How much does a puppy/dog cost to look after?

[hickory]

We are thinking very seriously about getting a puppy. It will be a small dog. I am trying to get an idea of the costs involved in looking after a puppy before we commit. I would like to know how much you spend on food. I intend to buy pet insurance. I work three days a week so might need a dog walker for those days but I'm hoping my dad might enjoy a walk on those days.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Bump. Anyone?

I have no idea, but we're also thinking the same and have the same question - so, bump..?

I have a big dog so costs will be more expensive for insurance and food.

She is nearly 10 so considered old for her breed. Her insurance this year was £400. It went up a large amount when she was over 8. They need yearly boosters, worm tablets etc. though not sure of the cost if that.

Dog walker round here is £10 a time.

We pay £35 every 6 weeks for big bag dog food we have delivered.

Puppies will need several jabs but can't remember the details.

She hasn't really cost us a lot of money. As she has never been ill up until now.

Kennel fees are about £10 a day round here.
Hope this helps

Think money saving expert have a pet insurance price comparison gadget.

We have a cavalier king charles spaniel. Annual injections were about £30 last time (it was a half price offer at a new vets), flea and tick treatments are about £8/ month but I only do them 8 months year, worming £5, food £10/ month (she gets table scraps too and is only little).

We don't have insurance with this dog. With the last ones I found it slowly crept up. Started at about £6/month was soon £10+ /month.

With a small bouse trained dog it was possibly easier to find families for her to stay with when we went away. But generally I'm lucky as my mum and dad look after my dog(s).

Current dog cost about £400. Bits and pieces like lead, collar, bed, bowls, car harness, crate would easily have been £100. We had a spare playpen that opened out that also came in very handy sectioning off the house when she was little.

We have a little puppy and she hardly costs anything I buy her trays of food from tesco for 30p each and she usually has some cold meat or a puppy treat every day. She needs groomed about once a month and this costs 30 pounds but will depend on your local groomer. My pet insurance is only 8 pounds a month through homebase. I don't buy fancy clothes or anything for her and she has a cheap bed from b&m. She is 1 now and I think we have spent bout 80 pounds at the vets for jags etc. my mum watches her every day as she works from home so I don't pay to have her walked but I know in our area it's about 5 pounds for half hour walk! I absolutely love my little dog she is always happy to see me and I don't get any cheek out of her unlike DH and DC

Don't know how much less a small dog would cost to feed, but the tick and flea and worm treatments work out at about £10 a month. Insurance will depend on the breed, I would check k on the comparison sites if I were you but the cost will go up as they get older and may not cover on going conditions. You can get reasonably priced leads and collers, or spend a fortune! Same for dog beds. We pay £4 per hour for training class, which is cheap I think.
Mine ha e passports and go on holiday with us, so no kennel fees. The micro chip is about 15 or 20 I think, the rabies jab 45, annual boosters the same.....
It's when they get poorly the real costs start. Last year oldie Goldie had to have her teeth fixed = 350. Her pals cancer treatment and eventual euthanasia, I stopped counting at 3000.

I have a 2 year old springer x lurcher roughly she costs:
£15/20 a week food natures finest organic and James well beloved dry.
£2 week treats/toys
£28 a month fully comp pet insurance
£20 a year check up and vaccination.
£20 a month agility classes spent the same on training classes when she was a pup.
£5 months flea and worm treatment.
£15 kennel cough vaccination once a year I think.

One off extras she has: car harness, blanket, occasional rawhide bone, stair gate for sectioning off rooms when we have guests, lead and harness, balls, winter coat, shampoo, brush.

Her initial vaccinations cost me about £100 all in inc check up, weight checks and the vaccinations.

Oh I forgot the microchip, hers cost about £20.
I don't pay a dog walker I have 3 brothers but around here (south east) it would be about 15-20£ For a decent 2 hour walk.

How are you going to cope with a puppy and being out of the house 3 days a week? A dog walker would work fine with an older dog, but not a puppy.

Calculate what you think it will cost and double it! Seriously though, thought needs to be given to vet bills. There was a sad case on here last week where a family had a one year old dog put to sleep because they couldn't afford special food/vet's bills. Insurance is available (lots of different packages) but you need to be able to fund the vet's bills whilst awaiting insurance. Expensive insurance packages will pay out more than cheap ones, naturally, but even expensive ones charge an excess after the dogs hits (in my case) ten years of age.

My dog is obv spoilt comparing some of these costs
Insurance is £20 pm
Food £60
Training/ agility £60
Advocate £10 pm
Annual booster £60
Worming, every 3 months is about £15 a time now, I think

Gadgetry, crate 80
Throws, from Ikea 5 quid a time
Toys, biscuits, nice leads, brushes ££££
Dog friendly holidays £££
Neuter/spay. I had a bitch, so 200 +
Any accidents/illness/insurance excess, put at least a grand aside

You need to be prepared for possible financial changes in over the period of the dogs life (12-16years). If someone in your house loses their job or anything else and you'd think a viable option is to get rid of your canine family member, dont ever get a dog.
It can be as expensive as you want, but good quality food is pretty essential and can prevent some health problems from worsening.
It was £80 to get our puppy out of the pound,microchipped. Then vets vaccinations, harness (£15), dog food (£25), treats, clicker, toys, stag bar etc. etc.
I don't think dog sitters would work with a puppy though? Puppies are serious, serious, intense hard work, they wreck your home, worry you sick, have needle teeth, have to learn from scratch, have tantrums, are incontinent for a while.... And you can't excercise them for longer than a few minutes for months and months

In terms of food my dogs are cheap. I buy a bag of sainsburys own brand dry complete each week and that feeds my black Labrador and my cairn terrier. The Labrador has a sensitive tummy and the only ones that don't upset him are that one and aldi own. So that's £3.50 a week.

I also give them joint care chews daily as they are 6 and the terrier has a bad back hip. Those are 1.60 a pack of 7.

Insurance is 40 a month. I think it's 24 for the lab and 16 for the terrier. That's through pets at home.

There's a cheap vet near me that we use for annual booster as was £35 at the main vets but only £10 there.

I think the guinea pigs cost more money each week. As plenty of fresh fruit and veg and gay costs me more than 6 a week.

I have a big dog. A rottie. He's adorable before anyone judges.

His food is just over a tenner a month. I buy a big bag of wagg on payday and a small bag to tide him over.

Flea treatment £22 for four months from pets at home.

Crate/cage was 90 but can get second hand and some ppl don't have them.

Initial vacs were forty but I've not given him any since then.

Insurance twenty ish a month.

That's it I think.