Choosing the right insurance

As a dog owner, you have to take care of many things, including whether and how you insure your dog. Especially in the area of dog health insurance, the decision should be well thought out, because the insurance companies often entice you with low premiums, which, however, can quickly climb to 100 € and more per month as the age of the dog increases.

For a healthy dog, you only need to plan one visit to the vet per year for vaccinations, the costs are around 50 €. In addition, you may have to pay about 30 € per year for a worming treatment. If you decide to have your dog neutered, the cost will be between €150 and €400, and the cost will be higher for a female than for a male. If your dog gets sick, it can be expensive. For the most common operations and examinations, you can expect the following costs:

• Tumour operations range from €400 to €1000.
• Treatment for a torsion of the stomach costs around 1200 €.
• Treatment of a torn cruciate ligament costs about 1600 €.
• A blood test costs about 100 €
• The costs for an MRI are about 500 €, for an ultrasound about 100 €.

For each treatment, the costs are fixed in the scale of fees for veterinarians GOT, but the veterinarian can charge two, three or even four times the rate. The diagnosis cannot be planned either: in the best case, the doctor will recognise what is wrong with your dog at first glance; in the worst case, he will have to approach the diagnosis through several examinations.

Most insurance companies offer different tariffs with different premiums. Depending on the protection you want and the monthly premium you want to invest, you can determine benefits, deductibles and benefit limits. With deductibles and low benefit limits, you can lower your premium, but you will have to pay a proportion of the costs in the event of a claim.

The articles in this series already offer you a lot of information on the topic of dog liability and dog health insurance. But dog magazines, books, various websites or animal programmes can also give you helpful tips on dog insurance. Stiftung Warentest published a test on animal health insurance in February 2016 (Finanztest 2/2016) and a test on dog liability insurance in March 2016 (Finanztest 4/2016). The articles can be found on the internet [1], [2]. However, not all rates and premiums are up to date.

Maybe you have a personal insurance broker with whom you have already taken out an insurance policy? They can also give you a lot of information and make you an offer. If you prefer one or more insurance companies, you can also call them for information.

Dog liability insurance

Dog liability insurance is already compulsory in some federal states and is generally recommended, because as a dog owner you are liable with all your assets and income for the damage caused by your dog. Medical and hospital costs, rehabilitation, compensation for pain and suffering and loss of earnings: the costs can add up to several hundred thousand euros. The question is therefore not so much whether your dog will be insured, but under what conditions. What benefits are important to you: is the defined basic cover  sufficient for you or do you need higher coverage? What additional benefits make sense for you? (See also article "Dog liability insurance")

Dog health insurance

With dog health insurance, the decision is more difficult because there are more options for coverage and the premiums are significantly higher. Is OP insurance enough for you, or perhaps even pure accident insurance? Or would you rather play it safe and opt for full cover? (See also the article "Dog health insurance").

Basically:

• OP insurance is significantly cheaper than full insurance
• the older the dog, the higher the premium
• the more benefits your plan includes, the higher the premium
• Deductibles or benefit limits reduce premiums

Very cheap insurance policies often have tightly defined benefit limits that are quickly exceeded in the event of a claim, in which case you will incur additional costs. So the cheapest insurance is not necessarily the best insurance.

Dog liability insurance is a must for every dog owner, even if it is not compulsory in all federal states. You can find information on dog insurance on the Internet, in magazines, books and TV programmes, and insurance companies can also advise you. Various comparison portals on the Internet offer you the opportunity to compare different rates and find a cheap insurance policy. But be careful: the cheapest is not always the best dog insurance, because in the event of a claim, you may incur additional costs if the benefit limits are low.