Cheapest Dog Breeds to Insure in North East England

French Bulldogs are the most popular dog breed in the North East, but they're also 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 £1,000 or more per year to insure in the North East.

• Which Popular Breeds in the North East are Cheapest to Insure?
• How Much Will You Spend on Pet Insurance over the Life of Your Pet in the North East?
• How Much is Pet Insurance for the Most Popular Dog Breeds in the North East?
• 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 top ten breeds in the region, including Newcastle, Durham and Sunderland. Use this information when deciding which breed you can comfortably afford to keep healthy.

Cheapest and Most Expensive Dog Breeds to Insure in the North East

Of the top ten most popular dog breeds in the North East, the Border Terrier and Shih Tzu were the cheapest to insure, costing less than £500 on average for annual Lifetime vet insurance for a 5-year-old dog. At the other end of the spectrum it cost over £1,000 a year to buy Lifetime pet insurance for a 5-year-old Bulldog or French Bulldog—more than 2X the cost of cheaper-to-insure breeds.

In the table below, the most popular dog breeds in the North East are ranked according to the cost of their vet insurance, from cheapest to most expensive.

Annual Cost of Dog Insurance in the North East

For the Ten Most Popular Dogs in the North East, ranked by cost to insure (1 = Cheapest to Insure, 10 = Most Expensive to Insure) for a 5-year-old dog

It costs around £500 per year to buy Lifetime cover for a mixed breed dog, roughly the same as a Border Terrier, Shih Tzu or Cocker Spaniel.

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 a whopping £15,000 over a dog's 12-year life if you opt for the highest level of cover, Lifetime pet insurance.

While pet owners can instead 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.

Insurance Costs for Most Popular Dogs in the North East

According to data obtained from the Kennel Club, the three most popular dogs in the North East for 2017 were the French Bulldog, Labrador Retriever and Cocker Spaniel. New pet owners may not realize it, but the French Bulldog costs twice as much to insure as the Lab or Cocker Spaniel.

Below we've ranked the top 10 most popular dog breeds in the North East according to their popularity, showing expected annual insurance costs across 3 types of insurance—Time Limited, Maximum Benefit and Lifetime—at 5 years of age.

Average Annual Cost of Dog Insurance in the North East

Ranked by breed popularity (1 = Most Popular) for a 5-year-old dog

Methodology

In order to understand the potential insurance costs faced by pet owners in the North East, we first requested the most recently-available data from the Kennel Club to discover the most popular dog breeds in the area. We then collected hundreds of sample quotes for cheap pet insurance for each of these 10 breeds across all age groups, for sample North East households in Newcastle, Durham and Sunderland.

To arrive at an average annual insurance cost for each breed, we quoted policies for each breed at age 2 months, 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 7 years, 9 years and 11 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.

Here are the pet insurance companies from which we gathered quotes: