New Puppy Advice Please

Don't forget to enrol on dog training classes even if you have previously owned dogs. My friend attends classes every time she has a new dog. She has had dogs for over 60 years,

I'm so jealous, I love cocker spaniels and would love to have one but have to settle for enjoying my son's when I visit a couple of times a year.

MayBee70

Pinkhousegirl

I have never bothered with insurance - if you have a healthy dog routine treatment like vaccinations and plaque removal are not covered anyway.

That’s ok until you get a fracture or cruciate ligament injury. Or a tooth abscess.

Or your dog is injured in an accident. Vet bills can easily rack up very quickly.
Another tip - whichever insurer provider you are planning to go with, check that your vet will deal with them directly (some vets won't deal direct with certain companies) or else you will have to pay the bill first then claim it back.

Having had up to 10 working spaniels at one time, we didn’t bother with monthly insurance and just bit the bullet as and when necessary.
I think I remember, via the KC that we had some sort of liability cover though.

We use petplan, they have been really good. Our dog had a major operation when he was under a year old, there have never been any problems with them paying out.

Pinkhousegirl

I have never bothered with insurance - if you have a healthy dog routine treatment like vaccinations and plaque removal are not covered anyway.

That’s ok until you get a fracture or cruciate ligament injury. Or a tooth abscess.

I have never bothered with insurance - if you have a healthy dog routine treatment like vaccinations and plaque removal are not covered anyway.

They are all too expensive. They rip you off left right and centre. Animal trust pet plan a con and not worth £19.50 a month. Even vets don't care. My dogs back was bothering her and I took her thinking she had perhaps fallen down the stairs whilst I was out and he said we can take her in tomorrow and operate as she has hip dysplacia and I said she may have fallen down the stairs and he said don't think so. I didn't believe him and took her home and 3 weeks of rest she was fine and that would have cost me £1,500 and my little girl would have had a terrible op so the vet could get brownie points. That was animal trust.

Aside from insurance please make sure your new puppy is confident and wriggling when you choose one at the breeders. If it is quiet, or shaking walk away. This would mean it hasn't been socialised well with people. We made this mistake to our cost and ended up with an aggressive dog that was scared of everything. Best wishes x

I’ve stayed with PetPlan, expensive but good and vets work directly with them
Spaniels are great fun and lovely dogs. Im on my second blue roan, she’s a peach

Enjoy yours

Weve been happy with purely pets and theyve paid out for our rescue dog's injured paw and our monthly injections for our black labrador towards the end of her life .

We are with LV London and Victoria pet insurance. Never made a claim but they are reasonably priced. We have car and home insurance with them too as the price was good

Forgot to say...enjoy your new pup!

Our latest dog, a Labrador Retriever, is six now. We were with Animal Friends, luckily never had to submit a claim, but the premiums went up each year. We now, as pps have said, follow Martin Lewis's advice and put money away each month instead. My son, who has one of our dog's littermates, is with Petplan. Their dog has had an ongoing skin/allergy condition for a year, which needs monthly medication and they are able to claim back the cost from Petplan without any problems so far.
We also have a plan with our vet where we pay annually for flea and worming meds, yearly boosters, a check up, and a free appointment through the year if needed for anything. Worth looking into if your vet offers the same.

Animal friends has always paid for my 14 year old Labrador but I wouldn’t recommend them. In the past 2 years the premiums have gone up from £41 a month to £156 a month. We had never claimed until 2 years ago but now his medication is £140 a month. This is quite a basic insurance which has a £100 excess on each separate ailment per year and pays up to £2000 per ailment per year. Also because he is over the age of 8 they also only pay 80% of each claim. I would definitely do your research. We have decided that in future we will pay for insurance whilst they are puppies and more accident prone and cover is generally cheaper and also start putting some in a separate account to save for later years. With the healthy pet club giving 10% discount on all treatments then unless we are incredibly unlucky we think it will be more affordable. Good luck and enjoy your new best friend.

Hi. I know a lot of people will say take out whole of life policies but I think it very much depends on budget. I've always had dogs and cats until recently and couldn't afford to have them all on whole life policies as it gets more expensive per year particularly if you claim. I've always gone for 2 year £4000 limit on each condition and it's always served me well as even with our elderly Westie I was only paying £23 a month when she was 12 and slightly less for our eldest cat who was 16. Sometimes I didn't put a claim in as excess is £100 or more and often tests meant I would have been claiming for less than £40 so didn't bother. I've always shopped around on renewal dates even with elderly pets and often made a saving that way. Wishing you every happiness with your new puppy.

Get insured straight away. The breeder usually gives you two weeks of cover but if anything happens in the first two weeks ( and puppies are terrible for doing daft things) you then won’t be covered for that in the future. I always use Pet Plan life cover but at the age of six my dog now costs @ £100 a month. They’ve always paid up, though.

beautybumble

Hi. I'm getting a new Cocker Spaniel puppy in a few weeks. I'm so excited I started preparing straight away. It's been a few years since my last beauty passed so I'm out of touch with insurance costs. Does anyone have any advice as to the best company and not too expensive? I'm just preparing in advance. Thank you so much.

Emporium, it's cheap but brilliant, deals with the vets so all you do is fill a form out at the vets (when needed)

Avoid Animal Friends. They will do anything to avoid paying on a claim.

We always set up a savings account for our dogs. We increase their monthly 'pay' a little each year because they are more likely to be ill as they age, like us. It's worked very well for us. One of our dogs had a tumour removed, followed by chemo and radiotherapy. There was more than enough in his account to cover the cost.

Join the Dogs Trust. It's £25 per year, or £12.50 if you are over 60. The benefits are you get public liability insurance up to £1,000,000, unlimited access to a 24-hour veterinary advice service (Vetfone), and discounts on behavior and training programs. So if your dog causes an accident you're covered. And you're helping a great charity.

Competitive (successful)! Obedience (and hobby gundog) dog trainer here.
Excellent choice! Puppy should come with initial free insurance (which with a cocker spaniel you are unlikely to need) you can extend that insurance from the breeder or swap. I like pet plan myself but it’s up to you. I have a cocker spaniel (and other breeds) she never needs the vet (she’s 8) they are robust. Enjoy your puppy focus on the early stages getting puppy to follow you around and stay with you , be prepared for her hiding your stuff! . Read up about fear phases (Angela White’s dog training instructors manual has all the information you will need (Amazon/kindle)). Angela was one of my trainers and judges in competitive obedience heed her advice - enjoy puppy (wish it was me) !!

We've used Tesco for our last three. Not cheap ut never had a problem with payment when claiming.

I have always had insurance and, yes, it is maddening that the bill is invariably just below the excess level. Many friends have put a monthly amount of money into a separate account to cover vet bills, which seems to have worked.

My concern has always been public liability if, say, the hound causes an accident. However, I discovered a year or so ago that The KennelClub (I think) does just liability cover. Then it was about £25 per annum. Might be worth investigating.

Direct Line were always quick to pay out for us and weren't too expensive. I will be using them again when I get my puppy in a few weeks time.

I only have two cats now. I took Martin Lewis’s advice and saved £50 pm in a separate bank account to pay any vet fees. When I did take my insured dog the minimum fee was always rising, strangely most treatments seemed to be under the, then, £80 limit, so I never got to claim. Luckily he never had any major issues. My cats have never been to the vets, I do their flea treatments at home. The cats are quite wealthy now, with £5000 saved up, just in case. Dogs are probably more accident prone & of course don’t have the 9 lives my cats do.

We started off with PetPlan but swapped to Direct Line when it got too expensive. Our dog is now 6 years old and we’ve only claimed once. Direct Line paid out with no issues.