need a walker or boarding. Goes to my parents when we go on holiday.

Food £85
Flea and tick £10
Insurance £40
Doggy day care £150-200

5yo neutered male beagle:

Insurance - £57/month
Healthy Pet Plan - £12/month
Food - approx. £50/month
Treats - about £30/month on average

I think that's pretty reasonable really. If we used a dog walker it would be £12 per walk. Daycare around here is £18/day.

Doesn't you dog have an annual vaccination?

Lots of people don't vaccinate their dogs once they reach adulthood.

That's way more than I imagined!

£45 insurance
£60 food
£15 worming and flea

Doesn't have a dog walker/doggy day care but when he goes to Kennels for our holiday it's £33 per day