Since Attila your lovely, sweet doodle loves to growl and bare her teeth at the mailman, do you find your thoughts turning to buying dog bite Insurance?

You are wise to be looking at dog bite insurance since a dog bite can literally cost you the family farm. If Attila bites someone and causes grievous injury, you may be sued not only for medical expenses but for pain and suffering. You may also have to fight to keep Attila alive since the lawsuit may include a determination of the dog’s fate.

Get Dog Bite Insurance BEFORE you Actually Need It!

If you wait until Attila bites the mailman to get dog bite insurance, you are already too late. In order for dog bite insurance to help you it must be purchased before a bite incident.

Relying on Homeowner’s Coverage?

If you are buying or own your home you will most likely have a Homeowner’s policy covering your place. Often these policies extend liability coverage to the owner’s dogs. However, if that is the only bite insurance you are relying on, you might want to check your policy very closely. Homeowner’s policies often exclude coverage on certain breeds of dogs such as Pit-bulls, Rottweilers, Doberman Pinschers, Chow-chows and German Shepherds due to their statistics for aggression and biting behavior.

From a purely analytical point of view one can easily see why insurance companies are reluctant to insure what they consider to be bite-risk dogs. From 2006-2007, dog bite insurance claims increased by 10.5% according to the Insurance Information Institute. Also, the amount of the average insurance claim pay out was $24,511 in 2007. According to the Institute, a full 1/3 of all Homeowner’s claims are accounted for by dog bites. This represents a large chunk of change to any insurance company and it is easy to see why they try to reduce their risk by not insuring certain dog breeds.

The Blacklist

There is not a publically published insurance blacklist of dog breeds. It actually varies from year to year and company to company. Seattle based PEMCO Insurance takes each case individually and reviews many factors before denying or accepting a dog on a Homeowner’s policy. Other companies seem to annually review bite statistics by breed and make their Blacklist with those statistics as a basis.

So, which Dog Breeds are apt to make you Wish you had Dog Bite Insurance?

It used to be Doberman Pinschers that were the most feared dog but currently it is Rottweilers and Pit-bulls that wear the crown as the most often excluded dog breeds in insurance policies.  These are ferocious looking breeds for certain but it may surprise you to learn that these are not the breeds most likely to bite according to scientific research. Animal Behavior experts say that Chihuahuas, Jack Russell terriers and dachshunds, Golden Retrievers and Labradors are all high risk breeds.

Note: ANY dog will bite if it is placed in the right set of circumstances.
Whether dog bite insurance is included on your Homeowner’s policy or you purchase it separately as an individual policy, dog bite insurance is very important for any dog owner.