Loyal, affectionate and devoted dogs, Labrador Retrievers will make an excellent pet for a family, couple or single owner. They are intelligent and quick to learn: they’re also obedient and keen to please, so you should find them fairly easy to train and socialise.

A member of the ‘gun dog’ breed group, the Labrador was originally trained to sniff out live game, as well as birds and animals that had been shot and wounded.

Along with fellow members of the gun dog group – such as Spaniels, Pointers, Setters and their closest relative, the Golden Retriever – Labradors are athletic dogs who love a good exploration in the undergrowth.

Labs will suit a family environment well, thanks to their affectionate, loving nature and patient temperament.

A grooming regime for a Labrador is usually fairly simple: a weekly brush will generally be enough to keep that glossy coat looking its best.

Common Labrador Retriever health concerns

Labradors are, like so many dog breeds, somewhat predisposed towards certain health conditions. Over the course of your Lab’s lifetime, you may well find yourself needing to arrange medical treatment of some sort.

That can be expensive, and you may wish to consider some form of pet insurance.

We’ll go a little deeper into the case for pet insurance in the next section, and after that we’ll take a closer look at the various forms of insurance that are available to you.

First, though, let’s examine some of the health conditions that a Labrador may encounter.

Hip dysplasia

This is a painful condition in which, during puppyhood, one or both of the hip joints fails to develop in the way it should. The condition brings with it pain, swelling and, eventually, arthritis.

A dog will typically inherit hip dysplasia from one of their parents: and the condition usually affects medium to large pedigree dogs, a group that the Labrador falls into.

The treatment involves carefully monitored exercise, plus weight control and pain relief. A severely affected dog may also require surgery.

Insurance is likely to prove useful in helping with the costs here.

Elbow dysplasia

Situated where the front legs meet the body, elbows can also suffer from poor development, once again leading eventually to arthritis if untreated.

As with hip dysplasia, treatment varies from exercise, weight control and pain relief through to surgery. Again, some form of insurance should help you to manage the costs here.

Obesity

The Labrador Retriever breed has high levels of obesity, and seems to develop more of an obsession with food than other dog breeds. Indeed, scientists at Cambridge University showed that many Labradors are genetically programmed to eat more.

So your dog likes to eat – is this really a problem?

Well, apart from being uncomfortable in itself and making them less inclined to exercise, canine obesity can lead to some more serious health conditions. These include diabetes, in which there is a deficit of insulin produced, and blood glucose levels aren’t properly regulated.

Obesity in any dog can also lead to heart disease and to arthritis, which will affect your Labrador’s mobility – and make it even more difficult for them to lose the extra weight.

These are all serious conditions requiring specialist medical treatment.

The possibility of obesity (and subsequent complications) makes a compelling case for some specialist Labrador insurance to help with the costs of treatment.

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Why do I need pet insurance?

Given the prevalence of those health conditions we mentioned above, we believe that all owners of a Labrador would do well to insure their pet.

Of course every pet owner will wish for a long, happy and healthy life for their pet – and one untroubled by health problems, from arthritis to zoonotic viruses. However, the reality is that many of our pets will need treatment or intervention at some point in their life.

And, sadly, many of these treatments will be expensive. If surgery is involved, in particular, costs can quickly mount up into four figures.

Now, many pet owners won’t be budgeting for large outgoings such as these, and may get an unpleasant surprise when the medical bills come in.

If your beloved pet is experiencing an illness that’s giving them pain or discomfort, or recovering from an accident, you will want to give them your full attention – not worry about money.

Having an insurance policy in place will mean that you have some protection against big, unplanned outgoings like a bill from the vets.

Pet insurance may, in short, save you money in the long term.

Another advantage that this form of insurance offers is the regular budgeting it allows you to do: you know exactly what will be coming out of your bank account each month or year, making it much easier to plan the rest of the household budget without the fear of big, sudden bills.

What’s more, many pet insurance policies won’t simply limit themselves to providing financial cover when you most need it.

Many insurance providers may also add attractive benefits to their insurance policies. These might include, for example, cover for dental treatment, or compensation if you’re forced to cancel or shorten a holiday due to a pet’s illness.

Others may offer a financial contribution towards the costs of advertising, and a reward, if your pet is lost or stolen. There may also be help with pet boarding fees, if you have to be away from home for a spell in hospital.

If you own more than one pet, meanwhile, look out for any insurers offering a multi pet discount. These will allow you to save some money if you take out more than one pet insurance policy from the same insurer.

In short, there are many advantages offered by pet insurance, and some important authorities including the RSPCA and the British Veterinary Association recommend that owners get their pets insured.

You should take time to consider whether the various benefits outweigh the monthly or annual premium that you will be paying on a particular insurance policy.

The Purely Pet Promise

At Purely, we’re here to support you. That’s why we offer a 24 Hour Vet Helpline free of charge to all of our customers. Our easy to use online portal ‘Manage My Policy’, enables you to access to your policy 24hrs a day. This provides greater flexibility, allowing you to manage your policy at a time that suits you, so that you can spend more time with your furry friends, and less time managing your insurance. Get a quote

What sort of Labrador insurance is available?

Dog insurance is generally available in four different forms. These four types of insurance each have their own price point, and set of benefits.

The cheapest form of insurance – known as accident-only insurance – will have the most restricted range of cover and benefits. In contrast, the most expensive form of pet cover, lifetime insurance, brings with it the most comprehensive cover.

It's well worth familiarising yourself with the four forms of insurance and what each one offers, so you can make an informed decision about which one is the best match for your dog, and your budget.

Accident-only insurance is the cheapest pet insurance on the market, accident-only insurance will – as the name suggests – pay out only in the event of your Labrador suffering an accident.

Illnesses and other ongoing health conditions are not covered. If your pet needs treatment for arthritis, diabetes or any other condition, you won’t receive any financial aid under this form of cover. However, if your Labrador is involved in an accident and requires surgery, this policy will step in and provide cover.

This type of insurance may suit pet owners on a budget, as annual policy fees are likely to be lower than those for other types of pet insurance.

However, do remember that this form of insurance offers no cover against illnesses, so if your Labrador or other pet were to develop a health condition, you would have no financial protection.

Time-limited insurance is the next rung up the ladder, in cost terms. This type of policy will give you cover against treatments of any kind (whether through accident or illness), but for a limited time period only.

Not only that, each condition or accident will have a monetary claim limit attached to it – a maximum amount of compensation that you can claim for that particular condition.

Within this timeframe, there will also be a claim limit for each condition, as with maximum benefit insurance above.

More expensive than the two forms of insurance we’ve covered so far, but also offering more comprehensive cover, is maximum benefit insurance. Holders of a maximum benefit policy will enjoy cover, up to a specified limit, for each illness or injury –for the whole of their time with the same insurance provider, rather than for a specific time period only.

Essentially, in this case you will have a lump sum to spend on each condition, across your pet’s lifetime (or across the time you spend with the same insurance provider).

Each condition will have its own claim limit or cap: so you might find that, after a few years, you have claimed your maximum permitted amount for a certain condition, while other conditions have not yet been claimed for.

As such, this may not be the best policy type for dog breeds who are commonly affected by one particular health problem, as it provides a spread of cover across various conditions – but can be limited in its coverage of each one.

The final type of pet insurance cover and the one that provides the most comprehensive spread of protection, is lifetime insurance. This option provides continuous cover for your dog, up to an annual (not lifetime) limit for each medical condition. This is the difference between lifetime and maximum benefit insurance.

In the latter scenario, once you have reached a claims limit for a particular illness or injury, that’s it – you will no longer be covered for any claims related to that particular complaint (though you may still have cover remaining on other conditions). With lifetime insurance, by contrast, the amount you have claimed will be reset to zero on an annual basis.

Claimed your full £3,000 for arthritis treatment? When your policy is renewed, the total will be reset and you will have another £3,000 available for the next policy year.

As such, lifetime insurance may be a sensible choice for owners of any breed that may be predisposed towards certain ongoing conditions – such as those affecting the Labrador Retriever breed, as listed above.

A final thing to note, with all these types of insurance policies, is that they will tend not to provide cover for ‘pre-existing conditions’ – health issues that have already been diagnosed in your Labrador (or other pet) at the time you first take out the policy.

What does this mean for Labrador owners?

Well, it’s a good idea to begin insurance relatively early in your pet’s life, when they have not yet succumbed to any health problems.

How will I decide which type of insurance is best for my dog?

The decision of which form of insurance to go for is a tricky one, and depends on a number of factors. Budget must come into it, of course: some forms of insurance will inevitably charge a higher annual premium than others.

However, you should set that against the increased protection that these more expensive insurance types may offer. For example, a lifetime insurance policy will be more expensive than an accident-only policy.

Nonetheless, if your Labrador or other pet develops one or more illnesses across their lifetime, it’s quite possible that the financial protection offered by lifetime insurance will more than offset those higher premiums over time.

Our own lifetime insurance provides cover for vet bills incurred through accident and illness, up to the annual cover limit that you select.

Reached your annual limit for a certain condition? Don’t worry: your annual limit will be reinstated when you renew the insurance policy.

Lifetime insurance is the most comprehensive cover you can get and the only type we offer here at Purely Pets.

What is included in a lifetime insurance policy from Purely Pets?

Our insurance brings a range of benefits for pet owners, including:

24-Hour Vet Helpline: All Purely Pets insurance customers have access to a round-the-clock phone line, which they can call for free pet health advice whenever they have a concern. Calls are handled by a national network of veterinary nurses.

No upper joining age limit: We are pleased to welcome new cat and dog customers of minimum 8 weeks old.

No fewer than 15 levels of lifetime cover: We have a wide range of levels of lifetime insurance, so you can choose the best fit for your pet – and for your budget. We can provide lifetime cover of up to £15,000.

Choose your excess from just £80: The excess is a one-off contribution that an insurance provider asks you to make towards each claim you submit. You can often make your insurance premium cheaper by agreeing to a higher excess.

If you don’t think you’ll be making too many claims – because, say, your pet is young and healthy, and doesn’t get into that many scrapes – you might want to agree to a higher excess.

However, it is always difficult to predict what number, and type, of claims you may need to make across a pet’s lifetime.

Here at Purely Pets, we like to be flexible – which is why we’ve set our minimum excess as low as £80 per claim.

If you have any more questions related to pet insurance, check out the helpful FAQs section of our website.

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