Pet insurance for dogs helps pay vet bills when your dog gets hurt or sick. Most plans cover new accidents and illnesses, and many let you add routine care like checkups and vaccines.
Below is what dog insurance usually pays for, what it leaves out, and how the money gets back to you. We’ll use Lemonade Pet as an example along the way.
Curious what it costs for your dog? Get a Lemonade Pet quote in as little as 90 seconds.
What a basic dog insurance plan covers
Most dog insurance starts with an accident and illness plan. It pays toward finding out what’s wrong with your dog and treating it.
- Tests: blood work, x-rays, ultrasounds, and scans
- Treatment: surgery, emergency care, and hospital stays
- Medicine: shots and prescription drugs
An accident is something like a broken bone. An illness is something like an infection or a long-term condition that needs ongoing care.
Example from Lemonade Pet: its base plan also covers conditions some breeds are prone to, like hip dysplasia, plus parasites and infections.
What dog insurance doesn’t cover
- Pre-existing conditions: health problems your dog showed signs of before coverage started.
- The waiting period: coverage starts a set number of days after you sign up.
- Routine care: checkups and vaccines, unless you add a wellness or preventive package.
- Exam fees on some plans: the vet’s fee for looking at your dog, unless you add it.
- Things that aren’t medical: grooming, cosmetic procedures, boarding, and obedience training.
Example from Lemonade Pet: illness coverage starts after 14 days, and bone and joint problems after 30 days. Its vet visit fee add-on covers the exam fee.
Are checkups and vaccines covered?
Yes, if your plan includes a wellness or preventive care add-on. It’s often priced separately from accident and illness coverage.
A preventive add-on can pay for a yearly checkup, vaccines, heartworm and parasite tests, a dental cleaning, and flea, tick, or heartworm medicine.
Example from Lemonade Pet: its preventive package covers up to 3 vaccines, such as rabies, Bordetella (kennel cough), and DHLPP (the combo shot for distemper, parvo, and a few other diseases). It has no deductible and no waiting period, so you can use it the day after you buy the policy.
What about puppies?
A puppy’s first year comes with a lot of vet visits: shots, a spay or neuter, a microchip, and flea medicine. Some insurers offer a puppy package that helps pay for these.
Any problem that shows up before a policy starts, or during the waiting period, counts as pre-existing. So a young puppy is less likely to have one.
Example from Lemonade Pet: its puppy package covers spaying or neutering, microchipping, flea medicine, and up to 6 vaccines or boosters. It’s offered in some states, not all.
Does pet insurance cover dog training or behavior problems?
Obedience training isn’t covered. That includes puppy classes and sessions with a dog trainer.
Some plans do cover behavior problems as a medical issue, usually as an add-on.
Example from Lemonade Pet: its behavioral conditions add-on covers therapy and medicine your vet recommends for problems like anxiety and aggression.
For help with manners, leash pulling, or reactivity, you can find a dog trainer near you and compare local prices.
How you get paid back
With most dog insurance, you pay the vet first and send in a claim. The insurer then sends money back to your bank account.
Three things decide how much you get back:
- Deductible: what you pay before the plan starts paying.
- Co-insurance: the percent of the bill the plan pays you back after the deductible.
- Annual limit: the most the plan will pay in one year.
Say your dog has a $1,000 vet bill, and your plan has a $250 deductible and 80% co-insurance. The plan’s share is 80% of $1,000, which is $800. Take off the $250 deductible and the plan pays you $550, so you pay $450 total.
A yearly deductible is one total for the whole year. You can meet it with one big vet bill or a few smaller ones, and after that you won’t pay it again until the next year.
Example from Lemonade Pet: its deductible is yearly, and you can pick $100, $250, $500, $750, or $1,000.
Claims happen in the Lemonade app. After you pay the vet, you snap photos of the bill and your dog’s medical records and send them in, which Lemonade says takes about 2 minutes. Lemonade pays 50% of eligible claims instantly and most others within 5 days, straight to your bank account.
Lemonade Pet plans start as low as $10 a month. Get a quote for your dog in as little as 90 seconds.