All Sunnyfold Farm puppy owners are eligible for 30 days of free AKC insurance when your puppy is registered with AKC. You’re also eligible for one month free coverage with Trupanion if you activate it within 24 hours of taking your puppy home.
Obviously, both companies hope you’ll continue with them after 30 days.
Is it right for you? The answer is maybe.
Pet insurance is a conundrum.
Insurance costs about $500 a year for each dog. If your dog is healthy, you may never recoup the cost of this yearly outlay. If your dog needs expensive veterinary care, it will more than pay for itself. $5,000 is the average cost of an illness requiring hospitalization and surgery.
If $5,000 is something you can handle without having to change your lifestyle,you probably don’t need pet insurance. If this would be a hardship, you would be prudent to get insurance.
A good compromise is to buy pet insurance for the first year or two. Although congenital issues are not covered, in my limited experience with sick dogs, if they are going to be sickly or require a lot of veterinary care, you’ll probably know in the first year or two.
A high probability of healthy
You’re likely to get a healthy puppy from us. Our breeder follows all her dogs yearly. In her 22 years breeding Portuguese Water Dogs, she’s seen only a handful of pups with a chronic health issues. This is usually allergies or G.I. issues requiring a special diet.
Far more likely than illness is accidental ingestion of a foreign body like a sock that may require surgical removal. If your dog is off leash and hit by a car, this can be expensive, too. Porties are CAR STUPID! Be careful letting them off leash in an unfenced area.
We don’t carry pet insurance on our dogs. I have no experience with the individual insurance companies. The most popular insurance, though, is Trupanion.
If you sign up for insurance later in your dog’s life, pre-existing conditions will not be covered.
Useful resources
Pet Insurance Review
The website petinsurancereview.com offers comprehensive information on insurance for dogs, including a list of insurers with customer reviews.
Pet Insurance University
Created by a veterinarian, pet-insurance-university.com also provides useful guidance on selecting a pet insurance plan.
Whole Dog Journal
Whole Dog Journal also has a excellent article on dog insurance.