How much does your dog cost you a year?

[ChickensHaveNoLips]

A DH survey. I thought this would be useful, as it is so very easy to underestimate the cost of having a dog.

1. Initial costs. What did it cost to buy/adopt your dog?

1. How much is your insurance, per month?

1. How much does it cost you to feed your dog monthly?

1. How much do you realistically spend on activities/dog sitters/walkers a month?

1. What do you spend on other costs? (Toys/treats/grooming/beds/bowls/leads/collars etc)

So, for me:

!. We paid £250 for our dog.

1. Insurance is £8 a month, but he's a very young dog and I know this will go up.

1. It costs approx £20 a month for food.

1. No dog walkers or paid activities, but we travel a fair bit and spend £13-20 a day on boarding. This probably averages out at around £30 a month.

1. I probably spend between £15-20 a month on toys, treats and other equipment.

So I think it probably costs around £80 a month for us to have a dog.

We paid £75-£100 for each dog.
Insurance is about £55 a month for 3
Food is about £40 a month for 3
They found 100s of balls, so we don't need to buy them often. About £5 a year
No dog walkers or kennels on a monthly basis. Occasional bottle of wine for extra help.
£60 a year for worming, and about the same for flea treatment.
£100 a year for vaccinations
Not sure how much we pay for leads etc. We don't buy them very often! Grooming stuff seems to last for a few years too.
Training/behaviour has probably cost about £800, possibly a bit more, over the past decade.
I'm not going to add it all up. It's cheaper than smoking!

Sob sob sob, thousands a year...

I have 3 dogs, giant breed.
120 month insurance
140 month food
0 pet care
Beds...I buy rarely but spend 100 or more each time on tuffies or glencoe or similar
About 250 to 500 a year in vet bill excesses.

This year 200 ish in vacs costs and maintenance.

All free or for small donation.

Bastards

Gah! Forgot worming/flea treatment

That must cost me another £10 a month. He really ought to earn his keep

1. Initial costs. What did it cost to buy/adopt your dog? £80 rehoming fee for BearDog (I think we doubled it as a donation though), nothing for OldDog

2. How much is your insurance, per month? £25 for BearDog, OldDog is uninsured due to his age and pre-existing conditions

3. How much does it cost you to feed your dog monthly? About £100 (Orijen for 2 large breed dogs)

4. How much do you realistically spend on activities/dog sitters/walkers a month? This is the big expense. Dog walker for BearDog is £30/week. Hydrotherapy for both at £35/week. so total about £260/month

5. What do you spend on other costs? (Toys/treats/grooming/beds/bowls/leads/collars etc) £30 to get BearDog clipped, once or twice a year. Flea/worm treatments, daily incontinence meds, joint supplement injections ever 3 months - maybe comes to about £40 a month? Toys and treats not really significant cost.

All in all I would estimate it comes to about £400/month, unless I've miscalculated somewhere. OMG .

We could also add on the cost of buying and running the dogmobile car, which we wouldn't have bought if not for them. Can I add carpet cleaning as well :)

Whoa, Ephiny. That's some serious wedge

Ours are all rescue greyhounds, so one off donation costs of around £100 each.

We lost our elderly bitch last month (one of three hounds) so we are still re-adjusting finances.

The insurance for all three was around £140 a month.

Food - we got a freezer full every three months - about £800 a year for all three. Plenty of treats on top, partly because madam used to spit out tablets unless they were cunningly disguised. Plus things like sardines, pigs ears, Bonio for treats etc.

Holiday - cottage at Little Dumpledale - not many places will take three large dogs - £500 or so.

Hydrotherapy - she went twice a month at £30 a time.

Vets bills - because of her arthritis these were high. Probably over £2K in the past year. The other two are incredibly healthy, and one only went for his boosters and nail clip. When she was PTS, we paid for her to be visited at home by the vet, and we specified individual cremation (more expensive) so that was all over £200, IIRC.

Collars and coats, each hound has a selection of very beautiful collars and a range of smart coats. Not cheap. For instance, I paid £60 for a new waterproof coat for our big lad when I was at Olympia just before Christmas.

Toys - rightly treated with aristocratic contempt by all three, apart from one who has a guilty penchant for a squeaky, and a habit of collecting and hiding kitchen implements.

Activities - one has done his Bronze, Silver and Gold CGC Awards. We pay to hire a secure greyhound field regularly for safe off lead exercise. We take them to lots of greyhound events and to things like charity dog shows, sponsored walks etc. I'm about to start dog training classes with our new foster girl.

Car and home - we've moved up to a diesel estate (essential). House is definitely more prone to wear and tear and needs a LOT more cleaning. We have masses of Ikea duvets around for pointy reclining. Yankee Candles - essential for coping with the satanic greyhound bottom of doom.

Satisfaction, joy and love brought - priceless.

1. Initial costs. What did it cost to buy/adopt your dog?

£180 each from a breed specific rescue.

1. How much is your insurance, per month?

£24 for girl wolf, £38 for boy wolf (have claimed £1600+ for him), both lifetime policies with generous cover.

£40 yearly club membership which gives third party insurance for racing.

1. How much does it cost you to feed your dog monthly?

£10 per week for two dogs (raw/BARF diet, mixture of supermarket bought, butcher's bargains/scraps, some branded minced blocks, free game and leftovers)

1. How much do you realistically spend on activities/dog sitters/walkers a month?

Agility training £40
Travel to and from racing training venues £40 fuel (ish)
Bit extra travelling to show venues in summer but not in a big way, only up to an hour's radius from home

1. What do you spend on other costs? (Toys/treats/grooming/beds/bowls/leads/collars etc)

Harnesses are £25 a time
Lines £25+
Racing rig £380
Dog guard and tailgate guard for car £150 second hand
New larger car to accomodate dogs overnight at rallies and transport all their stuff and camping gear £1995 + increased insurance premium!
Handmade leather leads and collars £100
Probably another £200 in plain leads and collars and bedding in the last year or two

Wouldn't like to add it up. Hopefully starting next month though I also make a bit of money from dogs as I start working for a dog training/walking franchise during the day to compliment new full time job which is evenings only.

Ddog I took off my SIL- she paid £400. Hes a mutt, albeit a very handsome one...

Insurance is £20 pcm.

Just spent £30 on new collar and lead.

Clickers, (where do they go??!!) £1 a go from eBay. I tend to save meat scraps as treats but buy £5 worth of hot dogs a month.

Beds loads quite a bit, Tuffie nest in house and one in car.

£59 on dog guard for car.

New car deep breath £8000. Was finding it a struggle to fit dog, buggy, various DCs and other crap in boot.

Dog walker weekly, £10.

Food about £8 pcm (BARF, friendly butcher!)

Training classes £40 every 2 months.

Agility the same a above.

Working trials weekend in September- £165.

I daren't add it all up.

Unconditional love and dog cuddles- priceless.

About £300 including jabs, other vets bill and food, she doesn't eat much food as she's prone to fat now she's spayed, biggest expense is the random trips to the vets when she digs up and eats things even the flies aren't interested in and then gets dicky tummy.

1. Initial costs. About £100

1. How much is your insurance, per month? £12

1. How much does it cost you to feed your dog monthly? About £20

1. How much do you realistically spend on activities/dog sitters/walkers a month? About £80

1. What do you spend on other costs? About £20 / year (very unfashionable dog!)

Plus flea stuff and vaccinations etc... expensive hound!

1. both abandoned freebees! No initial cost but beds, crate, collars, leads, toys, bowls etc prob came to £150 ish.
2. insurance baby dog £17 pcm. Batdog £19 pcm
3. feeding £32 pcm for them both. Supplement (yumega plus) £11 pcm
4. batdog agility £25 pcm, baby dog obedience £24 pcm. No kennels or walkers ever required.
5. other stuff flea/worm/vaccinations/ toys/ treats/ prob works out £30/£40 if averaged over the month.

They are my absolute baby's and best buddy's and wouldn't be without either of them for the world. They are both small dogs - terrier x's but v different looks and personalities!!

we got him for free
insurance £12 a month
food-£0 as dd's grandad donates it
Other vets fees, about £200 so far, (neutering and jags)
Toys - free, he loves sticks and we live in a forest
Worming about a fiver every 3 months