Owning a Dog: What does it really cost?
Our “What does it really cost” series sheds light on how much different women across the country spend on the big life events: having a baby, taking a sabbatical year, moving, getting a master’s degree, buying a house, etc. This week’s feature is highlighting one woman’s cost of owning a dog, specifically a poodle, Challapeno.
Location: Austin, TX
Age: 35
What are your total costs (so far) for owning a dog?
For me, it’s around $2,312 per year. On top of this, in my first year of being a dog mom, I incurred an additional $1,550 in one-time expenses driven by adoption costs and training.
Challapeno came from a rescue organization that specializes in poodles. My adoption costs were $600 which included the cost of spaying and all of her shots. These costs were higher than going through a lot of other shelter options since Rescue Poodles of Houston assesses higher fees on young, popular standard poodles to cover the veterinary care for the older, non-purebred poodles in their care.
In addition to the adoption fees, I also paid for two separate rounds of training totaling around $850.
For me, the highest cost is boarding Challa when we travel. Our boarding costs were $1,250 in 2019, which was 54% of our overall total cost of having a dog. That $1,250 was driven by spending around $40/night on a local dog sitter over the course of five days of travel for Thanksgiving, nine days of travel during the week of Christmas (when we had a wedding in Hawaii), and four other weekends away for weddings or visiting friends. This also included five dog walks for days when we both were stuck at work or went on a long, non-pet friendly hike over the weekend. If we had to add on weekly dog walking OR doggie daycare, those costs would be much higher.
Taking Challa to the vet represented the next largest part of our budget. We pay about $280 per year for all of our preventative medicines, and spend another $270 on a well checkup, parasite and heartworm tests, and a few vaccines.
Lastly, poodles have coats that are high maintenance. Her haircut cost more than mine! It’s been $125 on more than one occasion. This cost about $285 in 2019.
What do you wish you would have known?
Adopting:
Training:
Apartment Pet Deposit:
I did NOT have to pay a pet deposit. When I first got Challa, I lived in an older quadplex in a hip neighborhood in Houston. Since my landlord never made some of the improvements I requested in writing as a condition for moving in, I got them to waive the pet deposit in exchange for not making those repairs. Some buildings will charge a pet deposit OR they will you charge you additional monthly rent. Try to negotiate. The worst they can do is say no!
In conclusion, owning a dog has cost this woman about $2,312 per year.
We hope this gives you insights into how one woman navigated the costs of owning a poodle. Do these costs surprise you?
This post was created as part of the “What does it really cost series?” Her Personal Finance’s mission is to help high-earning women take charge of their finances. As an MBA, our founder has a particular passion for supporting this community. Here is a link to a Q&A with Harvard Business School students about finances in school. You can also learn more about our founder and our classes on our website.
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