DIY grooming costs and no boarding bills kept the bills down for us. Invested $100 in a dog grooming kit, (less hot/noisy than people ones and able to run longer,) vs $50 each to get the dog groomed professionally. One “negative” of the non-shedding part poodle mixes is that their hair grows long rather than sheds. Needs upkeep. Typically took me two times to get the job done on our small dog, but he really didn’t care if we paraded him around the neighborhood with a half cut. I just figured I wasn’t going to spend more on the dog’s haircut than mine.
As far as boarding bills, we just took him with us. He was a family member.
$25,000 to $50,000 lifetime cost for a dog ??? You must be using a Park Avenue poodle surgeon for veterinary care.
Martha Stewart’s dog
I wish I had tracked what it has cost to have my dog but sure I passed this within the 10 years so far.
Not sure what it costs in the US but a 2 week trip will cost me around $750 for boarding. As there is no way to bring my dog, this ends up being my largest expense every year. But my dog loves staying with the Dog sitter so it is worth the cost when I do travel. Doing a few work trips and a couple of vacations per year is costly.
Vet bills probably second, Vet’s are just generally expensive here but 2 incidents have been costly One just being sick which required 3 weeks of out patient treatment at the vet and the other was an paw injury requiring stitches and multiple vet visits.
Other costs are mostly self inflicted;
Deciding to take on a project in UK meant bring my dog along which had a lot of added costs. The plus side, my border collie got to live on a farm for a few months in Wales as well as traveled all around Europe with my wife while I was stuck working.
The other self inflicted cost is renting terrace house with a yard which is for the dog, otherwise I would stay in a cheaper condo.
We oftentimes had to dig a poop circuit like this back in Boston. Not so much because of massive one-off snowfalls but because it stayed and was added to. Here in Colorado we tend to have a few big snowfalls…with sun and temperatures mild enough within a few days (sometimes hours) that it disappears.
One commonality though…every big snowfall started off just like this little taster!
My tiny runt shelty went gleefully crazy his first time in snow. I took him skiing with me, and we arrived late at night at the cabin (owned by my club of mostly ancient WWII gay veteran mountaineer troops) as snow started to fall. The next morning there was fluffy powder snow to a depth twice his stature. He jumped into it from the covered porch and vanished immobile for a few seconds and then barked happily excitedly and then popped up and out and forward. And again. And again again again againagainagain until he was totally exhausted. I carried him in and he happily slept most of the day until I came back from the sloops when he repeated.
First time he encountered heavy snow he was extremely discontented.
