Depending on the particular dog, your dog’s insurance premium might change.
When purchasing a dog insurance coverage, you might wonder if particular dog breeds are more expensive to insure than others. The short answer is “yes,” however this conclusion is not just based on the whim of the insurance company but also on statistics and reason.
If you’re a potential dog owner wanting to cut costs, you might be curious to know which breeds of dogs are more expensive to insure and why.
Pedigree Dogs
If you decide you want a purebred dog, be prepared to invest a lot of money. Due to some breeders’ questionable practices, pedigree dogs are far more likely to suffer from a number of medical conditions. They are additionally more prone to become the victim of theft. The sum of these factors increases the cost of pedigree dogs. In general, insurance is far less expensive for animals of unknown origin and mixed breeds. Even with purebred dogs, some breeds are more expensive to insure.
“Dangerous” Dogs
It is more expensive to insure an allegedly “dangerous” dog even though any rational person recognizes that irresponsible dog owners, not the dogs themselves, are harmful. Breeds including Pitbulls, Rottweilers, and Doberman Pinschers—once seen as prestige dogs—are improperly purchased and raised.
They are therefore believed to be more likely than some other breeds to harm or attack a person or another dog. It doesn’t matter if your dog is aggressive or not since, regrettably, all dogs bear the stigma of a few terrible owners, which drives up insurance costs.
Large dogs
Unfortunately, it would seem that larger dog breeds would require more expensive insurance. This is because they typically have a wider range of illnesses that they may get. For instance, bloat and hip dysplasia are two issues that huge dogs regularly have.
Big dogs have the potential to cause more damage, thus the higher rates may be partially explained if your plan includes third-party liability insurance, which the majority do.
Species With Genetic Problems
Some breeds are far more prone to a number of illnesses and conditions that have been handed down from parents to offspring. The cost of insurance for a breed often rises with its illness susceptibility. Given that the insurance company will be responsible for paying the veterinarian’s bills, this makes sense. I
t is impossible to give a comprehensive list here, but it is likely that a breed of dog will be expensive to insure if it turns out that they commonly suffer from a variety of veterinary problems.
English Bulldogs, for example, are among the most expensive breeds to insure; their curling tails can result in a severe spinal condition; their flattened muzzles can result in a range of eating and breathing problems; and their wrinkled skin may be more prone to infections.
Although the ethics of breeding dogs prone to certain conditions are a topic for another day, there is no doubt that it will raise the cost of your insurance!
If you already own a dog that is expensive to insurance, you’ll obviously just have to bite the bullet and do it. However, these kinds of factors may affect your decision if you’re attempting to pick which breed of dog to choose. In your life, a mixed-breed dog will bring you just as much joy as a pedigree dog, and it will also cost less money!
Lauren Corona is a free-lance writer from the good ol’ UK. She has a specialty in writing about animals, especially dogs.
Lauren lives close to Oxford with her gorgeous Doberman, Nola. When she’s not banging away at the keyboard, you can find her wandering the woods with her dogs Nola, raising money for the Oxfordshire Animal Sanctuary, preparing vegan meals, making zines, and writing about herself in the third person.
