Puppy Insurance

Puppy insurance covers any new accidents, injuries and illnesses that occur outside of your policy waiting/ exclusion periods (14 days for illnesses and 5 days for accidents).

With Perfect Pet, you can cover your puppy from as young as 4 weeks old. Starting cover early means any illness or injury that appears later can be covered, because conditions that show signs before a policy starts count as pre-existing and aren’t covered by any UK insurer.

The honest answer: it’s hard to say, because puppy insurance pricing completely depends on your dog and the cover you pick. As a very rough guide, UK premiums for a puppy can run from around £5 a month to more than £60, with many owners paying somewhere in between.

What it depends on: your puppy’s breed and expected size, where you live, local vet fees, the policy type, and the vet fee limit you choose. Lifetime policies usually cost more than accident only because they cover more, and prices can change at renewal as your puppy grows.

Treat these as broad UK market estimates rather than our prices. The quickest way to see a real figure for your puppy is to get an instant quote, it takes about 2 minutes.

Our Lifetime Elite Extra Plus policy provides £5,000 of vet fee cover per condition minus your excess and any co-payment.

There’s no limit to the number of conditions or accidents you can claim for. However, keep in mind that related injuries or illnesses may be grouped together and covered under the same policy limits.

And because it’s a lifetime policy, your cover reinstates each year when you renew – so you can continue to claim for ongoing conditions, year after year.

Your puppy insurance covers emergency dental treatment for injuries, but routine dental cleaning or dental illnesses aren’t.

Always check the policy wording to understand what’s included.

Pet insurance policies are not generally designed to cover routine care like UK puppy vaccinations, flea treatments, or worming. Your puppy insurance can help cover the vet fee costs for any illnesses, accidents and injuries, along with other things like Third Party Liability.

Perfect Pet customers get access to our Perks & Offers, where you can find exclusive discounts on the cost of pet care, including prescription medications, flea and worm treatments.

There’s no single type of pet insurance that’s best for every puppy, because the right cover depends on your dog, your budget and how long you’d want a condition covered for. The four types, accident only, time limited, maximum benefit and lifetime, each work differently.

Many owners of young dogs choose lifetime cover, because a condition that starts young, like a skin allergy, can need treatment for years, and lifetime cover refreshes its vet fee limit each year you renew. Time limited and maximum benefit usually cost less but cover each condition for a shorter period or up to a fixed pot, and accident only covers injuries but not illness.

The best way to weigh it up is to compare the levels side by side and think about what you’d want covered if your puppy became unwell.

Most UK pet insurers won’t cover pre-existing conditions. A pre-existing condition means any health problem your puppy has had or is having treatment, medication or advice from a vet for prior to the start date of your puppy insurance policy (or within the waiting period – 14 days for illnesses and 5 days for accidents and injuries).

This also includes any undiagnosed accidental injury or undiagnosed illness which is showing any clinical signs or symptoms, or exists in any form which your puppy has prior to the start date of your policy.

For example, imagine your puppy started showing a slight limp before your insurance began (or during the waiting period), and later your vet diagnosed early joint issues. Because the signs appeared before your cover was active, this would be classed as a pre-existing condition.

This is why getting puppy insurance early, before health problems appear, is vital.

You can switch UK pet insurance providers at any time, but new insurers may not cover pre-existing conditions.

If your puppy has developed any health issues, staying with your current insurer may provide better long-term protection, especially if you have a lifetime pet insurance policy.