Worked out today that our Dog costs us circa £200 pm....!!

[SoHereItIs2016]

And decided to post that here for anyone who is debating/deciding whether or not to buy a puppy or dog.

Breakdown of costs

£36 pm health insurance, likely to double at least over her lifetime (even if no claims, if claims occur then who knows...)
Dog walk half an hour three days per week (whilst we are out in the morning) £120pm
Food and treats £30pm
Miscellaneous, jabs, check ups etc, £10pm

This figure does not include day care for when we need to go away for a day (fairly rare but occasionally necessary or holiday care if we cannot take her with us.

Obviously before we got DDog we worked out roughly how much each expense would be and we have the financial resources, so it's not a problem and she is worth every penny, but my good ness when you add it all up and realise it's around 2.5k a year it really opens your eyes!!!

How people on really low incomes cope with the expense I honestly have no idea!!

How much do other people's Ddogs cost them?

Maybe people could look into the food aspect. It may not need to be so much.
I'll keep looking out for better fostering options.

Could you take another persons dog in for day care or fostering? Then they would pay you.

My pup is relative cheap compared to some it seems!
Insurance £25
Food £12
Dog walkers (use a few times a month at £10.50 per walk) normally comes to around £30-40 per month

I'm desperate to get him in to doggy day care which costs £12 per session, but would need 4 sessions per week which comes to nearly £200 plus the £37 I spend on food and insurance. Bit steep at the minute!

Oh god I just did loads of maths and lost it all!

We pay £30 for 12 kilos of burns alert. Feeding guide is 100g of food per 10 kilos body weight per day. Which is about 25p. I think. 10 kilo dog would be something like a beagle or Cocker spaniel.

Someone please feel free to check my maths!

Good grief.

Insurance - £25 per annum to Dogs Trust (covers up to 1million Public Liability)
Food approx £20 per month (he eats a lot of home cooked from scratch and leftovers)
Booster vaccination £60 per annum
Flea/tick/worm etc treatment about £10 per month (internet supplier)

(We decided not to have health insurance as we have capital to fall back on if needs be and save monthly to increase capital instead.)

Lucsy
First, here is another dog fostering site. Here they say they will pay for vets fees and food if necessary. These dogs here are not necessarily old though.
www.forest-dog-rescue.org.uk/Fostering.html

Here is fostering for a Women's refuge when a family et has to be cared for because the woman has had to go into a refuge.
It says vets fees and food can be covered.
www.refuge.org.uk/get-help-now/what-about-pets/
Food/vet expenses: All veterinary costs will be paid by Dogs Trust. If a dog is not neutered or vaccinated this will be carried out as soon as possible. Dog food and any canine equipment is also provided by Dogs Trust.

Second, I do not think it needs to be £40 pm for food, but I have not had time to check properly. It helps to get a very big bag delivered via an internet site like VetsMeds as it works out cheaper that way.

Lucsy - not sure if it would work for you but borrowmydoggy.com basically you look after dog for someone else, walking/just company and so on. It's on a volunteer basis - not sure if that would appeal for you?

As a borrower then the annual membership is something like £20 for the year (they need to verify you etc) - the dog owners pay far more - it's a matching site.

I think you have to not count, it's a bit like children, if you looked at it rationally, you'd never have any.

Having said that . . . I'd guess £25/month dogfood, vets bills to date maybe £500 over 16 years at a very rough guess (although liability insurance covered elsewhere as we have farm insurance).

On the positive side, and ignoring love and cuddles, over the years a gain of many hundreds of pounds for wildlife damage avoided (ie, rabbits, rats, foxes etc caught or scared off) and indeed at least one incident of probable thievery also avoided as dodgy bloke ran off quick!

Lucsy A 15 kilo bag of James Wellbeloved dog food costs about £40 delivered free when bought in the internet. (this is good against allergies as it has no wheat, I had dogs live till old with this, Burns Cupcakes mentioned is good, there are quite a few good ones)

15 kilos is 15000 grams

A medium dog with ordinary activity needs about 200 - 250 gams per day.(JW website)

15000 divided by 250 pd is 60 days worth.

£40 for 60 days

So £20 pm

An old, inactive dog would need less and it would be important not to overfeed it.

Going back and forth to a pet shop for smaller bags costs more.

MOneySaving Expert pets has price comparisons.

Any of these fostering places would advise you.

Couldn't tell you on a monthly basis but recently spent just over £360 to get my dog's teeth cleaned. Fortunately that doesn't happen too often.

Otherwise she's pretty cheap. Insurance at around £43 per month is the biggest outlay.

Lucsy Have you looked into The Cinnamon Trust? It's fostering and dog walking for the elderly or people unable to walk their dogs themselves anymore. They also sometimes need foster homes for people in care/nursing homes. Might be worth a look?

Actually the £750 worth of fence we had to have put up to keep DDog in doesn't do my sums any good...

My dog costs a fortune too. His grooming costs alone are astronomical. Yes, I knew about that when I chose the breed, but I didn't account for how fast growing his coat would be and no, I won't be doing it myself
What has been a lifesaver for me was joining borrowmydoggy, but then I hit the jackpot with the wonderful lady I got.

Random Mess, it cost me £45 to join BMD for the year. It has paid for itself about a hundred times over already. Love it, but I got lucky as I said. 90% of his walks I do myself, but the extras are a bonus. And I should also add that our pup has been worth every penny of his considerable costs!

My costs must be similar. I pay £25 a week for 3x 30 min walks. Food, Insurance, injections.

May have to hide this thread

Think how much we are all SAVING though. No inpromptu days out (no-one to let dog out), no spontaneous holidays (no-one to look after dog), fewer gym fees (fit from walking dog), no new mattresses (exhausted from walking dog - could sleep on anything)!

That's true for me as far as the holidays are concerned Cadburys. Haven't been on holiday since I got her nearly five years ago.

But think about all the shoes you get through with all the walking; that's got to cost hasn't it?

Let's face it, dogs ain't cheap.

I think punter lab costs more than the DH to keep but ....

I can't work it out monthly but yearly it's roughly :
£260 insurance ( basic yearly policy)
£400 grooming
£150 flea/ tick / worm
Annual boosters & KC - not sure of cost
£250 food ( Millies Wolfheart £40 every 2 months)
£600 yearly into his toe nail account as not covered on insurance
£100 medication for his SLO ( not covered on insurance )
I can't work out the extras for toys / treats / beds but possibly another £100 .
We don't use a dog walker or any dog care as he either comes with us or someone stays at home with him .

Monthly necessities for us aren't too bad, but I do worry about the pet insurance increasing as he gets older. Our Labrador is only 3 years old.

Insurance £34 (Pet Plan)
Health Plan £13 (Vets Advocate/Milbemax flea/worm/annual boosters/health checks)
Food ~£40 (Millie's Wolfheart)
No dog walker/kennels etc needed
No groomers (we have a dremel for his nails when needed)

Obviously other extras which is probably 1/3 the monthly costs again for things like treats (cows ears £24/100, dried venison/liver treats), new bed this year will hopefully last a while now he's stopped chewing £185, collars/leads/tags £varies, washing 3 towels a day in winter, water & mud proof footwear and clothes for us)

A colleague at work cant believe we spend so much (I don't think we are excessive compared to others costs), he says dogs are cheap to keep his is

Border Collie and Sprocker spaniel cost us about £200 a month

Dog walker approx 6 times a month £90
Food and treats (both dogs are raw fed and I dehydrate liver, chicken and beef for treats) £40
Insurances £35
Flea treatment/wormers £30

Just don't do what I did and get hooked on dog sports, competitions, showing etc... that's where the scary costs lie. Hundreds a month.

Floral I feel I need to know more about the toenail account!!

toboldlygo yes, that's what's got us! New car, caravan, away nearly every weekend in the summer. And then there was the time I decided to find out a bit more about dog behaviour and ended up doing a diploma... That was pricey!

Just looked at my bookshelf and reckon I've got about £300 of books about dogs.

But lots of this must come under the heading of "Hobby" rather than "pets", right?

Also, wings is that £24 for 100 cows ears? Where do you get them?

our dogs eat wagg worker which is cheap, or aldi dog food, and we pay a mate £20 a day to look after them if we go on holiday

I pay £6 a month insurance for the younger dog, and nothing for the old lady as they wanted £50 a month, but have had a few big bills, but tbh, probably a lot cheaper still than how much insurance would have cost over the years, and shes nearly 17 now.