Pet insurance is an underrated part of dog ownership that can help with many of the biggest struggles you face when looking after your puppy.
A good dog insurance policy will cover things like regular vet fees, emergency boarding, third-party liability, dog theft, and travelling abroad.
Like all types of insurance, it’s one of those things you appreciate the moment you have it and something bad happens.
Again, like any type of insurance policy you take out, it’s always best to run a comparison of the best pet insurance providers to know where your options lie. You’ll see some of the most prominent and highly-rated pet insurers down below:
#1 Healthy Pets (The Top Choice)
Healthy Pets provides insurance for cats and dogs, and it is extremely flexible, offering five different tiers for you to look at:
- Select
- Select Plus
- Maximum Benefit
- Lifetime Extra
- Lifetime Premier
Each tier provides a deeper level of coverage for your pet, and we like how Healthy Pets is more than willing to cover puppies. As long as your dog is 5 weeks or older, you’ll be able to access any of the coverage tiers.
They also cover as many breeds as possible - including pedigree breeds - and their insurance policies tend to cover your dog for all sorts of injuries, illnesses, and other mishaps.
It’s a full-on policy, and the fact that you can choose your level of cover makes life so much easier.
#2 Petplan
A well-known brand in the UK, Petplan provides dog insurance that can cover some of the biggest worries in your canine’s life, such as:
- Physiotherapy
- Dental illness and injury
- Cancer treatments
- And more
It can also offer help with treatment for hereditary or behavioural conditions - and you can choose between an Essential Plan that provides short-term help for 12 months, or a Lifetime Plan that will cover your dog for their entire life.
The coverage across the board is superb, and you’re covered up to a really decent amount (the Lifetime Plan can cover you up to £12,000 in vet bills alone each year), but the only downside is that you don’t have that much flexibility regarding your choice of policies.
#3 More Than
Immediately, we like that More Than offers three different policy tiers:
- Basic
- Classic
- Premier
Each one covers pretty much all the usual things we mentioned in the introduction, though your Premier policy is the only one to throw in dental care coverage up to £2,000 - but your dog must have a dental check every 12 months for that to be valid.
It’s a good combination of insurance for all the random things that could go wrong in your dog’s life, including lost and found cover across all three policies.
Being able to cover vet fees up to £6,000 per accident in the Premier plan is huge, so if your dog breed is prone to issues, this could be the one for you.
#4 Animal Friends
Animal Friends comes with over 50,000 Trustpilot reviews and many happy pets and pet owners. It’s a company that offers insurance for all types of pets, including dogs and puppies.
Right off the bat, there’s so much flexibility with this provider. You’ve got the usual lifetime and max benefit insurance options for your dog, but they also throw in:
- Accident Only Insurance
- Time-Limited Insurance
- Older Dog Insurance
When we’re talking about coverage, it covers everything that all of the other providers include in their policies: vet fees, public liability, lost & found fees, and more.
So, there’s nothing groundbreaking from that perspective, but we’ve got to single this provider out for the Older Dog Insurance policy. It can be hard to insure a dog when they’re already old, especially if you’ve recently adopted one from a shelter.
Animal Friends has some really good-value policies here that give you peace of mind - and we like that this can encourage more people to think about adopting older dogs without having a big financial burden over their heads.
#5 Agria
Agria specialises in lifetime pet insurance, which means it’s not the provider for anyone who might need short-term cover.
That being said, most pet owners will be interested in lifetime cover, and they give you a few options that increase the amount of coverage your dog gets for vet fees per year:
- Lifetime Lite
- Lifetime
- Lifetime Plus
- Lifetime Premium
The Lifetime Lite option is the cheapest of the four, but it will only cover vet fees up to £3,000 per year. On the other end of the spectrum, Lifetime Premium covers up to £20,000 a year in vet fees.
That’s incredible coverage, and you also get the normal things like lost or stolen pet insurance and free vet video calls.
#6 Waggel
Waggel is another dog insurance provider that goes straight down the lifetime route, and this is a fairly unique brand with a few quirks.
For one, you manage your entire policy online through an app, so this makes it easier to claim and sort everything out - say goodbye to desperately looking through folders for your physical dog insurance documents!
Your insurance policy will cover your dog for medical bills, the purchase price when adopting a pet, and third-party liability. Unfortunately, it won’t cover pre-existing conditions or claims made by family members.
Truthfully, there’s probably nowhere near the same level of coverage from a Waggel policy as you’d get from all of the others on this list.
That being said, you do get a few perks when signing up, such as Butternut Box subscription discounts and free access to the Biscuit Pet Care app.
The big thing to take from this list is that you have a lot of dog insurance providers to choose from. Based on some initial research, Healthy Pets looks to have the edge overall by offering greater flexibility of coverage options for you and your pet.
But don’t rush into your decision right away; take more time to dig deeper and see what makes more sense for your specific dog. Some insurance policies may end up being better than others based on the breed, age, existing medical conditions, etc.
The bottom line is that living with your dog definitely enhances your life, so you should do all you can to ensure they have as much support as possible.
