Insurance Risks

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| Print | By | March 14, 2008 10:40 AM

Hubby and I recently altered our insurance policy, and during the meeting our agent asked us what dog breeds we have. I joked that Zeke is a pit bull and Sumner is a Rottweiler. We all had a good laugh – a dog trainer who owns two “dangerous” dogs. Funny!

I didn’t think about the reality of that joke until later in the day.

I laughed about owning “dangerous” dog breeds because I know that profiling by breed alone is a questionable practice (“punish the deed, not the breed”), but the sad reality is that many insurance companies jack up their rates, or even deny coverage, for people who own breeds considered “high risk.”

Can you guess those top risky breeds? In my state my insurance provider won’t cover households with*:

• Pits (So just what is a pit bull?)
• Presa Canario
• Dobermans
• Chow chows
• Rottweilers

(Many states also consider Great Danes and German Shepherds uninsurable.)

Scary stuff, and I’m not talking about scary breeds … what’s frightening to me is that I’ve worked with each and every dog on that list, and they’ve all been perfectly wonderful, well-behaved dogs. Good, solid canine citizens, all.

Do you think insurance companies have made an accurate assessment of the risk factors attributed to those specific breeds? Or are they unfairly targeting the usual suspects?

* There is a loophole in my state: coverage can be provided if the breed in question has passed the Canine Good Citizen test. That’s a start.

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Mickey March 14, 2008 4:08 PM

I was just with a friend looking at apartments and found out that there is a list of dogs that are banned from most apartments. Most of the breeds that you included are on the list.

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