Dog insurance blacklists
While you might love your dog, the companies that carry the insurance for your house, apartment, or condominium might not. In fact, your dog's breed might determine whether or not an insurance company is even willing to provide coverage for your home. There are 14 breeds of dogs which appeared on virtually all of the insurance blacklists. Most of these blacklisted dogs include not only the specific breed but any mixed breed that presumably included a genetic relationship to one of the banned breeds. The 14 most often insurance blacklisted dog breeds were: Pit Bull Terriers, Staffordshire Terriers, Rottweilers, German Shepherds, Presa Canarios, Chows Chows, Doberman Pinschers, Akitas, Wolf-hybrids, Mastiffs, Cane Corsos, Great Danes, Alaskan Malamutes, and Siberian Huskies.
Attorney Tom Olsen: John, you're on News 96.5. Go ahead.
John: Hey, how you doing, good morning to you.
Attorney Tom Olsen: Hey.
John: I have a quick question for you. My family and I got a German Shepherd puppy a couple days ago. Now, I'm pretty sure homeowner's insurance and isn't going to insure the dog. Now what I was thinking of doing, there's a separate liability policy I can get with another company specifically for the dog. Does that sound okay?
Attorney Tom Olsen: John, it sounds okay with me but I would question whether or not your dog is really covered or not covered on your existing homeowner's policy. Why do you think that it's not automatically covered?
John: Well, I'm almost positive, the German Shepherd's on the -- they call it the blacklist down here. I'm actually pretty confident of that. Before I got the dog, I did a whole bunch of research and I found a couple really reputable insurance companies, locally, that just specifically for dog bite protection liability and you can get up to $300,000. I don't want to risk losing my current homeowner's insurance. Before I open a can of worms with them, I was thinking about just getting a separate liability policy to protect myself, my wife and anything was to happen with the dog.
Attorney Tom Olsen: John, I'm always encouraging people to be well-insured so you fit right into what I tell people to do anyway. John, just out of curiosity, how much is a policy premium for something like that?
John: The highest policy, the $300,000 is about $600 a year and I was probably wasn't going to do the 300, they have a $100,000 policy for about a little under $300 a year which in my mind is worth it.
Attorney Tom Olsen: John, what other dogs are on the blacklists? I've never heard this term before but I imagine it might be pit bulls but I wouldn't have thought German Shepherds would be on that list but what other dogs?
John: Well, it's weird because I'm actually from New York and we don't have this but now in the southern state there's a blacklist and if you research it there's Rottweilers, there's pit bulls, there's anything that's a large breed dog, is on this blacklist. Except, Black Labs are not on it but Great Danes are on the blacklist surprisingly but there's a whole -- it's just a whole bunch of them. Cane Corsos, Rottweilers, German shepherd, pit bull and a bunch of others which on the blacklist insurance companies won't insure.
Attorney Tom Olsen: Thank you for educating us today and thank goodness, toy poodles are not on there because I wouldn't have thought my little Max could hurt anybody.
Chrissy: Little Max.
Attorney Tom Olsen: Toy poodle.
Chrissy: Sweet little Max.
Attorney Tom Olsen: I can imagine that pit bulls would be on there and I tell you what. First of all, let's go. Florida law says folks that you are absolutely, positively, no ifs ands or buts, you are responsible for everything your pet does. I'm sure there's some pit bull owners out there think they're the sweetest dogs in the world but I'll tell you what, I bet the average pit bull owner doesn't have this separate policy and for insurance and what happens when that pit bull hurts somebody.
Chrissy: Tom, absolutely, and I find what he said, I did not know that there were companies out there that that's all that they did.
Attorney Tom Olsen: Yes, if you're a home insurance agent out there listening to our show right now and you can tell us about something about this blacklist for certain kinds of dogs not being covered under homeowner's policies, hey, we'd love to hear about you, I think that's interesting.