Sources and credits
Figures on this page were checked 2026-11-10. They are national ranges, not a quote for your city.
How a monthly estimate is made
Rover’s May 2026 survey of 1,000 pet parents puts an adult dog at $1,930–$5,305 a year. Synchrony’s 2025 Pet Lifetime of Care Study, fielded January 31–February 22, 2025, asked 1,541 dog owners and puts a year of dog care at $1,591–$2,770. The average of those two ranges is $1,761–$4,038 a year, or about $147–$337 a month. Lifetime totals from either study are not shown.
Size then scales that monthly range. Rover says a small adult can cost as much as 63% less than a large or giant adult. That “as much as” is a ceiling, so the estimate uses a smaller step: toy and small × 0.7, medium × 0.85, large × 1, giant × 1.15. Toy uses the small factor because the two cost studies do not publish a separate toy band. A coat recorded as high-maintenance also adds Rover’s professional-grooming range of $300–$975 a year ($25–$81 a month). Professional grooming is added only when the breed file records a high grooming need. The national yearly total may already include some grooming for an average dog, so this add-on is only for coats that need a groomer.
Rover only (May 2026), adult dog, per year
Synchrony did not publish these category dollars in a form this page could quote, so they are labeled Rover only and are not averaged.
- Food: $785–$2,635
- Treats and chews: $55–$360
- Gear: $75–$175
- Vet visits: $80–$135
- Preventatives: $295–$360
- Training: $40–$290
- Dental: $55–$490
- Insurance: $520–$1,230
- Toys: $5–$90
Synchrony only (2025 study)
- Dog health insurance: $198–$313 a year, from the CareCredit summary of the study. Not added on top of the yearly total.
- Wellness plans: $422–$701 a year. Not added on top of the yearly total.
Rover, The Cost of Dog Parenthood · Synchrony 2025 PDF
Breed file credits
Matching uses every breed in the breed file marked eligible. We only match on traits with a published source. Each trait line names the source for that value. The row-by-row table is TRAIT-SOURCES.csv.
- Wikidata measurements and identifiers, CC0 1.0. No share-alike duty.
- English Wikipedia articles and infoboxes, CC BY-SA 4.0. Coat descriptions, energy paraphrases, shedding and grooming lines, and temperament keywords adapted from those articles stay under that license. Wikipedia contributors retain copyright. Share-alike means those adapted text fields are not relicensed more tightly. The article link for each row is in TRAIT-SOURCES.csv.
- Morrill et al. 2022, Darwin’s Ark owner-survey aggregates, CC0 1.0, Zenodo 6522639. Breed explains about 9% of behavioral variation in the Science paper. These bands are tendencies.
- McMillan et al. 2024, Scientific Reports, doi:10.1038/s41598-023-50458-w, CC BY 4.0. Median survival is a UK primary-care estimate, not a promised lifespan. Table S5 supplies size and cephalic class.