# Homeowners insurance and "danger dogs" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 18, 2003, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeowners-insurance-and-danger-dogs/213889 "2003-11-18T13:14:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Innanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecd19e/32.png) [@Innanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Innanna)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeowners-insurance-and-danger-dogs/213889/21 "2003-11-18T18:49:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by troub \* > \*\*As far as what you list your dog as on the application. . .some companies actually send people out to your house periodically to do a sort of drive-by assessment or check-up. This happened to my parents, and the guy noticed our Rottweiler in the yard (which we had gotten after the insurance, and hadn’t even _dreamed_ we’d have to report). They got The Letter stating coverage will be terminated. No questions, just the letter. The point is, if your dog _looks_ like a Chow (or a GSD, as they are sometimes considered “dangerous,” too), such an assessment may be made no matter what you write on the form. “Pit Bull,” for example–there are several breeds that are all often referred to as pit bulls, and probably a billion mixed breed combinations that are also considered pit bulls. Owners of these dogs may write “mixed breed” all they want and be totally honest about it, but ins. companies (and even municipalities who have restrictions about what kind of dog you can own) are the ones who will decide just by looking at it whether it “looks” like a pit bull. It’s ridiculous, and it sucks. \*\* That is stupid. My dog has pointy ears and they can just decide which breed of pointy eared dogs he is decended from–just by looking? :rolleyes: Gosh, even my vet and the good folks working at the shelter coudn’t manage that. Astounding skill. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeowners-insurance-and-danger-dogs/213889/22 "2003-11-18T19:13:13Z")
Some breeds do have distinctive traits…chows, for example, have a blue tongue. And Ember’s tongue is a mottled blue. Still…we got her at the pound…she could be 1/4 chow, for all we know. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeowners-insurance-and-danger-dogs/213889/23 "2003-11-18T19:40:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Innanna \* > I don’t even think that there is genetic testing for dogs. And if there is, it would be prohibitively expensive and probably not breed accurate. I may be completely off about this, though. Any one know for definite? I’d highly doubt there is such a test. There are so many breeds, and not much difference between them genetically - they’re all still the same species, after all. We can’t really reliably (to the best of my knowledge) do that for the “races” of humans, much less all the different breeds of dogs. All that a blue mottled tongue and a Chow “look” would prove is that there’s **some** Chow in her background, and even then I’d think only the blue tongue would be the clincher. I grew up with a mixed-breed dog that was part Springer spaniel, part something else, but we got guesses from beagle to Cocker spaniel when it came to what the other part could be. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeowners-insurance-and-danger-dogs/213889/24 "2003-11-18T19:49:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ivylass \* > \*\*Some breeds do have distinctive traits…chows, for example, have a blue tongue. And Ember’s tongue is a mottled blue. > > Still…we got her at the pound…she could be 1/4 chow, for all we know. \*\* FWIW, I had a purebred greyhound with blue spots on his tongue, so sometimes you can’t tell by something like that, either. If I were you, I’d go for an insurance company that bases its decision on the dog’s history and not on what breed it possibly might be. We have USAA, and that’s what they do (and when they asked if our dogs had ever bitten anyone, my husband burst out laughing. They took that as a ‘no’ - but of course in the right circumstances any dog can bite, so I’d prefer an insurance company that goes by the dog’s history and then if necessary will give you the option of excluding the dog from claims as opposed to outright cancelling the entire policy - that seems awfully extreme). ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeowners-insurance-and-danger-dogs/213889/25 "2003-11-18T20:00:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Innanna \* > **That is stupid.** Yes, it is. > [@](#): > > Proof that breed bans don’t work is the effort by Ohio dog wardens and politicians to increase the number of breeds that are banned or restricted. In some counties, owners of American Bulldogs, American Pit Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers, Argentinean Mastiffs (aka Dogo Argentino), Bull Terriers, Canary Dogs (aka Presa Canarios), Olde English Bulldogges, Staffordshire Bull Terriers, **any mix of any of these breeds, and any other breeds or types that conform to the appearance of a pit bull in any way** are being told that they own vicious dogs and are being forced to abide by the confinement and insurance restrictions in Ohio law. from [http://www.canismajor.com/dog/laws1.html](http://www.canismajor.com/dog/laws1.html) (bolding mine) ---
**Author:** ![Innanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecd19e/32.png) [@Innanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Innanna)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeowners-insurance-and-danger-dogs/213889/26 "2003-11-18T20:13:47Z")
So what is next for lawmakers? Locking up people because they look like they might do something? Imprisoning people because their grandfathers were mean? (yes, straw men. Look at how pretty they are. Those are my father’s old work shirts that I have dressed them in. Festive, no? 🙂 ) And I am sooooo glad that it was my native Ohio that made that law. Once again, they have made me proud of their intellegence and reasoning skills. Gah. And thank you **Ferret Herder** , I had a vague reollection of one article saying that it might be possible and another that said that genetic testing on dogs would probably be useful only to determine paternity. But I read about it a looong time ago. ---
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2003, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeowners-insurance-and-danger-dogs/213889/27 "2003-11-19T02:58:34Z")
When I worked at a vet’s office, we had a client who microchipped her dog later in life. Jordan was very likely a Chow mix (based on size, coat, etc.), but we were told specifically to list her as a “mixed breed” on **everything** due to their dumb-ass insurance agency. Very sucky, but not too uncommon these days. Best of luck finding a new insurer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeowners-insurance-and-danger-dogs/213889.md?page=1)