Cover Your Dog with pet insurance

Your pet is a very expensive commitment. Unforeseen costs can be quite difficult to handle.

That’s when dog insurance can aid the responsible ownership of a dog.

The best dog insurance policies are those designed to act as indemnity insurance. This is similar to a car or homeowner’s insurance: these dog insurance policies restore financial loss, within the limits of the dog insurance policy, in the case on an unforeseen event.

A good dog insurance should indemnify your dog’s medical costs in the case of a pet accident or illness, so big medical bills won’t force you to accept less than the best care for your dog.

Make sure the insurance policy does not exclude accidents caused by the dog. Every dog owner is exposed to possible liability for dog bites and other canine-inflicted injuries. Dogs bite nearly five million Americans every year. Children are the victims of the most serious attacks, and the annual losses equal approximately $1 Billion .

These losses do not have to be borne by the dog owners and victims because insurance is available to pay for it.

There’s good news for dog owners and accident victims. Homeowners’ insurance and renters’ insurance normally provide at least $100,000.00 in benefits for victims. Other types of insurance also afford protection for the insured. There’s the automobile liability insurance, which may cover dog bites that happen in a car, landlord insurance that protects the landlord (but not the tenants) from claims that result from the actions of renters’ dogs, and workers compensation coverage which may apply to bites and injuries that happen on the job. Some companies even sell dog liability insurance.

These days, however, the insurance industry is attempting to sell homeowner insurance policies that exclude dog-inflicted injuries. No dog owner should purchase a homeowner policy with that exclusion, unless he or she buys a supplemental policy that covers injuries by the dog.

The insurance industry also is quietly revising homeowner policies that protected dog owners when they originally bought those policies. Homeowners must carefully read all of the short slips of paper and other notices sent from insurers, in case they eliminate coverage for accidents caused by dogs.

Some insurance companies refuse to sell homeowner insurance to the owners of breeds of dogs that have a reputation for biting, such as pit bulls, Rottweilers, Akitas and Chow-Chows.

Other insurers refuse to sell to anyone who owns all breeds of dog. For all these reasons, dog owners need to learn about insurance.

There are various types of insurance that might apply to a dog attack: If you own a dog and either own or rent a home, your homeowner or renter insurance policy probably contains personal liability coverage’ (or words to that effect). This feature normally protects you from

paying damages to other people for most dog injury claims as well as many other claims, possibly including defamation, a trip-and-fall on your front steps. If your dog was in your car when the dog attacked a person, then your automobile policy probably covers the incident.

The limit of coverage is stated in your policy declarations: the personalized page that lists your name and gives monetary information. The insurance also provides you with an attorney and pays all court costs if you are sued.