You can get health insurance for pets now too. I just heard about a new plan sponsored by the Hartville Group that sounds pretty good:
Real bones tend to splinter, which can kill a dog (it killed the dog I had growing up). Pig ears are just gross, and the wetter they get, the worse they smell. And I already mentioned the scary “rawhide poops!”
Poop scooping isn’t so bad with our Newfs. Believe it or not, they are pretty economical in that way, and it doesn’t look like an elephant pooped in our back yard!
Now that we’ve totally hijacked your thread Lsura, I just wanted to say that it sounds like you’re making the right decision! Based on the last sentence of your last post, you WILL be the right person for the right dog, because you sound like you’d be doing it for all the right reasons.
Enjoy it when it happens! Check out the AKC website for extensive info about each breed.
Another note about cheap dog food: you pay for the nutritional value that your dog is getting. It may be cheaper up front, but if you have a big dog, he’s gonna have to eat more to get the same nutrients. (E.g.: you can get vitamin C from broccoli, but you’ve got to eat a lot to get the equivalent of what’s in an orange.) Plus, the more they eat, the more they poop!!
Also, adult dogs should NEVER be eating puppy food (unless directed to do so by your vet). Puppy food (any decent brand, that is) has MUCH higher levels of protein, which will wear out a dog’s kidneys much faster than normal.
Lsura, I know you’re not in town right now.
However, if you are in Atlanta when you decide to take the plunge, I do work with a couple rescue groups and may be able to help.
Great advice! I just want to point one thing out:
If you’re concerned about animals being euthanized due to space, you may be better off adopting from a full-service shelter rather than a limited-service (or “no-kill”) shelter. A full-service shelter will, once an animal is adopted, move another animal up into the adoptions room from the back room. The more animals adopted from full-service shelters, the fewer animals they are forced to euthanize.
Can you guess what sort of shelter I work at? 
On the topic of pet insurance, there’s cool new program out there. www.petfinder.org is a national nonprofit devoted to helping animal shelters put their animals online. And if you adopt an animal from a shelter that’s teamed up with Petfinder, you’re eligible for two months of free pet insurance through www.sheltercare.com .
This offer is totally legit – I’ve been to workshops in which we learned the ins and outs of it, and it’s a combination advertisement for sheltercare insurance and outright charitable donation from various Foundations. The insurance doesn’t renew automatically, and it covers the most common conditions that shelter animals suffer from (e.g., parvo, feline panleukopenia, etc.) It’s a fantastic bargain.
So when you get ready to get a new animal:
- Adopt from an animal shelter; and
- Try to find a shelter that’s partnered with Petfinder, so you can get free insurance.
I also recommend asking around about, and visiting, a shelter before adopting from them. My sister adopted from a local group, not realizing that they were under investigation by the state Department of Agriculture for helath violations; predictably, the two kittens she adopted both died of diseases they’d caught at the shelter. Not researching the shelter first cost her hundreds of dollars, not to mention the heartbreak.
Good luck!
Daniel
I have a 45 pound Springer/Hound mix. She runs me about $80 per month, approx., if I average out her vet bills monthly. I’ve had her since July at this point.
She gets pretty expensive food ($30 for 40 pound bag at local feed store) because it has only Vit. E as a preservative. My brother’s a vet and he convinced me that it was worth it for me to spend more on dog food. He’s not my vet (different city), so while I get free advice, I don’t get free visits.
The biggest expense for my dog is rawhides. I get these baking-soda rawhide chips and then bones. She goes through a bone a day (or more) if I let her and multiple chips. She’s got a really high chew drive, obviously.
She’s also got Canine Disk Disease (near equivalent of a human’s slipped disk) so the vet bills have been higher than anticipated this year. Due to her neck problems I have had to buy a special harness for her, too. (It was only $30. It’s fake lamb skin lined, so I’ll be spending another $20 or so to get her a warm weather one soon. She’s bald on the chest, so the cold weather one was worth it.)
PBJ is an escape artist, so I had to buy a 2nd crate. She could get out of the collapse-able wire one I’d originally got. I have also had to install locks on the fridge and cupboards, and get dog proof trash cans, as well. (FYI, there is no dog proof trash can that works better than one with a lid and a closed gallon of water on top – looks weird, but works.) I’m mentioning these things because if you get a dog, you won’t necessarily know up front how such variables as personality and intelligence will impact your budget.
Also, I’m a faculty member at a university, so I have to go to conferences, which means boarding. You’re looking at approximately $25/day (depending on your local) for boarding. I pay a few dollars more per day than most people because PBJ is such an escape artist and needs what I call the “Maximum Security Facility,” a.k.a. a top-enclosed run.
I’d wanted a dog for years & years before getting her. I love my dog and will never live without one again. If my lease let me, I’d get another. For me, $15 - $20 a month on rawhides is well worth it, but it’s not part of a standard dog budget.
my 2 cents.
I got my dog at the animal shelter $30, with a suprisingly thurough screening process, they even called my references. but “Moses” weighs just over 100lbs and he is lab/pitbull mix. beautiful and very mild mannered. I go through about 30lbs of food per month and I get Iams, not too expensive but like was said before, cheap food is not worth it. more will come out than goes in, trust me. I DO NOT feed my dog in any other way than in his bowl, he’ll loose respect and understanding of his place. however, giving him eggs or rice in his food is good for him and he loves. sometimes I put ketchup on his food which is his fav.
About a year ago, I was in the same situation - looking at costs, telling myself that I’ll get a dog someday, and so on. I was keeping an eye via the web on the dogs available at the local no-kill animal shelter, and one Thursday morning I saw a border collie / sheltie mix that captivated me. The turnaround for a dog once it was made available for adoption was almost always less than a day, and so I spontaneously took off early from work that day, spent six hours playing with the dog at the shelter, and came home with Spanky the Wonder Dog.
Basically, I got the dog and then figured out how to pay for everything. And while he’s been able to fit into my budget with some shuffling of matters, his companionship in the past year has been worth any price.
Odds are that once you get yours, you’ll feel the same way eventually.
Hi Lsura,
I have two doggies - a white german shepherd and a rottweiler. They are the loves of my life
I got both of them for free; Mitch because he was the best puppy from a litter my father’s dog sired. Katie I got because she belonged to friends who couldn’t keep her anymore.
Here is what I spend on them on average:
12Kg bag of kibble a week: $15
Fortnightly wash and groom: $25
Annual vaccinations: $80
Annual heartworm shots: $190
So on a yearly basis, that’s… counts fingers around $1700 or so.
Mitch just had surgery on his year. It cost around $400 after the surgery, anaesthetic, antibiotics etc.
Though I am broke at the moment, my dogs are always fed. No matter what. I love them to death, and in the great scheme of things… $1700 or so is a small price to pay for the joy they bring
Max
We had an old dog when I was growing up…I remember when his year started to go. Tough times. 
What is the Aussie–>US conversion rate these days?
I’m a great fan of mutts and cross-breeds. They’re love on four paws, less prone to inbreeding diseases and temperment problems and need a human pack to adopt.
As for expense…my beloved 75 lb. shepherd/black lab mix was free from a neighbor. (Her shepherd got out while in heat and…ooops: the most adorable litter of pups you ever saw.) So, no adoption fee but the initial shots, spaying and gear cost about $400. I keep her on a regular schedule of treatments against rabies, kennel cough, heartworm, etc. so that probably adds up to about $300 per year. (I forgot nail clipping: $15 per visit; add another $60.)
FWIW I’ve always fed her Science Diet chow. It’s what her vet recommended and it’s very little more expensive. (I hardly ever feed her table scraps; she is a total fool for cooked carrots though.) She’s only middle-aged (8) but for the past 4 years she’s been on prescription chow: she can’t metabolize fat well. She’s a big dog, but a 40 lb. bag of dry chow costs about $50 and will last her over a month. (Once in a while we’ll spluge with a can of prescription stuff: yowza!) One thing to watch is overfeeding. Dogs love food; smelling it, watching it, finding it, etc. It’s dog TV. But overfeeding them is both expensive and unhealthy. The Best Dog In This And All Universes will sometimes leave her “daily” 5 cups of chow in her bowl for a day or so until she actually gets hungry and eats it.
As for toys and treats, Da Woofer loves animal crackers. Just a few, as a rare treat. Inexpensive, and low fat. Even rarer–big occassions–are pig ear strips, about 1/2" wide strips of pig ear, cut w/ a band saw; they go for about $6.00 for a bag. (The bag stays in the freezer, btw.) We’ve been pretty happy w/ “Almost Ears”, shaped and tasting like pig ears but based on corn starch.
Her favorite toys are those fabric, knotted tug things. I put a little of her toothpaste on one (chicken flavor; $8 a tube, lasts a year) and we tug, romp, toss, wrestle, chase, pull, etc. and have a ball, and her teeth get well cleaned in the process. Then the toy goes into the washing machine. Neat!
Really the expenses are very incidental; a few bucks a day. It’s nothing compared to the generous joy, companionship, activity and pure love she gives back every day. I love my dog. We’re a pack.
Veb
Our Border Collie has been a very inexpensive dog. Probably $30/mo for dog food and treats, another $20 or so for toys and accessories.
But for a year now, she’s had this little lump on her head. The vet originally said it was nothing to worry about, but a couple of months ago it started to grow. So, yesterday she went into day surgery to have it removed. When they opened her skin up, they discovered that the thing had ‘fingers’ that went down the back of her head under the skin. So, they had to make about an 8-inch incision, and she was under the knife for 3 hours while they cut it all out.
$560 later, we now have a Border Collie with a bald head and a plastic cone. She looks lovely.
Our last Border Collie lived to be 8 years old, then she suddenly developed auto-immune hemolytic anemia (her immune system attacked her own red blood cells). She underwent a transfusion, three days of hospitalization to try and save her, but to no avail. She died. The vet bill was $1300.
So owning a dog is cheap while all goes well, but as others said - if medical conditions come up, the expense can be pretty high.
But it’s worth it. I just love having a dog in our life. My 5 year old daughter has a good friend who goes with her everywhere, plays games with her, allows herself to be dressed up, etc. At night while I’m surfing the net, the dog curls up at our feet and chews her toys or sleeps. She makes going for walks fun, and she goes everywhere with me in the car when I’m driving around doing errands.
If you get a dog, make sure you get a good crate, and take the dog through ‘puppy kindergarten’ and basic obedience. It makes all the difference in the world to have a well trained, calm, confident dog.
We have two dogs- a husky-shepard/beagle female, and a male beagle(the larger variety), who weigh 30-50lbs each- so buying food in bulk helps. I’d say between their wet and dry food I probably pay a bit under $30 a month total for food. OTOH I buy the cheapest meat-based, rather than corn, food I can find, which hasn’t seemed to hurt either dog given how old they are(12 & 15). The ingrediants are more important than the fancy names when it comes to what’s good for them, IMO.
I’m guessing that total vet bills for my dog, over the past 15 years (15.5 in April) have probably come to at least $2,500 dollars, possibly a lot more; since I’ve had her since childhood I don’t know how much some of the things my parents paid for before I turned 18 cost. However, in addition to spaying, shots, check-ups and heart worm pills, she’s had terrible luck health-wise. She was hit by a car as a puppy, then became prone to kidney infections for the next 6 years or so because of that (her pelvis was shattered in the accident. I’m not sure how it caused kidney problems, but that’s what the vet attributed it to). And, about seven years ago we learned something that you generally don’t hear about from the heart-worm pill makers or the vets: the pills are only 85% effective in preventing heart worm…my dog is one of those unlucky few. The procedure for ridding the dog of heartworm is dangerous and expensive, so it wasn’t fun. Sure, it’s a lot of money, but it wasn’t all at once, and since she’s been alive for an ungodly amount of time it was worth it
Lsura
My dog is living with my folks, and they don’t spoil him as much as I used to, but these are the expenses I would be experiencing in suburban South Jersey. The ones with asterisks you can consider mandatory
70-lb Ibizan Hound
All prices approximate
*Licensing is $8.00/12months
*15-lb bag of dog food $18.00/month
Rawhides $15.00/month
Biscuits $10.00/month
Fat-free hot dogs for training 10.00/month
*Heartworm meds $60, need for about 6 months of the year
*Heartworm check $35.00 year
*Program or other flea treatment $30.00 year
*Regular trips to have nails cut $16.00 – twice a month – you can do this yourself and may not need to do it every two weeks, but it has to get done unless the dog is on pavement enough to wear down his/her nails.
*Paper sandwich bags for poop cleanup – $5.00/month
I’ve practiced “free feeding” with my dog, since she was a pup. Whenever her bowl is empty, I fill it. Like your dog, sometimes the food will sit there for a day or so until she’s hungry. I’ve never had a problem with her overeating.
My grandmother, on the other hand, feeds her dog on a schedule. He eats like he’s starving (he’s not–vet says he’s actually a bit chunky) whenever food is placed before him, and he will steal food if given the opprotunity.
Based on nothing but a WAG, I figure the difference is that my dog feels confident that the food will always be there whenever she gets around to eating it, and thus is in no rush, and doesn’t feel the need to steal. Whereas Grandma’s dog hasn’t had the same experience, and perhaps, in his little doggy brain, doesn’t quite trust that he’ll get more food in the future.
I wish Angus had that kind of self-discipline. He is the kind of dog who, left to his own devices, wil eat a 30lb bag of dog food if we don’t come home and stop him.
Besides, he’s on a diet anyway, so it wouldn’t work.