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Permalink Reply by Melissa and Franklin! on June 2, 2012 at 12:44am

out of all the ones you've listed I've heard nothing but good things about Petplan. I've had A TON of clients complain about VPI, I thought Trupanion was only for puppies or young dogs? My brother's chihuahua has petplan and he couldn't be happier. I don't have insurance for my dogs since I work at a vet and that is kind if insurance in itself lol. If I were to get one for my new guy though I'd definitely do Petplan

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Permalink Reply by Beth on June 2, 2012 at 8:49am

Well, I'd ask this:  how much is the plan premium and how much do they pay out?  If you save $30 a month, that's $360 a year and in 12 years (expected life of dog) that would amount to to $4320 in premiums if the amount never changes.   However, I just saw on another forum where someone's premiums were $47 per month.  That's $564 a year, $6768 over the life of the dog.  

Between my parents' pets and my own, I have never had one that needed over $4000 in non-routine coverage over its life.  My parents had one that needed knee surgery and that was a lot but not even $4000.   So you are playing the averages.  Remember, the pet insurance companies make a profit.  That means that for every dog who uses more coverage than is paid for, there are several dogs who pay for more coverage than they use.  So you have to evaluate your own ability to absorb financial risk and your dog's activities/breed/lifestyle.   Corgis are not a breed that is especially prone to most problems, except for back problems.  So maybe I'd try to find out the costs of back surgery or knee surgery in your area and then weigh that against the cost of premiums.   Just remember that anything you do at a referral/emergency hospital will be much pricier than at the regular vet, which means after-hours emergencies will cost more.  I paid $90 for two x-rays of my cat, but at an emergency hospital that cost would likely be significantly higher.   Similarly my cat had some chemo for cancer and it was so cheap.   Since regular vets don't have round-the-clock nursing, monitoring, testing, etc costs are much lower than treating people (and again is why emergency vets--- which DO have round-the-clock care and lots of fancy equipment, are more expensive).

The other thing is that I own a home so I always have an emergency fund and would not be in a position where I had to deny my pets treatment just because of cost.  A young person just starting out might have different math.

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Permalink Reply by Melissa and Franklin! on June 2, 2012 at 11:49am

another important thing that Beth touched on his how much the company pays out. If you look at the details of VPI they only pay a set amount for each issue. We had a client who's dog had Cushing's Disease (very expensive to treat) and its a lifelong type treatment, VPI would only cover $600 to treat Cushing's. That barely covered diagnostics alone and did nothing to help pay for treatment. VPI will pay roughly $200-$300 for a broken leg, again in my area barely enough to cover x-rays and a splint. X-rays at the hospital I work at are $207 which is about average for my area.

Another thing to consider, what are your deductables? Are you paying $45 a month only to have to end up paying a deductable of $50 per visit? Is there an annual deductable before you get paid (i.e. you have to pay $250 before your insurance kicks in)? And what percentage are they actually going to pay back to you. Petplan lets you pick your deductable and the amount paid back to you BUT it increases significantly with each amount. With my first few dogs, as Beth said, even with one having a TPLO I think I would have lost out in the long run if I had insurance, with Franklin who has a rare and hard to diagnose health condition I would have come out WAAAAAAAAY ahead.

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Permalink Reply by Beth on June 2, 2012 at 12:06pm

And, continuing with the theme on averages, it also depends on how many pets you have at a time.  I have two dogs and a cat, and unless I'm tremendously unlucky, the costs of insuring THREE animals will far outweigh the benefits, since chances are there might be one or two with expensive care but I'd be very unlucky to have three....   If you have one pet, it might work out differently.

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Permalink Reply by Juno on June 2, 2012 at 11:44pm

Thanks...after reading previous threads and comments on this post...i'm reconsidering insurance...super not sure. Though savings def. starting.

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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on June 2, 2012 at 9:34am

Hi Juno's mom, you can dig through old discussion on insurance, here's a 3 month old one. To stop pulling, get rid of the harness and get a martingale collar, shorten your leash so that you can step on it. Remember you are the leader, you walk Juno, not the other way round.

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Permalink Reply by Juno on June 3, 2012 at 11:32pm

Hey all. just to update, i went to try and fit him w/ a martingale but there wasn't any small. so for now, I've purchased him a gentle leader. will try it out tomorrow to see if it works. I plan to just use this temp. until i get him to stop eating crap then i'll switch to possibly a martingale or a reg. collar & leash walk. My other choice besides a gentle leader was something similar to easywalk where it tightens on the side/body when pulled.

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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on June 2, 2012 at 12:52pm

Agree with Sam, get rid of the harness and get a collar.  Adjust the collar so that if fits snugly at the top of the neck, as high as possible ( It needs to remain in that position ) and then do some short training sessions near your house, keeping the leash short with just enough slack to allow him to walk comfortably, but not enough to get his nose on the ground.  Anytime he tries to put his nose down, give a gentle tug and say "Heads up!'  It's important to keep the dog right at your side, if you allow him in front of you, when you correct you will pull the collar down the neck.  Also important is to be gentle in your correcting because there are many glands in this higher neck area and you can do damage if you lose patience and give a good yank.... Lengthen your walks as he gets out of the habit of walking in the scavenger mode!   I teach puppies to walk with their heads up because it's a royal pain in the neck to walk a dog whose nose is always on the ground, and they can't eat everything in sight that way either.  Corgis are low to the ground, so it takes a bit more diligence, but it's well worth it.  Once the habit is broken, you can walk him more normally, still being vigilant.

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Permalink Reply by Juno on June 2, 2012 at 11:43pm

yeah the reason i put the harness is because i don't want to mess up his neck/back by always tugging on the leash/his collar. thank you for your tips. I will give it a try..his collar is still on him; harness only goes on when we go on walks. I've tried using "leave it" and reward after but it works and doesn't work sometimes..if he's super distracted or really like what he has, he'll ignore it. =/

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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on June 3, 2012 at 11:41am

Juno's mom, you can't just say "leave it!" you have to be able to enforce it, which means you have to be as alert to the surroundings as he is ( so you can anticipate what he's about to do ) and quick to reach him if the warning was ignored, so he does not swallow what he got hold of.  That'll keep you on your toes :)

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Permalink Reply by Beth on June 3, 2012 at 11:56am

Success also depends on where you walk and how often they find edibles.   We regularly walk in a park and it is so often that they find food dropped by kids (cheerios, goldfish crackers, bits of hot dog) that it is extremely difficult to keep them from keeping a keen nose out for something to eat.  Random reward is the most powerful, and since that is what they get at the park, AND since the food they are finding is generally more favored than most of what I carry as treats, it is virtually impossible to keep mine from finding food on a regular basis.  Mine will both "leave it" when on a strict heel and have passed TDI where they need to walk past actual food on the ground on a loose leash.  Indeed, I can get Jack to hold a heel with no leash at all and walk past food on the ground.  However, maintaining constant vigilance day in and day out for a half hour is honestly beyond my abilities of concentration--- especially since the walk is MY way of winding down after a walk.  Moreover, I cannot possible see a goldfish cracker in the grass before my dogs find it with the nose.  Jack can air-scent with the best of them (I've seen him--- loose--- run 50 yards and stop dead right where whatever is without even casting about) and does not need nose on ground to find stuff.  

Long story short, I have simply accepted the fact that mine will occasionally ingest stuff that I don't want them to.  

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Permalink Reply by Juno on June 3, 2012 at 2:01pm

Juno doesn't find food...=.=' he finds little rocks and nature things to eat on...not grass though so it's been hard for me to figure out what to keep an eye out and not since there's so much debris including leaves etc. on the ground. hopefully his puppy class with help a bit~

I'll try the collar/leash thing again today..though i'm still not too sure how it goes about holding the leash short so his head remains high up..but we'll see!

thank you for all ur suggestions/thoughs :)

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