To ask how much your dog costs per month?

[Iamawomenphenominally]

My home has a dog shaped hole in it. 😔

But it's been a while now, nearly two years and I know costs of everything have gone up so much! If I do explore finding a new dog to re-home I'd like to do so with my eyes wide open to monthly costs.

Pet insurance, flea and worming/pet plan, food, treats, grooming, dog walking, etc.

Please share with me your monthly costs for each thing.

I had a greyhound and would likely get another so my only grooming costs would be claw trimming if they didn't like me doing it. But they do put away a fair bit of food 🙂❤️ and I like to have pet insurance.

I'm mostly at home but if that changes in the future I'd like to be aware of the average costs of walkers or doggy day care too.

Please share your costs if you can.

Insurance: £50 a month
Food: £35 a month
Dog walker once a week @ £20: £80 a month
Wormers etc: approx £20 a month
Toys / teats / blankets / misc: approx £25 a month

So all in, just over £200 a month and then there are dog sitting costs on top of that which are approx £40 per 24 hours. He only needs grooming twice a year and that’s £70 each time.

He’s worth every penny!

Jack Russell/chihuahua cross. 12 years old
£20 p/m insurance
£50 p/m food and treats
£70 p/y vaccinations ….we also get worming tablets at same time ? Unsure of that cost
pay a bit extra at air bnbs and hotels when we go away and take the dog….say 5 to 10£ a night in a hotel
£40 new dog toys a year
£35 grooming x 3 times a year

Don’t pay for boarding as family have him when we are holdiay…..but buy wine/ crocs etc each time ….so about £30 each holiday we go on
we walk him ourselves

We have a Staffy, monthly costs roughly:
Grooming £0
Vetplan £11:99 which includes flea, worm and boosters.
Food £60
Insurance £14:99
what we get back from him… is priceless 😁

Figures shown per month although paid at different times. Cavapoo, just had her first birthday!

Grooming ... £30
Food .. £45

Vet ... £18 for jabs and flea etc
Insurance £18 per month
Toys, treats 20

One off
Spaying was £350,

£35 for dog pushchair, non essential but hey
£99 for dog crate for home
£40 for dog crate for visiting.
Three dog beds @ £15 each

I'm sure there is more but she's worth it.

2 Staffies here. Combined costs are.

Insurance: 50
Food: 65
Flea and worming: 30 every 3 months
Treats: 10 a month
Grooming: None

£105 insurance every month
(oldie, never needed it but friends have recently had to find over £16000 so, hey ho)
Grooming costs £54 every 6 weeks
Food £20 ish each week
An old man told me " spend on good food and not at the vets" and that seems to have paid off for me.

Pet insurance: none, have savings.
Pet plan for flea/worm: £17 each (medium sized dogs)
Food: £70-80pcm for one dog, £60 for the other. They get a mix of biscuits and wet food.
Treats: about £5 each - we do a lot of training
Grooming: we do our own, I spent about a tenner on brushes. When we had a rough-coated terrier, we used to strip her at home - a stripping comb is a lot cheaper than a groomer.
Walking: do it all ourselves. Very rarely a local teen will walk them for us, she costs about a tenner.
Kennels when we go away: this is a biggie, it's about £35/day or part day for the two of them, so 7 nights away = 8 days = c£300 for a week or £600 for a fortnight (but would be c£300/fortnight for one).
Toys: couple of quid a month, on average. Ditto leads, ID tags.
Bedding, petrol to drive to different walks, training costs etc: these depend so much on how you plan to live with your dog that I can't really comment. We buy expensive bedding that lasts forever (washable covers, waterproof inners).

So, per month, for one dog is about £130pcm, allowing for a fortnight or so in kennels each year, decent-quality food, treats, and toys etc.

Add onto that any vet bills. We've been lucky with our dogs and our total costs have so far worked out at £10-15 month for neuter, illness/injury (operations, painkillers, antibiotics), and eventual euthanasia. We do treat things like cut pads at home, so I should probably add a few quid to the monthly total for vet supplies (I have antiseptic cream, vet wrap, wound powder etc; I carry a first aid kit in the car and I've been to a canine first aid course.)

Also don't forget the one-offs like a decent bed and some sort of secure restraint in the car (we have a grille behind the back seats, it worked well when we were rear-ended).

Oh my goodness ToBeOrNotToBee, Gorgeous! Look at them all loved up & ling the dream

We have a large dog - think Husky-type.
We get a large bag of dry food from Costco which lasts her a month - £30 and a large bag of treats (not essential) £20
Insurance is about £30
Apart from that we take to a groomer once a year - £70 and claw trim twice a year £20 a pop.

The dog can be as cheap or as expensive as you want it to be. apart form food, insurance and health check ups, there is nothing that is essential. My dog is not interested in toys at all, except for tennis balls and she is happy with a long walk as her main source of exercise and entertainment. She also more often sleeps on a floor next to her bed than in the actual bed so overall base cost is about £60 a month + whatever extras we feel like and can afford.

Rottie here, she's just turned one!

Insurance; £40
Pet Plan; £22 (includes all her flea and worming)
Treats; £15 (variable as we buy when she needs them rather than it being a monthly thing)
Chews; £10 (We buy long lasting ones so again variable)
Food; £164 (It's about £84 every two weeks, joy of raw feeding)
Doggy Day Care; £100 (one day a week)

Then we'll buy her whatever she needs as she needs it, so when she needs a new bed for example we'll just get her a new one but we don't calculate that into the above costs :)

Cocker spaniel now 8

Insurance - £80 has gradually crept up but it's petplan and you get what you pay for. Some years I've claimed back the premiums and more. 4 years on and they're still paying for bi-monthly physio. Know plenty of people who have paid £10 a month for animal friends or other cheap insurance, had a big claim and not realised that they have to pay a % of the bill which can be ££££s and the % goes up as your dog ets older.

Flea treatment - £50 every 3 months (didn't flea treat for years and did natural remedies til he went with a dog groomer and we ended up with an infestation)

Worming - don't worm monthly as it upsets his stomach. Send off 6 monthly samples for worm testing which costs around £15-20 (never had worms found either so would have been treating unnecessarily.

Food - on an expensive cold pressed food after we stopped feeding raw. Costs £50 every 7-8 weeks

He's a pain in the backside but love him 😂

DDog1 insurance £140 per month is 13, it has gone up a lot over the years, we also have to pay 20% of treatments which is standard after they turn 7

DDog 2 insurance £78 is 12 and we’ve never made a claim

food for both £100

vacinations, etc as everyone else.

also think of holidays, we pay £60 per night for 2 for boarding

Shih tzu here
£26 insurance
£20 groom (£40 every two months)
£40 food
£12 worming and flea (£40 every three months)
£10 random treats and bits

Total around £110 per month.

Worth it but wouldn't recommend anyone struggling with finances get a pet. Please don't skimp on insurance, worm and flea meds and a good diet.

“Nothing else is essential” is entirely dependent on the dog. Some dogs need more training, some need more toys, some need to chew a lot.

My dog needs toys to be happy. Typical Labrador behaviour. Won’t be without something in her mouth. Then she destroys them.

There’s so much unnecessary junk out there though.

Two spaniels here. I seem to be on the higher end of costs, but my dogs are VERY expensive.

Food - £60 a month for a 12kg bag of good quality dry food + £50 for additional dried animal parts for chewing (I have a hard-core chewer, this is less expensive than leaving him to find his own outlets).

Insurance - £125 per month for a 9 yr old + 5 yr old dog. These rates both started at under £20 / month but increase every year.

Kenneling - £150-200 a month for average 1-2 days a week in kennels.

Beds, leads, toys, poobags etc - average maybe £15 a month? (based on an order of poobags every six months, new bedding for one dog per year, and a couple of toys)

Flea treatment/wormer - probably about £200 a year / 15/month? (Bravecto for ticks = £30 each twice a year = £120, wormer probably 20 each twice a year).

Other vet visits - maybe £200 a year? Equivalent to one vet visit for a minor problem with some treatment. Say £20 / month.

Total: 60 + 50 + 125 + 200 + 15 + 15 + 20 = £485 per month.

It's absolutely eye-watering and a huge strain on my budget every month. A very large part of my extra costs come in kenneling, which is something that is essential due to a recent divorce and house move (dog walker not suitable for a variety of reasons, and based on previous experience unlikely to be cheaper). When I was married, we rarely paid for kenneling - but circumstances change, and it's worth thinking about that when getting a dog!

Health plan is £15 a month (covers nails, vaccinations and worming)
Food circa £30 a month
Insurance, hmm, £170 a month, older dog and had a fortune in surgery on the insurance!

Kennels are £12 a night as and when required but as shared custody with ex it's rare these days. No need for daycare as old boy who quite frankly prefers own company

2 year old mix here, monthly average:
£24 insurance
£15 pet plan (including flea/worm tablets, booster vaccinations, 2 claw clips per year, 2 consultations a year)
£60 food, mixture of wet & dry
£10 treats
£5 toys, balls etc
If away £25 per night at a wonderful border
Maybe £70 per year on beds/blankets etc, usually wasted as she keeps her 'possessions' in her bed and mainly sleeps on one of the couches
No grooming costs as short haired, we comb/bathe etc
Worth every penny for the pure happiness she brings x

Insurance is around £25 a month, £22 to the vet for a puppy pet plan which includes flea treatment, £150 a mth for doggy daycare for one full day a week. Prob about £30 a month on food so around £225-230. We always seem to end up buying at least one extra toy a month as well!

Oh and we have done a few training courses with him which tend to be around £100 for 6 weeks.

Similar for our puppy. He’s worth it. Also vet plan for routine jabs and worming, tick treatments etc is £15 a month.

And toys
and £57 on a new harness and lead yesterday
and new bed, crate, Kongs etc.

we love him a lot.

8 year old alsation here.

Insurance - he's a rescue and had many health issues before I got him so basically he's uninsurable - I was unable to find anyone who would. So, he's cost thousands in vet bills.

Laser/Hydrotherapy - costing me around £200 a month.

Food - £75 a month + treats which I'd guess at £15+ a month

Flea treatment/wormer - I buy a tablet from the vets which covers everything for three months at I think £70 a go.

Toys - £10 a month, he really prefers to play with big sticks

Other stuff on top of that such as a new bed etc would be a couple of hundred a year

Our 13 yr old lab costs around £200 per month for food and insurance .We also pay £130 per month for her arthritis injections which are worth it .We also buy new stuff ie bedding , the odd toy as needed .She is not cheap but worth it .

£20 On food a month
I pay insurance annually as it's cheaper
I only use flea treatment in the summer as that's when fleas are more prevalent and I'm less sure about the health benefits for my dog of using a pesticide on her ever month.
She doesn't need a groomers but may be her teeth cleaned once a year

3 Dachshunds
Grooming €0
I walk them myself 4/5 times a week
Food €20 a month
Pet insurance €0
Worming tablets cost €3.50 every few months
Flea away drops are €6 every few months or if they catch fleas which they surprisingly haven't
If we go on hoiladays I'm lucky I have family who minds them and I return the favor when there going away

I needed to add this up for myself recently, so here goes:
£25 Insurance
£17 Vet plan
£25 regular prescription meds
£25 probiotics for his acid reflux
£30 food and dental chews
£50 behaviour/grooming sessions*
£15 treats, dental mouthwash etc.

£187/month.

*He is an 8yo rescue dog of a breed that needs regular grooming but is very reactive, which is why I spend the £50/month for an average of two visits to a consent-based groomer.

Labrador and spaniel here.
Food c£40/month total.
Insurance (Lab only) c£40/month paid annually.
Care plan ditto £18/month (would have this over insurance if I had to choose).
Spaniel's vaccs were £99 for life a decade ago, his parasite treatment and collar c£40/year.
I trim the spaniel myself. When he dies I won't be getting a second dog.