How Much Does Dog Walking Insurance Really Cost?

As a professional dog walker, financial outgoings are generally fairly small. However, one investment that is well worth taking out is dog walking insurance. Policies can range in price, and are generally sold on an annual basis for a lump sum. When you work out the real cost of dog walking insurance it becomes clear that the benefits far outweigh the cost.

How much is dog walking insurance?

Protectivity’s Dog Walking Insurance policy starts of at just £70.36 when you buy online. This cover gives you protection for a whole year of your business operations. But it’s only when you break the costs down that the value can be seen.

One example is to take a dog walker that offers four walks a day, and works five days a week. Over the course of the year, that walker will take canines out on 1,040 separate occasions over the course of a year.

Divide that £70.36 investment out over the course of each walk means you pay less than 7p for every walk you go on. So what do you get for that 7p?

First and foremost Public Liability cover will protect dog walkers if an animal in their care was to injure another walker or member of the public. In a increasingly claim-happy society it is possible that if a dog you were walking bit or injured a third-party they could sue your business for compensation. With insurance in place, the costs that come with defending yourself in this instance are covered.

But the most likely reason you would need to call on your dog walking insurance is to cover you if a dog is hurt whilst you are walking it. A total of 25% of Protectivity’s Pet Business Insurance customers say that Care, Custody and Control cover, that comes into effect in this scenario was their biggest requirement.

Unfortunately dogs do get hurt, even with the best care in the world. And as any dog owner will know, vet bills are expensive. Some of the insurance claims Protectivity have had show just that:

  • Treatment on a dog’s cruciate ligaments – £312
  • Cleaning and stitching of a badly cut poor – £405
  • Treatment and the stitching up of a dogs skin that was cut by barbed wire – £700
  • Surgery required after a dog swallowed parts of a ball that was thrown by it’s walker – £1500

These cases are just a few instances where that 7p a day is paled into insignificance if a dog was to get injured. To put that into context, you could buy annual dog walking insurance for 12 years for the same amount of money that the cheapest of our examples costs in vet bills.

Consider also that most annual policies will include extra cover for your equipment, lost keys and other benefits, then it really is a no-brainer to take out cover.

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