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.

Dog walker - £180
Food - £45
Insurance - £55
Flee/tick/ worm - £21

Insurance is £45 (but it is top notch and I'm risk averse, could prob get cheaper)
Dog walker twice a week £80 per month
Food, probably £20 a month?
Far cheaper than a child!

£70 for a sack of dry dog food? That is insanse.

Get yourself to an old-school agricultural merchant and compare the price for these things. Even if you have to hire a car to travel to one, it’s likely to be cheaper at that price! (ok, I’m probably exaggerating)

It’s as crazy as the amount places like Pets at Home charge for a small bag of hay for gerbils etc. Over a fiver for something that has a real world value measurable in pennies.

We have a 2 year old lab.

£37 insurance
£18.99 pet plan for worm and flea tablets, vaccinations and yearly check up.
£60 food
£45 every 6 weeks agility
Then there’s bones/ chews, balls and toys which varies. He prefers human food for treats.

An arm and a leg - I have two dogs though
180 food
30 treats
40 per day for doggy day care if we use it
40 pm insurances

@AutumnSalad I spend £250 a month on day care. That doesn’t mean I’m at work leaving my dog alone every day. I only work part time but daycare is £50 a day. I never leave her alone more than 4 hours.

@AutumnSalad Also grooming really depends on the breed. Mine needs. Progressional groom every 8 weeks which is £55.

Oh god 😬 we got 4 dogs so..

Pet insurance: £240 ( oldest dog had cancer few years ago so shot up!)

Food and treats: £60

Private dog field we go twice a month: £20

One young toy breed:

£40 insurance. Can get a lot cheaper, but I go for the best I can afford.
£32 dry food.
£5 worming (don’t pay for the vet’s monthly plan, as I don’t use preventative treatment for fleas)
£10 treats/chews
£5 poo bags

Plus annual cost of vaccinations, which I think were about £60 this year (first booster).

So roughly £92 per month plus annual vaccinations and any vet visits that come under the policy excess. Which is maybe 1/2 a year at around £50-70 a time. Then there’s all the new toys, collars, harnesses, coats etc I end up buying spontaneously because I have a tendency to spoil him, probably another couple of hundred a year.

In my experience, the most expensive years are the first year (due to puppy classes, growing out of collars, harnesses, coats, beds etc, destroying toys and needing lots of things for teething purposes) and the geriatric years. My almost 17 year old large breed was costing us around £350 a month for the last couple of years, even with insurance covering his medication.

It's increased considerably now he is older:

Insurance £120
Food £50
Medication £170 (although eventually get some of this back from insurance)
Groomers £47 every 2 months
Plus tick & flea treatment, worming tablets, adhoc vets bills, etc

3 year old chihuahua

£38 petplan
£9 food
£6 treats.

The odd dog walk costs me £15 a walk but its ad hoc depending on my shifts and when DP is away at sea.

Next month I have two day shifts so it will cost me £30 extra that month, he's a very easy dog though!

Per month:
£65 insurance
£80 medication
£45 food
£35 groom
£10 flea and worm

Plus annual vaccinations and then occasional dog walker £14 ph, if we go away £30 per night for boarding.

Plus toys and treats, no budget for that

But worth every penny.

£50 per month

£10 a month insurance, with Animal Friends
£40 food

I have never added it up - it’s too scary for one thing, and it’s not an option anyway as they are totally worth it! Dogs are expensive and in the current CoL situation I think many of us are noticing the cost of things we didn’t think about before. Extras add up too - I am getting a behavioural specialist in next month to help my rescue boy with some issues so that’s quite a few hundred on top of insurance, food, etc. Again, worth it - if you can’t afford it, you need to cut something else.

2 labs, one is 11 years old and one is 9 months old.
378 - doggy day care and dog walker
100 - food and treats
78 - insurance
30 - 2 x pet plans from vet inc worming, flea treatment
18 - youngest finishing gun dog training
20 - private dog field with agility equipment
10 - nail clipping at groomer

£70 for a sack of dry dog food? That is insanse.

Get yourself to an old-school agricultural merchant and compare the price for these things. Even if you have to hire a car to travel to one, it’s likely to be cheaper at that price! (ok, I’m probably exaggerating)

Probably nothing like the same quality though, most of what our local one sells have maize or wheat as the first ingredient

You're not comparing like-with-like when it comes to pet food though.

Those big sacks of dog food from farm shops are generally full of maize and cereal. It might be cheap but it's not something I would feed my dog unless I couldn't afford anything better.

Umm..

£55 insurance (she's 9)
£60ish food (kibble plus wet)
£30 dental sticks, chews, treats etc
£30 for medications, supplements etc (average)
£50 vet trips (average)
£80 secure field trips (reactive)
£20 toys, collars, harnesses etc (average)

So about £300 in total - obvs some months we won't have vet visits, or new toys etc so I've averaged those things out

Things I don't pay for you'd maybe have to consider are grooming, nail clipping. I WFH so no day care or walking costs.

We have a tiny toy poodle who goes to daycare 3 times a week. Per month we pay
£100 insurance
£200 daycare
£50 food/ treats (he is teeny!)
£40 grooming (if I don't have time to do it myself)
£60+ training classes
£30+ show entry (Hoopers)

Plus all the lunches and cafe visits after walks with friends.

So about £500 in a normal month without any vets fees, however we aren't really on a budget so I'm sure we could spend a lot less on him if we needed to.

Insurance £35
vet plan £20
grooming £40 every 6/8 weeks
food and treats £50
daycare £24 a day
plus toys, any other vet treatments

I have two. I probably spend about £300 per month.

No dog walker
Food £25
Pet insurance £40
Healthy Pet Club £17, get 10% off vet bill and meds, nail clipping, teeth check, vaccinations, worming and flea treatment.

Springer Spaniel, 1 year.

£35 food.
£20 flea and worm treatment
£22 pet insurance

They're the only regular costs. But annually there's also vaccination - about £60. Home boarding when we're away - £30 a night, probably spend £600 or £700 a year. Plus miscellaneous vet fees for odd little things or check ups where it's not worth claiming on insurance.

Add in a couple of quid for treats, one off purchases...I'd say it averages out at about £150 a month.

Large breed. Luckily split the costs with DP!

£30 insurance,
£200 day care (2 full days a week),
£80/90 food and all treats,
£20 flea worming subscription.

Groom is £60 every 6 weeks. Plus maybe £10 once/twice a month on a dog field and a bit more on the odd new toy/lead. He also goes in to boarding about 4 x per year year at £22 per night.

About £400 total! He costs us more than my 1 year old 🙈

Forgot to mention earlier £20000 for new car to transport dog!