There are two numbers that matter when you insure a dog, and the industry almost never shows them together.
The first is what you pay. Canstar publishes average annual premiums by breed as part of its Pet Insurance Star Ratings. The second is what the breed actually claims. PetSure, which underwrites a large share of the Australian market, publishes average annual claim cost by breed in its Pet Health Monitor, drawn from around 700,000 insured pets.
Both are public. Neither is usually presented alongside the other. This page does that, and explains what the gap between them does and does not mean.
What each breed costs to insure
Average annual premium, from Canstar's 2025 Pet Insurance Star Ratings, current at July 2025. Click any column heading to sort.
| Breed | Average annual premium | Against the $1,359 average |
|---|---|---|
| French Bulldog | $2,948 | 117% above |
| Dachshund | $1,511 | 11% above |
| German Shepherd | $1,489 | 10% above |
| Golden Retriever | $1,456 | 7% above |
| Cocker Spaniel | $1,414 | 4% above |
| Labradoodle | $1,325 | 3% below |
| American Staffordshire Terrier cross | $1,304 | 4% below |
| Border Collie | $1,250 | 8% below |
| Cavoodle | $1,120 | 18% below |
By size, Canstar puts small dogs at $1,316 a year, medium at $1,323 and large at $1,423. The spread by size is narrow. The spread by breed is not, which tells you insurers price the breed, not the dog.
What each breed actually claims
Average annual claim cost per policy, from PetSure's 2025 Pet Health Monitor, covering calendar 2024. Only breeds with more than 5,000 insured pets are reported, so these are stable figures rather than small-sample noise.
| Breed | Average annual claim | Against the $1,047 average |
|---|---|---|
| French Bulldog | $1,641 | 57% above |
| Beagle | $1,428 | 36% above |
| Rottweiler | $1,341 | 28% above |
| Miniature Schnauzer | $1,296 | 24% above |
| Cavalier King Charles Spaniel | $1,259 | 20% above |
| Groodle | $813 | 22% below |
| Dachshund | $795 | 24% below |
| Kelpie | $793 | 24% below |
| Cavoodle | $776 | 26% below |
| Border Collie | $771 | 26% below |
The four breeds that appear in both
The two datasets name different breeds, and only four appear in both. That is a genuine limitation, not something to gloss over. But those four are instructive.
| Breed | Premium | Average claim | Premium per $1 claimed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dachshund | $1,511 | $795 | $1.90 |
| French Bulldog | $2,948 | $1,641 | $1.80 |
| Border Collie | $1,250 | $771 | $1.62 |
| Cavoodle | $1,120 | $776 | $1.44 |
| All dogs | $1,359 | $1,047 | $1.30 |
Three things the data actually shows
1. The cheapest breed to insure is also the lowest claiming
Border Collies are the cheapest breed in Canstar's premium table and the lowest claiming in PetSure's. That is not a coincidence and it is not a discount. It is a structurally sound working breed with few conformational problems, and the pricing reflects it. If you are choosing a breed and cost of ownership matters, this is a real signal.
2. Small does not mean cheap
The received wisdom is that small dogs are cheap to insure. Canstar's size averages support it weakly, with small dogs at $1,316 against $1,423 for large. But the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel claims $1,259 a year, fifth highest of any breed, in company otherwise made up of French Bulldogs, Beagles, Rottweilers and Miniature Schnauzers. Its two defining conditions, mitral valve disease and syringomyelia, are chronic rather than one-off, so they claim every year rather than once.
The Dachshund shows the same pattern from the other direction: below-average claims at $795, but the second highest premium at $1,511. Insurers are pricing the risk of spinal surgery, which is infrequent but very expensive when it happens.
3. Crossbreeds do genuinely claim less
Cavoodles at $776 and Groodles at $813 sit near the bottom of the claims table, and the Cavoodle has the lowest premium of any named breed. The hybrid vigour argument holds up in the claims data. What it does not do is eliminate inherited risk, which is why the hereditary exclusion wording matters more for a cross than the headline premium does.
Method and limitations
So that the figures can be checked, here is exactly what they are and are not.
- Premiums are average annual figures from the Canstar 2025 Pet Insurance Star Ratings, current at July 2025, across rated products.
- Claims are average annual claim cost per policy from the PetSure 2025 Pet Health Monitor, covering calendar 2024 across roughly 700,000 insured pets, reported only for breeds with more than 5,000 insured pets.
- The two datasets are not matched. They come from different organisations, cover different periods, and name overlapping but different breeds. Comparing them is informative, not exact.
- Neither is broken down by age. Premiums rise steeply with age, so a single breed average conceals a wide range. Our individual breed pages give indicative age bands, and we label them as indicative because no published source breaks premiums down by breed and age together.
- Averages hide the tail. The point of insurance is the claim you cannot absorb, not the average one. PetSure has recorded single claims above $61,000 for lymphoma and above $57,000 for tick paralysis.
- Your quote will differ. Postcode, age at enrolment, excess, reimbursement rate and annual limit all move the number more than breed alone.
Common questions
Bottom line
Breed moves your premium more than size does, and the breeds that cost most are not always the ones that claim most. Use the premium table to set expectations before you get quotes, use the claims table to understand what you are actually insuring against, and then read the policy wording for your specific breed, because for most dogs it is a sub-limit or an exclusion that decides whether cover works, not the price.