I, too am a lot better now with my depression and mental health issues. Thousands of dollars wasted on inpatient in mental institutions. Tons of medicines given to me, tons of bogus support groups that failed to help.

But when I was at my worst... Brownie, my old Lab mix was always there to help me. When me and my mother would fight, he'd always come to break it up. When I'd cry, of sorts... he'd cry.

I attempted suicide twice, but by some fluke... I'm still alive. I'm still going through harrowing times, with the dire health of my father and my aging and ailing mother. But, I've got my dogs.

There isn't anything that I can't handle now. I sometimes fall back into my state of "oh, why even care" but I soon snap out of it as I realize they need me, my parents need me, and the world needs me.

Catrin... allow me to make this statement with regards to your statement:

"MY mental health was my responsibility"

While this is a solid statement... try telling someone who isn't in good mental health that and see what good it will do. If someone is barely clinging to their mental health and bordering insane, not a single STATEMENT will reach them.

I know this from experience. When you are suicidal and manic and just are totally out of it, those words those doctors give you go in one ear and out of the other. You're sitting there fidgeting and scratching your skin off, and the words the counselors are saying aren't reaching you. It is because you aren't there.

That's where things like dogs, drawing and whatever makes the person happy INSIDE come into play. The main thing that will pull a person from the pits of anarchy is touching their heart. After all, depression begins with deep sadness and feelings of being alone and deserted.

Starting to veer off the subject... but yeah. Just my opinions on the matters.

I think like lots of others you never know what's round the corner.

When we got Max our RottiexAussie Shepherd we were living a good life then Gorden became unemployed and worked for agencies and part time supply teaching and I had a part time job. When we got him we decided to take out insurance being a big dog if he broke a leg or became seriously ill we could not of covered the bill. It turned out at just turned 4 he became ill with cancer with having insurance we were able to take him to the emergency vet without worrying about the expense Gorden was working again by this time. He was very ill and we chose palliative care and lost him 8 weeks later I don't think just because you have the security of the insurance you make decisions to put your dog through lots of tests that might not work. That was not how we thought anyway.
It was the same for Ollie we had insurance it allowed the tests to show that he was very ill and from there we took a decision to manage him till he could no longer manage the moment he showed signs of losing his quality of life we took the decision to not put him though any more.
Dillon we were managing very well when we got him then it all went very wrong financially and we struggled with his insurance payments and food etc., and many times I nearly returned him. Again insurance come into play for him he had an injury and needed to be referred to the vet school which the insurance covered and treatment. We met a couple of dogs at the vet school who belonged to the nurses or vets that had been handed over because the owners could not afford to pay the bill for treatment and surrendered their dog to them.
We are through the bad patch still managed to keep Dillon but we will always take out insurance it has paid out for us 3 times now if we hadn't had it we would be looking at a very different story.
Each time 3 different insurance companies for 3 different dogs.

I must admit though if I had known what was ahead of us when we bought Dillon I would not of bought him the stress
worrying about him the insurance premiums when he needed it was very stressful.

Myra I do understand how the statement sound to someone who is suffering from depression as that is when it was said to me and I just couldn't see how that could be as it felt like something that was happening to me and needed treating. I just couldn't see it. But saying your own mental health is your own responsibility isn't to belittle it or to say that the actually devastating physical changes your body and mind goes through when you are suffering from clinical depression aren't real..they are...but there are ways in which to reverse what is happening to your mind and retrain your thinking. For me CBT went hand in hand with taking long walks or drives, and because I was unable to afford a dog of my own I became a volunteer dog walker at a local rescue and also applied to the cinnamon trust to walk dogs for the eldery and infirm.

Oh and also, saying that my mental health was my responsibility wasn't the same as saying it was my fault....just I/my brain had become set in a path of negative/destructive/fatalistic thinking because of a whole series of life changing thing going on.

Well we don't say that to the blind or deaf who need dogs to help them so why say it to people with mental illnesses ? Dogs help many people in many ways and are part of the family and loved for that and despite that.

I was not going to post here again as there was so much misunderstanding of the debate subject. And getting accused of all sorts! And too many taking every word personally. (It is a DEBATE section) It was actually about whether people think hard enough about the cost before getting a dog and I stated as much.

Not about who has spent the most at the vet or what they would do if faced with a big bill or whether they'd starve to feed their dog - about giving thought to these things BEFORE GETTING the dog! I am sure everyone who uses Dogsey loves their animals enough to do whatever it takes to keep them healthy. And of course anyone's circumstances can change. But the question was meant to be an 'in general' question regarding whether enough forethought was put in. Some have given interesting answers either saying that, yes, they did think hard about it, others that no, they didn't but with hindsight would definitely do so in future.

But - as far as dogs for the disabled go - this thread is about COST and whether people buying a dog give enough thought to the ongoing costs. (It does seem to have evolved into just the cost of medical treatment but I did actually mention all sorts of costs. And I wasn't even THINKING about designer toys or clothing I can't believe anyone would think a dog is 'better off' for having those!)

People who qualify for Assistance Dogs on account of physical disability are not who I meant when I said people who are 'thinking of buying a dog'. I believe it is the case (certainly in the UK) that dogs are generally provided to owners with disabilities at little to no cost. I doubt whether such an arrangement is in place for people suffering with mental illnesses who feel a dog will help them. I'm not passing judgement on that. Just to say the whole debate was about cost so bringing people with disabilities like blindness or deafness into it (people who need ASSISTANCE dogs) isn't really all that relevant to whether people considering getting a dog have put enough thought into the future costs of ownership for the next 10, 15 or even more years.

I've had several ideas that might make for a discussion or debate since I started this. But I don't think I will be posing the questions on here! Not until I get the tin hat I've put on my christmas wish list!

Well if we are being told cost is everything and we shouldn't look at what a dog can bring to our lives just how much they cost I am not sure where else the debate could go after that.

A lot of people need dogs whether they can afford them or not. We go without other things often so they have what they need. Or we can't afford them because we have them if that makes any sense ? we work alternating shifts and I do part time so we can give ours what they really need which is love and time. If we didn't have them we could both work full time conventional jobs and hours so we would be far better off so really it's having dogs make us unable to afford to have them

That's true tang.

Julie, I'm sure dogs can do wonders for people coping with the daily grind of depression, but, unforunately, they still have to be able to afford the dog. I don't think anyone was suggesting dogs treat you any differently depending on now much you spend on them, just the very basics of owning a dog like food (whether you make it yourself or not), paying for inoculations, flea and worming treatment, vets bills and/or insurance can be an expensive matter. Yes you can make savings on beding, toys etc with some imagination...but it's a drop in the ocean to the real costs though.

Yes but if we just sit down and work out what a dog costs we couldn't afford one let alone two but somehow when push comes to shove we manage to do without things so they get what they need. If we knew before we got our first dog how much he would cost us we would never have had a dog and would have lived without them over the past 30 years but I think our dogs have done pretty well, all but one were rescues and all would not have had the experiences we gave them if we hadn't taken them on. At least three would have died one drowned and the other two PTS for behavioural problems.

Would that have been better ? I am not sure it would.

I see people who have very little money who make fantastic dog owners and some who can afford it make a pigs ear off it all and the dogs suffer. It isn't how much money you have it's what you can offer them IMO

I base my thoughts on Dog ownership and their affordability on decades of dog ownership and to be honest over the years they've cost me peanuts. I realise not everyone has the same experience and will base their thoughts on how much their dogs have cost them previously etc. which may run into thousands. I spend more on kennelling my lot every January for 17 days than I spend collectively on their health annually.
I think for me it's more a case of can I afford not to have a dog, they enrich my life in so many ways, I'd never want to not have at least one in my life.

That's true, and I hope I'll never be in a position to have to be dogless again....having said that though I've just come home to find that Remus has raided the fridge again and eaten absolutely everything that I had just replaced from when he did the same on Monday. So..anyone want a bull Lurcher....free to a good ...actually any home?