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 have an adolescent large dog (38kg)

1. insurance paid annually but would be £73/month
2. vet plan £20/month
3. Raw fed £150/month
4. Treats and toys (toys constantly destroyed) £20/month
5. No grooming do myself
6. dog training £30/month
7. Dog sitter is £30 a day so £120/month overnight stays would be £52 a night
8. Enormous initial outlay getting all fences secure and CCTV as high instance of dog theft near me £3000

she is worth every penny. She is the best thing I have ever done for the DC and she has brought so much joy to my life. Out of those two dogs I’d get a lab over a viszla.

I have a terrier mix so smaller then you’re looking at but for comparison costs per month are;

Insurance £38 (he’s 6yo)
Pet plan £20
Food £50 (he’s fussy and can’t have chicken)
dog walker varies but for one walk a week it would be around £50

Ive never used kennels as my dog isn’t keen on other dogs but am lucky that my mum is happy to have him if we go away.

I have 2 x 12.5kg dogs .
Costs Butternut Box £158 pm
1 x bag Royal Canine Gastroenteritis £38pm
My dog walker . One visit a week £40 for 2 hrs so £160 pm
Dog boarding £595 for two week hols and we go away twice a year .
Neither are insured because I have the funds to pay for anything they need . Last 2 yrs I’ve spent over £10k on two minor ops , a bout of pancreatitis for one and a tweaked back for the other .
wormers / fleas every 3 months @ £160
Treat jar topped up as necessary . .

We have an (almost) 8yo beagle. We pay:

£68 p/m insurance (never claimed)
£30ish a month food, though we buy in bulk.
£20 a month on chews, but again, we buy in bulk.

We don't flea treat, and worm with OTC treatment from Amazon a few times a year, which probably comes to £50 annually, maybe. He's never had fleas so we've probably saved hundreds in "pet plan" costs.

His dog walker is £15 a go, but he only has the very occasional walk so I don't really include that in his monthly spends.

Forgot annual vacs £160 each
groomer £100 spa session x 4 a year
nail trim £30 every month for curly nail

We are not rich nor we can justify spending more than what we were spending then when my beloved staffy was still alive.

£100 vet insurance
£50 dog park
£40 dog food

We used to pay £12 a day Mon-Fri for 1hr dog walk too before FT WFH.

He definitely cost more than what I would spend for myself - I guess having him in my life was for myself!

I miss having a dog so so much! 😢
But this thread has given me a slap of reality. 😱

My dog was a greyhound. No grooming fees, trained her myself, worked from home so no dog walkers, took her on hols in the UK with us, etc. She ate tins of chappie (recommended by vet as she had a sensitive tum). Main cost was pet insurance but nothing as high as some on here are paying.

I think when choosing a breed, things like grooming costs should be taken into consideration. A relative of mine had a spaniel that needed lots of grooming and their anal glands cleared 🤢🤮 regularly. It was a fairly big regular cost!

You need to be prepared that they can be expensive. My cocker only needs food, flea worm treatment and annual vaccinations at the vets. I groom her myself and she is just lucky. My old springer cost a fortune in meds and vets bill from when he was around 2. We treat them both the same, it’s just one of those things. I have an 8 month old golden retriever now as well and she costs about £200/month. That is food, insurance, flea/worming and her dog training club. The last is optional but we enjoy it. That doesn’t include the initial outlay of beds/leads/toys and the actual dog. That also doesn’t include anything she has chewed!

My 7yo greyhound costs
£30 pm food - Harrington’s from Amazon subscribe and save
£30 pm insurance
£25pm vet plan

My other random thing about costs would be to check how much the food you are feeding costs per day rather than per bag.

We often find that the cheapest food is less filling and the suggested amount is a much bigger portion. Sometimes food that's more expensive per kilo, is cheaper per day. For us something like pooch and mutt is cheaper than chappie.

My older spaniel costs me a small fortune, he's now 12 and I cancelled his insurance as it was silly money and I had only ever made one claim for a ripped dew claw. Currently he costs me:
Medication £150 per month (heart, and arthritis) -
Vet check every 6 months £35 + £24 for prescription to buy meds online
Supplements £50 per month (Zoomy, probiotic and dental plaque powder)
Food £60 per month - Skinners dry kibble and Lily's kitchen wet topper

I have a small collie and a lab sized mutt - they’re £39 and £43 respectively to insure, £18 for flea and wormer treatment and roughly £45 - £60 to feed (it’s just over £100 together but the bigger one gets more)

We don’t use groomers, walkers or any kind of boarding.

toys, chews, other treat stuff, poo bags, toothpaste etc … probably averages out about another £20 a month between them.

There’s other costs that aren’t as regular - collars and leads and stuff, get replaced just as and when I haven’t bought any in the last year, but I probably will fairly soon, so that’s about an extra £50 every time. They wear seresto collars from the end of March to the start of October for ticks, they’re about £40. Vaccinations are £110

You get the odd non routine vet visit, even if they’re fairly healthy - random stomach upsets or injuries, they’re covered by insurance but there’s the excess to pay.

So roughly - I’m not doing exact sums 😂 about £150 a month each.

My mutt actually costs a lot more because I’ve spent so far about 3k in 4 years on behavioural stuff (training, specialist vet etc.) that’s not covered by insurance - adopted him, discovered some major behavioural issues after.

Clearly, my two medium-sized working dogs are deprived 😳

Their biggest expenses were when they were pups, for bowls (one liked to play hockey with the bowls, and smashed a few), beds (one was a shredder) and a couple of collars (1 tiny puppy collar, and then extendable collars that grew with them).

They get a 15kg sack of working dog food for £22 whenever it runs out. It's tax-free, but high protein, and obviously filling enough for the one who isn't a dustbin, as she leaves some sometimes. Poo bags are a roll of cheap supermarket nappy sacks. They are vaccinated, but other than that, only visit the vet if necessary. They get wormed and flea'd if we're going visiting family in a busier area, where you come across more dogs. One went off to sheepdog boarding school. A family member is kind enough to look after them if I'm too ill/away, and sends them back with a mountain of treats that they are yet to see the end of. Other than that, they seem to be as cheap as chips in comparison!

£165 insurance (she has monthly treatment for joint pain - it was less than £60 a month when she was younger)

£20 excess for the above that I can’t claim back each month.

£25 monthly plan at vet covering all consultations, flea, worming, vaccinations, claw clip etc

£80 dog walker twice a week in term time

Food… she’s a fussy thing but her favourite is supermarket food so that at least doesn’t cost much!

Leaving the heating on more than I should because I don’t want her to get cold… who knows how much 🫣🥰

Spaniel owner here.

£11/month insurance but that needs to be increased
£30/month in food, have tried all sorts of expenses foods but she is a winalot girl theough and through
£50/month in private hire fields to exercise her. She is a rescue and although we have worked hard on recall she is not reliable enough to let her off in the wild

We have a 5 year old boxer

Insurance is £80 a month (she had big vet /insurance cost when she was 12 months)
Food - around £70 a month
Vet plan £20 a month

They’re quite big dogs, I’d say.

As someone about to get a dog, this makes for alarming reading! None of the friends and family I consulted about costs are paying anything like this for their dogs per month. We won't need dog walkers, daycare or boarding but will be paying a groomer every eight weeks and clearly there is a lot of luck regarding health costs and quite a range in terms of food and treats. It's definitely a sobering thread anyway!

I think one of the issues is that costs vary wildly and you can’t always predict them in advance.

You could have a dog who is healthy, happy to be left alone for a few hours and never gets more than upset stomach stomach, or you could have a dog who screams when it’s left, requires specialist food due to allergies and busts both its’ cruciate ligaments by the time it turns 3.

Of course, most dogs are somewhere in the middle but it’s always best to plan for the worse case scenario IMO.

@OnATypewriter A lot of health issues can be avoided by using a good breeder, who uses fully health tested dogs. Some of it is down to luck. But for certain issues, it's down to breeding. The better the breeder, the more certain you can be that your dogs will never have certain issues.

My family have bred Golden Retrievers for 50+ years and we've been health testing our bitches for hip dysplasia for over 30 of those years and elbow dysplasia for over 20 years. We've never had a single one of our girls (or puppies than we know of - and I've in touch with most of those who have bought puppies from me several times as they're often repeat owners) suffer with dysplasia.

However, I still have the best cover possible for my dogs because if they were hit by a car tomorrow I'd be looking at probably £8-9K for the vet bills. And I still feed them the best food I can because it aids their joints/growth which in turn protects their health.

But certain breeds will always cost more due to the general health of the breed (which effects insurance - even if your dog is almost certainly guaranteed to never get dysplasia, the insurers still take the risk into consideration), the amount they eat, the type of food they need (larger breeds need more protein and more calcium when growing up = more expensive food), their medication requirements are higher (bigger dogs medication costs more).

Plus, as this thread has shown 'medium' is relative. Some posters think their Cocker Spaniels is medium, and I consider my Golden Retrievers to be medium....but there's about 25kg size difference between the two.

I have a Spanish water dog, he’s a bit smaller than a lab. Aged 7

Insurance - £158 (many pets)
Worming/tick/flea treatment/vaccination - £10
Food/treats -£65
Daycare - £50-100
20% excess for ongoing meds - £10

Approx £300-350 a month

On top of these we have bought toys, beds, collars etc. Occasionally use boarding but family usually help us out.

Yes! My poodle costs £55 a month in grooming alone! Of course that cost will only go up...no gurantee my wages will also go up!

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks Personally, I think K is tiny. 😂

Nearly every description you read of cocker spaniels classes them as a medium sized dog. Which is ridiculous when my friend's Siberian huskies are also medium.

I have just checked the KC site though and it says cockers are small and GR are large.

Agree with this. You just can’t know in advance. All mine are rescue and some of the older ones cost next to nothing, just pootle about loving life. Some of the younger ones are extortionate. IME of more than 40 dogs, “mutts” always do better than “pedigree”.

Weimaraner here.
Id say 200/month give or take.