What Your Dog Could Be Doing to Your Home Insurance Quotes

What Your Dog Could Be Doing to Your Home Insurance Quotes

Once upon a time, nobody thought much about junkyard dogs, guard dogs or the dog that stands at the gate and growls at the mailman. People used to laugh about it! With over 4,000 mailmen a year being attacked by dogs, and the number of dog bites that show up in emergency rooms on the rise, nobody's laughing now. Especially not your insurer. Here's a look at what your dog could be doing to your home insurance quotes.

What can you do when it's your Pit Bull or your home insurance?

When Dogs Become Dangerous

As long as these dogs' owners have home insurance they're protected from most of the financial ramifications of having a dog that decides to attack, but they're going to pay the price as their home insurance quotes go up…and up…and up.

What About My Cat?

We have a lot of homeowners asking why dogs, particularly large breed dogs, are the only pets to raise the red flag from an insurer's point of view. The answer is simple-large farm animals aren't usually covered under a standard home insurance policy, and smaller house pets are unlikely to cause enough damage to incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills and who knows how much in lawsuits. There are exceptions (if you're running a cobra breeding farm your insurer is going to need to know), but barely enough each year to make a blip on your insurer's radar.

If you have other pets, particularly cats or other free-roaming house pets, be sure it's on your application; however, as long as they're properly vaccinated your home insurance quotes will barely know the difference.

How to Keep Your Dog AND Your Home Insurance

If you have a large breed dog, particularly a Rottweiler or a Pit Bull, you're going to have a harder time finding cheap home insurance quotes than your fish-loving neighbor. Nowhere is it written in stone that your friendly family pet has to annihilate your chances of finding home insurance coverage you can afford, however. Have your dog spayed or neutered as soon as they're old enough to help curb their natural aggression. Build a dog run that your dog can't dig out of and children can't stick their fingers through in an attempt to "pet the doggie". Send your dog to obedience school, and fax their certificate of completion to your insurer.

The less of a threat your dog is to your home, your friends, your neighbors and your friendly neighborhood postman, the less of a threat they're going to be to your home insurance quotes.

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• What Your Dog Could Be Doing to Your Home Insurance Quotes - Mar 23, 2010 - 6:44:25 PM