Churchill: Man's best friend costs big money
Britain's love affair with dogs shows no sign of waning, with pet-owners increasingly willing to splash out on their pooches, according to a new report.
Churchill's research showed that the average cost of keeping a dog is £22,323 over the course of its lifetime – the equivalent of a year's average salary – and that the UK's dog-owners therefore spend altogether around £145 billion on their pets.
The reason for these escalating costs would appear to be a greater willingness among owners to splash out on luxury items for their pets, with one in ten owners splashing out on luxury dog leashes and one in eight on designer collars.
Mike Ketteringham, head of Churchill Pet Insurance, said: 'There are significant differences between the costs of different dog breeds and it is important people take this into account as one of the factors when choosing their new pet.'
The most expensive dog is the Great Dane, which although it only lives for ten years on average, generally costs more to purchase and insure than other dogs, as well as to buy food for and in treatment costs.
Churchill also found that 90 per cent of dog owners have no idea how much their pet costs them, with 52 per cent saying that they think it is less than £5,000 on total – over £17,000 below the actual average cost. | 
