No better use to put your wages to in my opinion! I wouldn't have to do as much work (altho only part time) if I didn't have to factor the dog in along with everything else. Boarding Kennels are a twice or thrice annual expense for me so approaching 1K and that and the expense of travelling with her is why I don't have TWO dogs!

I had to think very carefully before I got Pepe because of the expense of clipping, so I very nobly gave up some of my keep fit activities to pay for it. (I had a shock when I added up how much I was spending each week - Pilates was £8, several other classes were £4 each - it really mounts up. Much cheaper to go for a run or a bike ride and do my Darcey Bussell Pilates DVD!)

Yep- I wouldn` t have it any other way

Nor me (but don't tell her that - she is enough of a tyrant as it is!) Don't want her prancing round with the 'I'm worth every penny' look on her little pointy face lol!

This is something I have been thinking about recently to be honest, as I want to rescue a dog when I buy my first home!

I already have Alfie, but he has cost me next to nothing in his 4 years so far *touch wood* and my insurance has been fab on the couple of things I have claimed for.

It can be hard to work out as so much can change in a short space of time, but personally for that reason I will have "both" dogs insured for the forseeable future, as a cover to myself for costs as I won't have loads of extra money kicking about.

So I suppose my answer is yes I can afford a dog... in the situation I am in now, and plan to be on with the second dog added in, but who knows! Let's just hope it works out okay

As this has turned into mainly all about the medical expenses that can crop up when you take on a dog I will just mention that I reported a new poster today. For what is rightly termed 'cyber begging' (I think the thread has now vanished). Their first post and they had set up a web page and were asking for contributions for chemo for their dog as it was going to cost 8K and they'd cancelled their dog insurance a while back when things were tight.

It might not even have been a true story for all anyone knows (anyone can set up one of those web pages) but if it was - I think it did sum up quite well what can happen if you don't consider things over and above the cost of buying the dog and feeding the dog and just the average annual vet bill for vacs and the odd problem or check over.

Would like to add that I happily give to 'registered charities', registered rescues and other worthy causes. But really do not like that sort of thing at all.

I wouldn't even know where to start with working out how much a dog would cost, there are so many ups and downs in life and so many what ifs that if we attended to all of them most of us would never get a dog.
My first dog was a freebie, she cost me nothing really in her 13 years, she was vaccinated as a pup£30, had an eye injury shortly after £42, three ops to remove tumours around 200 each time so £600 there, and in her last year she as she started running down we spent about £250 on various things, then £32 for the vet to come and put her to sleep at home.

Peanuts for all the awesome times we had together.

I've also had a foster dog that racked up an amazing amount of vet bills in a very short amount of time.
She didn't have any exotic illnesses she just weighed a lot, which made quite a difference to the cost vets bills for routine stuff like spaying, a urine infection etc. The reality how much food she consumed was an eye opener too!

I've always really liked massive dogs but after seeing what a difference that extra weight makes to the bills it's not something I would go into at the moment. If I wanted another large dog imminently I would go for another lurcher because my boy is a big dog but weighs in as a medium for anaesthetic and drugs at the vets and doesn't eat much.

One day I'll have my big dog!

Many vets do claim directly to the insurer without the owner having to pay upfront. That said, I suppose it can depends on the vets experiences with particular insurers.

My vet has a notice up stating that fees must be paid upfront even if the pet is insured. However, unless it's for routine things, such as vaccinations etc which obviously you don't claim, I've never had to pay upfront, even though I've offered to. They never rush me to pay or demand payments.

I have a good relationship with my vets and they know my dogs' bills will always be paid, whether it be from Petplan or myself.

When Petplan have paid out, they just sent me an invoice for the excess that I can pay at my leisure. I pay it within a couple of days though usually.

Roxy is on lifetime meds now and has been for around 8 or 9 months, I get them monthly from the vet and just pay the 20%, sign a Petplan form and they claim the rest back. Petplan have always paid quickly and with no problems.

Also, the Glasgow Vet School claim direct as well. And thank fook they do as I couldn't afford to pay out thousands in one hit!

Interesting and good debate.

If I added everything up, I would probably be horrified at the amount I spend on my dogs, a lot of things through choice and not necessity.

My dogs are worth EVERY penny and I wouldn't change things.

They are well insured and good insurance is something I will always have as I cannot afford to pay thousands upfront. For me it's a necessity. And it's just as well I have it as in two years my dogs have two surgeries for cancer and two surgeries to sort ruptured cruciates. Totalling around £13,000. Heck, in the one year 3 of these surgeries have been required. All within a month or two of each other.

Roxy also has Chronic Kidney Disease and requires blood and urine tests every 6 months, I actually plan to have it done every 4 months or so as these things can progress quickly. She's on a phosphate binding supplement and is doing really well. She is also incontinent, requireing a daily tablet to keep it successfully under control. Roxy is some dog, I tell you. I think she's been reading the medical books to decide what condition she fancies next.

Roxy will have no more major surgeries - she has been through enough and IF the cancer comes back for a third time, the most she will have is a minor surgery and I would try radiotherapy IF I thought it was going to cure it. Her kidneys probably couldn't handle drug treatment in the form of chemo. That said, she is still insured.

They are both not vaccinated anymore, since last year - through choice, not financial reason - they are 10 1/2 and almost 13 years.

I spent £70 on a Waggers puffball bed for Molly, she also has a memory foam one as well. It's particularly important now that Molly has comfy beds due to her legs, so as she can potter around the house and have a comfy bed to rest in without having to wait to be picked up to be put somewhere each time. She probably COULD jump on to the couch, but I discourage her from doing so and so now she just lets us know she wants up on to the bed or sofa and waits to be picked up. I don't want to risk her expensive titanium legs coming in to bother if I can help it! Roxy doesn't 'do' dog beds at all! She just does the sofas and human beds.


They are fed the best that I feel I can give them. They also have a range of coats, mostly Equafleeces and they have a box over-flowing with toys.

Molly is washed and trimmed monthly (Westie) and Roxy is bathed as she needs it (short coated mongrel).

They get the best of everything I can give them and I wouldn't have it any other way. They are such a pleasure to own and really make my life so much better, even with the issues they've had over years. They're so worth it!

I hate to think how much I spend on Cookie, although he is worth every penny!
His insurance (for constant claims) is now over £50 a month. Luckily for me my dad pays that, says Cookie is his dog and that's now his only claim to him! I think he's just a big softy really. We can't change his insurance into my name because it would reset it as a new policy and all the existing things wouldn't be covered. He is technically their dog anyway. But £50 a month is cheaper than his vet trips and meds!
Food wise isn't too bad now he is on raw, maybe £60 every 2 1/2 months ish plus bits from butchers and supermarkets.
As for his bed, I spent quite a bit on a tuffies dog bed, added fleeces to it, made my own cover, extra duvet but he always sleeps on our bed now since it's cold and he has a bad back... That was easily £100
Then the toys, my dog can destroy a soft toy in 5 minutes if it's not well enough stitched. He doesn't like certain rubber toys, and ignors antlers and nyler bones (neither of which he is allowed now because of his allergies anyway) but that's more money down the pan!
He has his own toy basket, with mostly kong toys in (but not the actual original kongs, they're only good for food, otherwise ignored). Then there are all the treat toys, which now he can't have dried food, hardly get used...
I think the money you spend on the good stuff - like decent toys, vet trips, good food ect is fine, it's the money I might as well burn for the stuff he either ignors or can't have/won't use!
I can easily spend £2000 on Cookie a year, and since owning him I have only had 1 real holiday and weekends away are always ended with picking him up from the vets as he's got that stressed he's been really ill. And car sickness, a bad back so he can't sit for long and fear aggression towards big dogs results in us not taking him with us... No holiday costs though, so that good! HAHA