For those of you who insure your dogs, what companies cover dogs that have been used for breeding?  I don't mean cover for when a dog is being bred, but for a dog that has EVER been bred.  I'm looking for other insurers as the one I was with would not pay out anything for any condition as my girl had had a litter (I did not read it in the small print).  I have now tried several that seem to have the same policy.  Can you recommend any that will cover a bitch that has had a litter?

Have you tried Pet Plan?

The Kennel Club's insurance will.

More than will if the bitch has had up to 2 litters, 3 or more and they class it as commercial breeding and it voids the cover. It's why I swapped to them.

My brother in law, who checked EVERYTHING for the 'best deal', used More Than.   FWIW.

His dog was just a pet.

NFU, even covers breeding related costs like emergency csection ( up to £1500). But you do need to have a house insurance with them as they don't do stand alone dog insurance

Thank you everyone.  I ended up going with petplan.

I hadn't realised it but had been paying for insurance that would not have paid out because in the small print it says not used for breeding purposes. 

Thanks Noora, although it wasn't for breeding purposes I was looking for insurance, simply to insure a bitch that had previously had a litter.

Sorry I missed this thread.  I have an independent pet insurance website (independent because I have no links to any pet insurance company... nor do I make any money from it!)  I have recently been researching an article re pet insurance and breeding and have just spoken to 16 of the most popular insurance companies.

The vast majority of pet insurance providers will cover pets who have been bred from in the past.  Although as has been mentioned above More Than (and the other pet insurance companies which are also underwritten by RSA - John Lewis/Tesco/M&S/Homebase/Argos) will insure provided the pet has not had more than two litters.   I spoke to many other insurers (Sainsburys, Petplan, Helpucover, LV= etc) who were more than happy to take on pets which had been bred from.

Some companies though like Animal Friends are more interested in your future plans.  They were quite happy to insure pets that had been bred from.. but would not consider insuring a pet who I planned to breed from. 

Purely Pets on the other hand exclude any pets who have been used for commercial breeding and they define commercial breeding as having more than one accidental litter!

Thanks Sally, but concerned about your information on Animal Friends - they may well insure a pet that has been bred from but the small print says they will not pay out for anything for a pet that has been bred from.

Direct line was similarly confusing.  They would insure her providing I was not planning to breed from her in the future (I am not) but as the breeding resulted in monetary gain (I sold all but one of the pups) then they would not cover her for anything. 

The problem is that as vet fees increase, these companies are using anything they can to avoid paying.  Thankfully, I haven't had to claim anything for her, but I am not happy paying premiums for insurance that I won't be able to put in a claim if necessary.

I did look at Sainsbury's but there was something in the small print that excluded bitches that had been bred from.

Thanks for your reply.   I spoke to Sophie at Animal Friends yesterday who assured me that they would have no problems in insuring pets that had been bred from.  But you are quite right about their small print.  I will contact Sophie again this morning to point this out to her!

Direct Line I find to be confusing about most things as they avoid answering general questions and always want to look at the specifics of a case!  Have had the same problems with them when asking if they will cover dogs to do dog agility.

Sainsburys puzzles me though.   I have had another look at the small print this morning.  It certainly has the "standard" clauses regarding not paying for breeding costs or deaths resulting from breeding.  It does not include dogs used for breeding in the excluded dogs list.   I spoke to Jess at Sainsburys who was very surprised by the question and told me it would certainly not be a problem.  So I explained that not all pet insurance companies would cover dogs which had  been bred from.. so she went away to check... came back 5 minutes later and confirmed they didn't have a problem.  If you remember where you saw it - it would be great to know!

Did you make a complaint about the failure to pay your claim after your pet had been bred from?  Only interested because I suspect that the Financial Ombudsman may uphold any such complaint providing you can show that the exclusion was not drawn to your attention.   It would depend on whether they viewed it to be of such significance that they should have highlighted the matter for you..

Have just followed this up with Animal Friends and pointed out the exclusion in their terms.  This was their reply " What that statement means is if you are using pet at the moment for any trade or business. As we discussed yesterday if you do have plans to breed your pet again we will not look to cover her but if your not we will look to cover her."

I pointed out her that the exclusion could be interpreted in other ways!  But she did confirm that if you told them that your pet had been bred from when you took out the insurance then they would make a note on the policy document and you would definitely be covered.  

There is a notification requirement in the policy to tell them if you are intending to breed.. if you fail to notify them then it may invalidate your insurance.   (Still think though that you have a good case to go to the Financial Ombudsman if this was not highlighted when you took out the policy.

Nb.  This is not a recommendation to use Animal Friends or any other pet insurance company.. check my website if you want to see my analysis of the strengths and limitations of the Animal Friends policy or any other popular policy (note the website is non commercial, independent and is written by me for fellow pet owners.. (I have no connections with any pet insurance company!)