How much does your (medium size) dog cost you pm?

[stupididiot12345]

after many many years of pondering, we are now close to biting the bullet and getting a dog. Either a fox red lab or a Viszla, but more likely a lab. I feel our lifestyle suits a dog - house with large garden, backs onto huge woods so plenty of options for interesting and varied walks, we have 3 boys who play sport all weekend so our time is often spent on pitches so dog could come along too (although I appreciate not all pitches allow dogs on).

my reservations are surrounding the costs of boarding services while we are on holidays (maybe 2 x yearly) although so have lots of family who may be willing to help. How many monthly or year should I expect a dog like this to cost me including food, insurance, grooming, flea/worm treatments, general supplies? Any other costs that I might not have considered

I had a lab. He cost me:
£125 per month insurance
£25 per month vet plan
£100 per month food

Insurance was unlimited and he required £7000 in medical for a joint problem when he was two and a half, so the insurance easily paid for itself.

Vet plan covers flea and worming treatment and a 6 monthly health check.

I bought decent quality dry food.

Other odds and ends (toys / beds / leads) not included in the above.

Wow! That is a lot more than I was expecting

My bloody idiot costs me the insurance excess in rather more months than I like to remember.

Usually a new thing that I hadn't anticipate (scratched eyeball, cut leg, allergic reaction) on top of the grass seeds, grooming costs, insurance premium and food.

Good thing I love her.

I have a spaniel.
£16000 insurance cover (used £9000 for a broken leg) now up to £80 pm from 30
dog walker twice a week- £15 per walk
food £40/50 per month. He’s on jollyees raw food
extras like treats/bones £10/15 per month
£25 per night kennels or dog walker home boards when we can’t take him with us
grooming- mine gets an all over shave & tooth brushing every 3 month. That’s £50
wormer £5 a month- I use a flea repellant called Billy no mates sprinkled on his food & only treat for fleas if he has them (twice in his life when I stopped the repellant 🙄) as he has had bad reactions to the spot on flea stuff

I had a spaniel so a bit smaller than you are thinking. He wasn’t too expensive to begin with, insurance, food, grooming puppy training classes, vaccinations, neutering etc. We used to home board him when we went away and that was £35 a night as he had to be the only dog.

However as he got older, health problems meant his insurance rocketed to £150 a month, food to £90, grooming every six weeks was £60, medication not covered by insurance was £100.

Dog ownership is expensive!

My medium lurcher (same size as a lab) costs about £200 p/m - that’s insurance (expecting that to go up at renewal), vet plan for wormers and vaccinations, food and treats. Doesn’t include coats, leads etc. I don’t board him as he comes on holidays with us but when we go to France has to have an AHC which is about £150 each time.

That is a “how long is a piece of string” question. I have many, many dogs. Some cost me very little (standard food, no health issues) others cost a fortune (specialist diet, specialist medical care e.g. Chiropractor) and it’s very difficult to tell who will or will not be expensive.
For the type of dog you’re thinking about I’d budget £250 per month to cover food, insurance, boarding etc. Some people might think that’s excessive and I definitely don’t always spend that but I put it in an account for emergencies. Because if they are going to hurt themselves or have an accident it is guaranteed to be on a bank holiday weekend when you have to go to an OOH vet who doesn’t accept insurance…..

I had a lab- I echo what PP said about a lab, mine had two ops £7.5k and £1.5k. Medication and food was £400 a month at age 12 and he lived to 14.
He was £30 a groom.
Recurrent ear infections £150 ish a time.

We now have a staffie- she’s £30 insurance and food (she has Forthglade/Lily’s so not the cheapest. No grooming costs, I do it myself.
Spay will be £600.
Flea / worming I do a pets at home subscription.
I give her salmon oil. £10 ish lasts ages
Plaque remover in her food. I use plaque out from Amazon.
Start young and save bills (hopefully) down the line.

Vet appts around £50-70 ask your local vet.

I have a small cockapoo. We pay insurance maybe £40 a month, training £15 a week (she’s on gold good citizen but I see it as so important to keep learning with them), food about £70 a month, dog sitter £20 twice a week for me to go to the office then extra ad hoc if we are having a day out (it was a lot more when she was a puppy and couldn’t be left, but you’d skip that if you had local dog loving family), grooming every 6-8 weeks £50, all the beds, leads, toys, treats - I don’t even know! Oh and she’s getting spayed so that’s another £600.

Our spaniel (age 5) is £42 a month dry food (skinners)
Vet visit scheme (covers vaccinations/worming/fleas/ticks/check ups) £38.40 a month
Many Pets pet insurance £88.23 a month
Grooming 3 times a year about £60-80 a time

Day boarding here is £60 a day and a dog walk is £20 (long one) but the day dog boarders will keep him for a night for £25

Dp is meant to work from home but every time he needs to do a day out for work somewhere we have to pay for the walker or the day care depending how long he’s away

Oh and I forgot the vet health plan for vax and worming, £22 a month, hope I didn’t miss too much stuff!

I’ll also add- in the end (this was when I knew little about insurance) I had Tesco and they always paid out but he became too expensive in the end and was covered for very little. So I stopped insurance and just paid.
Get good insurance.

I have a Toller so a little smaller than a lab /viszla but definitely medium sized. His monthly costs are £85 food and treats, £18 vet fee for vaccinations, flea and worm treatment, £35 agility classes, £20 for the odd day at day care and £35 a night if I’m away. I don’t insure apart from 3rd party through the Dogs Trust as he was catastrophically ill when he was a puppy and the premiums shot up but I’m lucky enough to have savings which I could use in an emergency. He’s a lot cheaper than the horses 😬

It's not just the set up costs you have to think about, but the fact everything gets more expensive year on year (generally as the economy is crap, and because older dogs need more). Puppies are very expensive, and so are pensioner dogs. It's only when they're adults that the costs level out a bit (i.e. don't increase drastically)

My youngest Golden is six months. She costs about £300 a month.
Insurance is £80 (excellent lifetime cover).
Food is £120
Treatments (flea, worming etc), toys, leads, other incidentals are about £100.

My eldest Golden is 13.5 years. She costs about £450 a month.
Insurance £170 (just renewed - she's old but I would absolutely never forgive myself if something came up that was easily fixable, just expensive, and I couldn't afford to pay).
Food £160
Treatments & other incidentals about another £100
Vet checks and tests every 1/4 to make sure she's healthy £120.

Near me, you're looking at £80 a night for boarding and £60+ a day for pet sitting - at least if you want somewhere reasonably competent who won't abuse your dog or lock it in a 2x2 cell for 23 hours a day.

😁

My Border Collie, £110 per month food, treats and toys £15, insurance £28 per month (not a particularly great policy), but he’s turned 7 and insurance considers this elderly. Vet bill last year £500 for 1 check up plus injections, then another visit for infected pad, flea and tick treatment £12 per month, I would say £2,500 per year. Boarders here are £40 per day for small to medium dogs, charges can be more in school holidays and Christmas.

As previous posters have said how long is a price of string, I pay a dog walker 2 days a week , that’s over £100 a month , insurance £80 , food about £100 (raw fed ). Luckily not had any health issues so far but annual boosters are usually around the £70 mark & a poorly paw cost me £210 for vet visit &!antibiotics few weeks back . He also has a £200 bed but obvious don’t need to do that but cheap ones he was just destroying . He isn’t groomed as short haired .
Mines a Rottweiler so a bit bigger than medium but can imagine prices are similar unless you’re feeding them rubbish food .
i would say £200 a month is average .
What I will say though is like a lot of people , my boy is worth every penny and more to me , I’d remortgage my house for him without question 😬

I can't answer all your questions.

But on the boarding issue, we have just been quoted and accepted someone charging £38 per night to board our Lab in her own home when we are on holiday in the summer. That will add £380 to the cost of the holiday so not insignificant. Edited to add that we live in the South East and the woman doing the boarding is known to me but not exactly a friend - she does pedicures in her home and we often chat about her dogs & mine so I know she's a good sort.

Boys and a Labrador would be a great combination though😀

very lucky that my dog walker looks after him in our home when i go away , that’s £40 a day/ night so almost £300 for a week holiday .

If you are concerned about cost, I wouldn't get a fox red lab. They are a trend and it seems to me that some breeders may be selecting for colour rather than sound temperament and good health.
What's wrong with a black lab?

Golden Retriever costs approx £250 per month.

That includes insurance, pet club plan with vet for vaccinations etc, joint supplements and food. It doesn’t include all the parking fees we have to pay when we take him to the beach etc for his walks. And parking is so ridiculously expensive here that I dread to think what the total of that is, I’m not looking 🫣

Does anyone question the necessity for all this? Is some of it a money making exercise i wonder 🤔

We had a dog growing up, back in the day where dogs got water and a tin of kenomeat for dinner. He probably had a few bits we left over at meal times. He used to go out during the day and wander where it suited him ( yes the streets were full of poo then 🤢).
He came home when he wanted to lie in front of the coal fire and nap. One time he was badly attacked by a bigger dog my mum looked after his injuries till he got better.
There was no special meals or pet plans that I recall. Vet visits were few and far between. We lived in council housing so spending lots of money on the dog just didn't happen. Kennels weren't needed, he came camping with us.
He lived till he was 13 then had to get put to sleep.

Makes you wonder why the modern dog needs so much spent on it?

I have a 15kg spaniel cross, 4yo. His insurance is £30 a month, plus £15 vet plan (vaccs, wormer, flea treatment, money off meds and 2 free consultations per year). He goes to the groomer every 8 weeks costing £30. Food is around £20 a month (bought in bulk every few months), plus probably £10 in treats (although one of his favourite things are carrots). About £90 a month in total.

He must have got all his jags etc, he was actually a pedigree dog. His grandad was a champion something in his breed. But he lived in a council scheme and had to get on it, same as the rest of us 😁

My black Lab costs are, roughly:
£20 pm vet plan
£40 pm insurance
£15 pm food
£30 pm scent training course