• This topic has 49 replies, 26 voices, and was last updated 9 years ago by simmy.
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  • Dog running costs
  • Houns
    Full Member

    Just some impulse pie in the sky thinking from a mad cat man who is thinking about (but probably won’t) getting a dog.

    Miss Houns’ friend has a chocolate Lab with a litter of puppies that will be ready for new homes mid October. Now, I’ve always had cats, I’m a mad cat man, however I’ve always wanted a Lab since I can remember. Family members and Miss Houns have got dogs (yes I’ll be asking them for their advice) so I have grown up around them, just not lived with one.

    I am in a position job wise to be able to have one (not away with work, don’t work long days, work close to home so can pop back on breaks) but I know this may change. My parents are retiring next month too so would be able to dog sit if needs be.

    So, what do I need to know? What are the running costs? What insurance is best? When/how much are the jabs etc etc? Male or Female? What about pedigree issues?

    As I said it’s just wishful thinking at the moment, and I will be doing a lot more research, but for now, whilst having a brew and a sandwich, over to you

    Houns
    Full Member

    Oh did someone say pix?? 😛

    Drac
    Full Member

    For a Lab, now big are the parents? Labs can eat a lot and I mean a lot.

    Insurance if you want it is around £28 per month then vaccinations can be bought on a lifetime plan from many vets now for £99.

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    Houns
    Full Member

    Not seen the parents yet, we are going over next weekend

    Obviously aware that labs can get big, it would be on a strict diet and lots of exercise

    oldnpastit
    Full Member

    Insurance is vital, as we found out after our uninsured Greyhound broke his leg.

    When our springer was young, she destroyed a *lot* of stuff: shoes, USB cables, cuddly toys (they deserved to die tbh), etc. So count on losing a few hundred quid there. But she’s stopped now since trying to chew through a mains cable.

    Food obviously, but she’s quite small so doesn’t eat huge amounts.

    The occasional stay in kennels, about £20/night.

    Houns
    Full Member

    We stayed at the Drovers Inn last month and there was a couple there with a 4 month old choccy lab who was teething, so saw first hand (by saw I mean I had my hand chewed) what they can chew

    cubist
    Free Member

    Labs can eat a lot and I mean a lot.

    My Choccie Lab ate multiple shoes, several phone chargers, part of a sofa… the food is the cheap bit.

    I wouldn’t ever own an uninsured dog. Ours manged to interface with a Landrover at 10 months old and shattered a leg, the resulting vets bills were over £4k.

    The unexpected expenses in dog ownership are things like kenneling if you go on holiday. Its about £18 per night for my 2 to share a cell. Soon adds up for a 2 week holiday.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    What are the running costs?

    Petrol or Diesel?

    Houns
    Full Member

    A big cage/crate best to get then for it to sleep/stay in?

    What about a kennel outside for when it’s older? I have a sheltered area down one side of the house that’s not being used for anything but storing some bits for the garden. I don’t like the idea of permanently keeping it out there but it’s an option if im going to be out for more than a few hours/good anti bike thief security

    trailofdestruction
    Free Member

    I suppose it can depend on the dog, but ruff (sorry) figures for a month

    Food : £40
    Insurance : £15 – £30. I use Petplan

    Every 3 months you’ll need to worm which is about £5 – £10

    Poop bags from Wilkos or Home Bargains for £1

    Then yearly Kennel Cough and booster vaccines about £80 – £100 per dog

    Find a good vet, ask around who other people would reccommend, same for Kennels should you need them. A good pair of wellies is now your top priority for the next purchase.

    I suppose you’ll need lots of other puupy vaccinations as well, which could be quite expensive as a one off, and you’ll be well advised to go to puppy training classes as well, which aren’t too expensive, and won’t be forever.

    The odd toy or chew here and there won’t break the bank.

    One thing to consider is ageing, my two are now 12 and 13, and I now pay £35 per dog per month for insurance. I know. However, knowing what my neighbor payed in vets bills when their Lab had to have an emergency surgery on a Saturday night, I won’t not pay it. Some people do save up a lump sum and don’t pay insurance which is another option, but I wouldn’t be comfortable with anything less than £2K in that jar. Vet bills for dogs can be VERY large.

    HTH.

    Houns
    Full Member

    Thanks

    My vets (well not mine but my cats) are very good, but blimey the costs for a dogs treatments sound a load more than my cats put together!

    cheers_drive
    Full Member

    Labs with eat any food left unprotected. In fact they’ll probably destroy the thing that’s the food in such as the fridge door that my brother’s 6 month old chocolate lab chewed through!

    Jamie
    Free Member

    My vets (well not mine but my cats) are very good, but blimey the costs for a dogs treatments sound a load more than my cats put together!

    That’s because dogs are better than cats, and the price reflects that.

    Lucas
    Free Member

    I have a (black) lab/Collie cross who costs next to nothing to run. Obviously when he was a pup he had all his jabs etc but apart from that its a big sack of food which seems to last for a few months. I reckon he eats about £150 – £200 worth of food a year, plus £40 odd for worming stuff. Much cheaper than the kids (and nicer to stroke).

    Ours is a very good dog though, unlike one of his friends – BumFunBarney – who is a chocolate lab, still has his nuts and so will try and commit atrocious sexual acts with any other dog (Male, female, big or small) that he can smell within a mile radius. BFB also like to eat stuff, like a kids dummy, or my 2 gloves, which dislodged the dummy and perforated his intestine. He is also massive and strong, its very entertaining watching him in the park…….probably not so much for his owners.

    z1ppy
    Full Member

    Don’t forget the time you need to invest, walking twice a day for a good length, no matter the weather or what you need to do otherwise… & the joys of poo picking (& decorating the poo bag tree 😳 )
    Yep Labs are hovers when it come to food, or anything vaguely edible 😯

    Again we had a lab/springer cross, and he was golden but did eventually suffer with joint pain/arthritis & was a loon all his life (worst traits of both breeds). Medication & treaments for that wasn’t cheap, as he didnt understand that going at 100% all the time was going to hurt eventually. As for food he was kept on dry dog food (cheaper than my ours cats food bill!) and didn’t suffer for it.

    Houns
    Full Member

    Miss Houns has a beautiful collie/lab cross that likes to chew empty metal cans 😯

    Walking/exercise is not an issue, actually part of the reason why I want a dog as it’ll get me out more too. There’s a big open field at the top of my street, plenty of poo bins around too so no trees shall be decorated

    Edit

    Here’s her dog, Poppy

    Lucas
    Free Member

    Z1ppy – but that time spent walking the dog is an investment and will pay you back in added years to your life……maybe.

    Seriously, my parents, although not old at 65ish, have 2 dogs (and always have). one of their main pass times is therefore walking the dogs and they are both in very good health and very fit.

    I think that owning a dog and obviously being committed to walking it properly twice a day is one of the best things that your average lazy chubby person could do to improve their health. You might not want to go out for a walk in the pissing rain after a long day at work but dogface is going to be there irritating the hell out of you until you go and do it and once out you’ll never regret it.

    z1ppy
    Full Member

    Yep, my own health (waist) has suffered since not needing to walk the dog night and day but in the middle of winter when it’s cold & raining out, it’s not very attractive. We will get another, but maybe will wait till the eldest cat moves on (very very annoyed by my kitten… so a new dog….)

    PS: Jamie your just wrong, as you don’t own a cat, they just suffer you.

    PPS: MrsZ was making cooing noises over the cuteness overload above.

    Houns
    Full Member

    Even if it’s hammering down, -20 and blowing a gale I can wrap up and walk 20m up the street to the field, throw a ball with one of those plastic throwers a few times and walk back, so not much bother

    z1ppy
    Full Member

    plastic thrower things are a god sent, no more hands covered in slobber and wears the bugger out! (or make them fitter?)

    Houns
    Full Member

    Poppy is 12 iirc, a getting a little arthritic now, but her teeth are in great shape and no bad breath (must be the cans!) taking her camping this weekend to Church Stretton

    trailofdestruction
    Free Member

    Labs with eat any food left unprotected

    Ha ha, quite possibly the biggest understatement of all time. I grew up with a lovely natured Labrador, but my god, she was as greedy as hell.

    She once ate an entire catering tub of margarine, a chocolate Easter cake, complete with fluffy toy chicks on top as decorations, and then half the lino when she found her way into the pantry at my Aunts house whilst at a family gathering. She was then sick all over the kitchen floor.

    We used to get phone calls from people on the other side of the village saying ” Hi, err… your dog has got out and it’s now sitting right next to our BBQ, could you come and pick it up”. Which embarrassed the hell out of my mum, but endlessly amused us.

    You could not have dinner without a dogs head on your knee, which would always end with a dark patch of dog drool on your trousers. Nice. There was no such thing as leftovers in our house. Drop any food on the floor and it was gone before you could bend down.

    Nobby
    Full Member

    As has been said, a bored & hungry Lab can and will eat anything – our last (black) Lab’s best moment was eating/shredding a conservatory sofa leaving just the frame covered in teeth marks 🙂

    Generally he was pretty good, jabs etc the same as any other big dog and food was about £15 a month. Our local vet has 4 or 5 Labs at any given time & recommended a working dog food such as those from Skinners (although prices have crept up it seems), supplemented with leftovers. Folk always remarked how good he looked and how strong & fast yea was too.

    Insurance varies but, as has been said, make sure you opt for a ‘whole of life’ cover in case of any long term issues.

    We’ve a little Patterdale at the minute and, whilst she’s a fantastic little dog, the next will be another Lab.

    Edit: Oh, and keep any cans of alcohol well out of reach – they are far from bite proof and the only thing worse than a p****d Labrador is one with a hangover 🙂

    richc
    Free Member

    As others have said PetPlan is good for insurance, mutts are cheaper than Pedigree’s (a lurcher is a mutt as is a labradoodle)

    Food wise, each of mine go through ~ 1 x 15Kg sack of James Welbeloved every 5-6 weeks @ £42 a sack. I could use cheaper food, but it gives them the shits so I pay a bit more not to have to take a shovel on walks. Plus the have a a single hide chew once a day @ 80p and they don’t chew much.

    Vet bills, jabs etc are ~ £100 a year. Bills from injuries are much much more, one of mine hurt her tail at that cost ~ £1.5K to sort out luckily most was on insurance.

    If you want to go on holiday you also have to factor in kennels which vary from £10 a night to £60…. Personally mine go to ones that are £17.50 a night as if they go to the cheapest one they are *very* destructive when you get I back (once took off 4M run of dado rail for example).

    richc
    Free Member

    Ha ha, quite possibly the biggest understatement of all time. I grew up with a lovely natured Labrador, but my god, she was as greedy as hell.

    She once ate an entire catering tub of margarine, a chocolate Easter cake, complete with fluffy toy chicks on top as decorations, and then half the lino when she found her way into the pantry at my Aunts house whilst at a family gathering. She was then sick all over the kitchen floor.

    I can win this has eaten or tried to eat this year…

    1. Large pack of wasabi peas
    2. Large jar of french mustard
    3. bag of peppercorns.
    4. few packs of dry weetabix (24 in one sitting is the record)
    5. Granola
    6. Marmite, Jam and Marmalade
    7. Tomato ketchup
    8. Bread
    9. 15 Kg of wild bird seed (got in back in piles around the garden)
    10. Bag of risotto rice, bag of porridge oats, bag of dry pasta and half a bag of brown flour (in one sitting, was ill after this)
    11. 1 live chicken (carried and it died to be fair)
    12. Skin of deer + intestines + misc guts left by deer stalker, he had a green head where he must have got in it! Was really glad about this one as he kept puking the skin up and re-eating it.
    13. Fawn head + neck, skin , eyes.
    14. Huge freshwater trout
    15. Dead puffin

    And that’s just what I can remember. Crazy thing is he can eat all kinds of random shite and is fine and rarely sick (and not re-eat whatever he has just puked). However if I move him onto cheap food he almost poo’s himself inside out.

    Lazgoat
    Free Member

    I haven’t read every post but in our experience you should factor in:

    1) Cost of buying dog/donation to Rescue centre
    2) Vaccination(cant remember)
    3) Boosters £30-40/year
    4) Flea, Tick treatment £8/month
    5) Food £15-20/month depending on quality and consumption rate
    6) Puppy class training/socialization £5-10/class/week
    7) Further training £8-10/class/week
    8) Kenneling £20 day
    9) Dog Walker ££8-10/hr
    10) Consumables/Toys/Chews/Treats £3-4/wk
    11) Insurance £30/month with PetPlan £7k/yr 4Life Cover
    12) All weather walking gear
    13) House Dog crate £40 (sold after 12 months once 100% reliable for £30)
    14) Car crate £30

    A friend has a Choc lab and it eats anything and everything in reach. You’ll have to be extra vigilant to keep the begging and robbing under control.

    I was/am a cat person, but dogs are ace!

    Drac
    Full Member

    4) Flea, Tick treatment £8/month

    Per month? Why do them monthly?

    sandwicheater
    Full Member

    Love hearing about all the Lab food disasters. Rich, you do indeed win.

    All costs covered above. It’s not that much when you think about how much joy they bring you every single day without fail.

    Get one Houns, great dogs. We’ve a brown lab/springer cross and she makes us smile every day. Daft as anything.

    Kindly removed the handles from all our good knives. How she didn’t cut her face open I don’t know.
    Kindly placed the toaster in her bed and ate the casing. We did need a new toaster.
    Kindly placed the kettle in her bed and removed the handle. We did need a new kettle.
    Kindly removed the plaster work from a wall. The kitchen did need replacing and re-plastering always.
    Kindly ate 2 Sorean loaves, packet of water biscuits and 32 wheatabix in one sitting. I thought she was dead when I found her. Nope, just so full just couldn’t move.

    Lazgoat
    Free Member

    Drac, it’s averaged out, roughly £25-30 for a dose that lats 3 months.

    Drac
    Full Member

    Drac, it’s averaged out, roughly £25-30 for a dose that lats 3 months.

    Ah got you now. Petmeds do Frontline for about £18 no need to do monthly though.

    mintsauce5
    Free Member

    Here’s a couple of pics of my two , second pic was taken just now after a good walk and paddle this morning 🙂

    ji
    Free Member

    For all those talking about chewing and labs staling food – it is possible to train them out of this. Exercise and being clear about what is a toy (so they can chew it) and what is not from day 1 is important. So don’t give them an old shoe or teddy or whatever to play with as they will asume all are fair game.

    My lab could be left with a plate of food on the floor in front of her for 5 minutes when I as out of the room without touching it. She might drool all over it, but wouldn’t take it until I gave her the command. That takes a lot of training however – another way to tire them out and means they chew less as well.

    They are intelligent beasts and get bored – give them lots of things to do and the chewing will be less.

    Oh and an adult lab will need a good 2-3 mile walk lasting an hour or so per day (in 2 separate walks is even better). Once they are fully grown taking them with you while you do a gentle bike ride is great. Mine could do 4 or 5 miles happily and still have energy

    midlifecrashes
    Full Member

    Has anyone said insurance yet? Ours is currently on £60 per week drugs and £75 consultations. This after £1500 operation for a tail injury. Not to mention all the cleaning of everything he’s bled on, and keeps doing whdn his scabs crack.

    dudeofdoom
    Full Member

    £800 to put my dog in the cat scanner so insurance is most def a must.

    With Petplan who seem very good an have written a fair few cheques.

    I’ve got a dog scooter for my springers which they loved but you need a few dogs (I don’t let them use it now as ones legs aren’t as good anymore)

    Houns
    Full Member

    Maybe a dog scanner would’ve been cheaper? 😛

    More Lab pix please!

    mrmonkfinger
    Free Member

    I’d estimate:

    £40/month food
    £20 insurance
    £10 various meds/jabs/innoculations averaged out

    Good dogs, labs.

    innit_gareth
    Free Member

    About a grand a year plus 365 man hours of cleaning up after him.

    totalshell
    Full Member

    we ve had molly a minature schnauzer for almost a year she was 8 weeks old when we bought her..

    i put 150 hard earned of my daughter pocket money down for her shes since cost about 40 quid in vacinations about 170 for the ‘snip’ and about a quid a day in grub.. she s got a big box of toys a basket / rugs/ three hundred or so poo bags waiting to be filled an unopened 24 pack of those pads what soak up pee.. but she came housetrained and has never used one..

    shes chewed through 1 cordora type lead and two similar harnesses

    however the joy and smiles she has brought to our little home are immeasurable, we dont have her ‘clipped by the hairdrsser ofetn so rather than looking all moustache and beard with trimmings.. shes more spit the dog.. i ‘d happily pay 100 quid a week to keep her.. if you told mrs tts it would cost her 500 quid a week she wouldnt part with her..

    mitsumonkey
    Free Member

    My Lab costs me about £15 every 6 weeks for dry food (he eats leftover food, from breakfast, dinner etc).
    No insurance I bought a working line. 10 years in and he’s never been to the vet for anything other than the vaccination boosters which we stopped after he was 5.
    I think I’ve been lucky with him, he’s a smashing dog. Wonderful temperament and athleticism.

    br
    Free Member

    Instead of paying for insurance, put the money into an account and then make sure you negotiate when they ever need the vet.

    FWIW our 7 y/o Working Cocker has cost nothing with the exception of injections; while our 2 y/o Working Springer has cost us about £100 due to his ability to charge into stuff and impale himself.

    Some folk in the post above are paying more for dog insurance than we pay to insure our cars.

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