Cheapest Dog Breeds to Insure in England

French and English Bulldogs are among the most popular dog breeds in the UK, but they're also about the most expensive to insure. Some breeds cost 3X as much to insure as others depending on breed-specific health issues, with some breeds costing their owners thousands of pounds a year to insure.

• Which dog breeds are most expensive to insure?
• How Much Will You Spend on Pet Insurance over the Life of Your Pet?
• Methodology

To help you decide if a particular breed is suitable from a financial perspective, we've gathered data on the cost of pet insurance for the ten of the most popular breeds in the UK. Use this information when deciding which breed you can comfortably afford to keep healthy.

Which dog breeds are most expensive to insure?

Dog insurance costs vary tremendously be breed—for example it costs 2X to 6X as much to buy Lifetime cover for dog breeds with genetic health issues, like German Shephards (prone to hip dysplasia) or Bulldogs (prone to breathing difficulties), compared to hardy, healthier breeds like Border Terriers.

While gender doesn't play a large part in premium calculations for dog insurance (it does for cats), breed of dog certainly does. To see how much more insurance for some breeds cost than others, we gathered sample quotes for the top 10 most popular dogs in the UK, as determined by the Kennel Club. Prices reflect the average of the 5 cheapest quotes we found for policies with at least £3,000 of Lifetime cover for a one-year-old dog.

The cost of dog insurance varies significantly by breed

If you are thinking about buying a dog and are just researching the costs of dog ownership keep in mind the insurance costs for different breeds, especially if you are budget conscious. Every year, a dog owner could have to pay at least £400 extra in dog insurance premiums for a breed prone to genetic conditions (e.g., a Bulldog) compared to a crossbreed dog or terrier. And this difference can widen as your pet ages. Over a theoretical 12-year lifetime, some pet owners could pay £5,000 - £10,000 more in insurance premiums than others based on breed alone.

For more money-saving tips, see our article How to Save Money on Pet Insurance.

Cost to Insure Dogs Over Their Life

A dog is for life. And with many dogs living to the age of 12 or more (and health care costs/insurance fees rising significantly in later years), you may need to set aside quite a bit of money to pay for insurance over the years. The most expensive to insure—the Bulldog and French Bulldog—could set you back over £15,000 over a dog's 12-year life if you opt for the best type of cover, lifetime pet insurance.

And costs can run much higher, depending on the dog, health history, level of cover, and other factors.

While pet owners can possibly opt for a Maximum Benefit or Time Limited plan to save money on premiums, these types of insurance plans will not provide the same level of financial protection for recurring, long-running or high-cost health conditions.

Methodology

In order to understand the potential insurance costs faced by pet owners, we first requested the most recently-available data from the Kennel Club to discover the most popular dog breeds. We then collected hundreds of sample quotes, averaging the 5 cheapest quotes we found for policies with at least £3,000 of lifetime cover for each of these breeds.

To arrive at an average lifetime insurance costs for each breed, we increased the cost of insurance by 10% a year. In real life, there may be a smaller increase in the first few years, and a larger % increase in later years. We then used this data to calculate the average cost over a dog's 12-year lifetime and the total cost over a dog's life.