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.

Have a look at your local vets to see if they have a cheaper way of getting regular flea and worming treatment. Mine is all included in our £17/month plan, which also gets me vaccinations, two vet consultations and one nurse appointment each year, Well worth it.

Romanian rescue, 3.5 years old.
Insurance £12 a month (I pay annually)
Dog walker £170
Vet scheme £18
Food £60
Treats £20

I wouldn’t be without her 😍

Bigish beautiful Mongrel
Insurance £21
Food £20 - eats most of our leftovers!
Grooming £0
Dog walking £0 (we work from home)
Staying with dog sitter on holiday £25 a night 😜
Vet stuff not covered by insurance £15 a month
We don't buy treats.

3 labs. Mine would probably average out about £250-300 per dog. Paying training fees for youngest, and probably increased insurance fees for older two. Couldn’t tell you how much each insurance cost though as I’m on a multipet policy with two horses.

Many thanks for this suggestion - I just looked up my vet's dog plan and it would be £21 per dog (=£42 monthly) for vaccinations, flea + wormer, anal glands and nail clippings and a 6-month check for each dog.

That is more than I estimated for my vet costs in the list I gave above (I already try to keep costs down by getting a private prescription from the vet and ordering online) but I'd forgotten to include vaccinations + anal gland/nails visits, so I'm pretty sure it would save me money overall. Thanks!

We have two greyhounds, a 3yo and 7yo.

Insurance £105/month (have had some small benign growths removed but no other issues)
Food £100/month (burns pork and apple, plus tins of tripe and sardines)
Treats - a lot! As you'll know yourself, greyhounds are stubborn and we spend a lot of time bribing them.
Claw cutting we do ourselves, one at a time with copious treats every evening, as our boy is the biggest wimp and starts screaming before you even do anything

We are home most of the time these days but were paying £30 for them to be walked when we are out (1-1.5hrs).
Kennels is about £35/day with them both in the same big kennel for when we are away without them (but we pretty much always holiday with them).

We don't have much clothing for them, just a few coats and jumper things, and pyjamas. Maybe £100/year each.

They have loads of beds! really expensive ones. Probably spent about £2k on those over their lifetime. We've basically got a sofa in our estate boot for our male dog to be chauffeured around like a king. It's his favourite pastime.

Insurance: £14.50 month
Rainy day savings: £40 month
Grooming: £40 every 6 weeks
Flea and worm tablets: £50 every 3 months
Supplies: £40 month

So about £100 a month plus £40 savings for her old age (incase insurance becomes too expensive)

I think the routine stuff (dog walkers, flea/worm, food, insurance) is about £150 a month.
Then they go to the groomers once/twice a year,

Then your extras like treats/booking a secure field occasionally/kennels etc
i imagine it averages at closer to £200

We have 9 dogs somehow! Insurance £315pm, food treats etc £250pm, boosters £30 each, flea, wormer around £60 per year. Plus toys etc. Just bought v expensive clippers too 🫣

Our two family labradors are quite happy with sticks they drag home after every walk and to chase a bit of tied up rope. I am just saying that if money is the decisive factor, things can be sourced at little to no cost apart from the essentials. For example, we can feed our dog premium raw food which would cost us upwards of £200 a month for a large dog or we can feed her adequate dry food which is a lot more affordable for us. Vet bills/insurance costs are non-negotiable but a dog buggy is a questionable investment for me. Everything apart from absolute essentials can be as cheap or as expensive as one wants to make it.

@WombatStewForTea can I ask the details of where you send the samples for worms? I would be interested as don't want to treat necessarily and I have seen that monthly treatment is causing resistance.

A few hundred which includes her food, medication and insurance which started off at £18/month and is now £150/month.

So

£150 insurance
£100 food
£150 medications - prescribed and supplemental
£80 doggy day care on the days I work in the office (1 per week)
£15 worming/flea

So just over £500 and that's without poo bags, treats etc.

What a beautiful picture

Everything apart from absolute essentials can be as cheap or as expensive as one wants to make it.
Agree this to a point- mil’s dog (only 4) had stomach problems (colitis and something else) from the moment they got him and most dog foods they tried had him back to the vets. His food is a hundred euro every month and he has to get medications that cost a good few hundred a year. As someone said above nobody will insure him so they get no help on anything. I make sure never to moan about anything dog cost related to them😅

In the region of £350-400 when averaged over a year I would imagine. Expensive!

3 yo mini schnauzer

Insurance £30 p/month

Food & treats £40 p/month (raw fed & natural treats)

Groom £40 every 7-8 weeks

I do feclab testing for worms, as I've never wormed her and don't use routine flea treatments.

Vaccinations are around £70 p year. I would do titre testing but the boarding requires proof of vaccinations for their council licensing.

I wfh so not really any costs for dog walkers

V large dog mom here x 2
£175 pcm on food
50 pcm on insurance
20pcm on flea and worms
toys beds treats and other who knows

Worth every penny

Around £130 a month, thanks to stupid allergies. It's just cost £46 for boosters and £350 to board. All in, around £2k a year.
My DD pays only a bit less for her cat because she buys him treats/activities (cat nip bubbles etc).

I use Feclab https://www.feclab.co.uk/

I found a discount code for them too HHSZ10 (hope that's okay to share? )

At least £250 per month which includes insurance, food, dog walker x 1 per week, no grooming as not necessary, and worming and flea treatment.

Doesn't include pet sitter fees, as variable.

Patterdale so small and no grooming costs:
£40 a month insurance
£20 a month vetplan (worming, fleaing, vaccinations)
£5 a week on toys (she gets one when we do the weekly shop)
£10 a week food and dentastiks

Plus treats, more toys, collars, leads, blankets as needed.

Mine cost me an absolute fortune. I have 3, and insurance almost £300 a month. One is old, one has a ridiculous amount of health issues and has already maxed out his 4k insurance this year, so anything else is out of pocket.

One has special food that’s £60 a month. The others I spend around £20.

Bravecto £180 every six months (for 3 dogs).

Vaccs £120 a year.

one had joint supplements £20 a month.

another has long term medication £35 a month.

i don’t use a groomer. Just trim them.

Last time they were boarded it cost me £600 for a fortnight, and that was mate’s rates. I’m lucky to have family looking after them this year.

They are hands down the most expensive thing I’ve ever owned, but they are the meaning of life and second only to my kids.

Plus beds, leads, toys, harnesses etc over the years.

Insurance £50
Health plan for worming, jabs etc £20
Food £20
Groomer £23 every 8 ish weeks
So about £100 per month with other bits

V small 4 year old cross breed

Insurance - £38
Medication - £36
Flea and worming £8
Specific food for allergies - £68
Other bits - around £20

I thought ours was expensive but now I realise it's not compared to a lot of others on this thread