UK Dog Owners Cut Training and Insurance Costs — What the Pandemic-Puppy Study Actually Found

Most of the 770 owners surveyed protected their dogs' care despite financial pressure. The smaller group making cuts matters too—but this unusually affluent pandemic-puppy sample cannot stand in for every UK household.

Edited by Scoop · 6-minute read

When household costs rise, the dog budget is not one neat line. It is food, insurance, grooming, training, daycare and the quiet decision about whether to ask a professional now or search online for another hour.

A newly published Royal Veterinary College-led study has put numbers around some of those decisions. Researchers surveyed 770 UK owners who acquired puppies during 2020, following the dogs as they reached about three years old and asking how the cost-of-living crisis had changed household finances and dog care.

The headline is not that most owners abandoned essential care. More than four in five reported no changes to how they cared for their dogs. The useful question sits inside the minority who did change course: which forms of support were easiest to postpone, reduce or remove when money tightened?

Most owners said they protected their dog's care

The study, published in the journal Animals on 24 August, found that 36% of respondents said the cost-of-living crisis had negatively affected their household income. Even so, more than 80% reported making no changes to their dog's care.

That distinction matters. Financial pressure and reduced care were not interchangeable in this sample. Many owners appear to have absorbed costs elsewhere in their lives before altering what they provided for their dogs.

The paper does not measure every compromise a household may have made to achieve that. It records owner-reported answers, not a complete household ledger. What it can show is that protecting dog care was common among the people who remained in this long-running research cohort.

Training, insurance and grooming were among the pressure points

Among the changes reported, professional support was a visible pressure point. Current veterinary coverage of the study says 21% of owners cancelled planned dog training or became less likely to seek professional training advice, while 16.6% reduced their pet-insurance cover.

The study also identified reductions in grooming and daycare, alongside delays in seeking veterinary attention for possible health problems. Some respondents spent longer searching online before deciding whether to seek veterinary advice or tried home remedies instead.

Those choices do not all carry the same consequence, and the survey cannot tell us what happened in every individual case. A skipped daycare booking is different from delaying attention for a health concern. The researchers group them as cost-linked changes in dog management, then warn that reduced access to preventive, veterinary and behavioural support could create larger welfare problems over time.

The 10.8% figure points forward, not just backward

The study found that 12.4% of owners had already made potentially negative cost-driven changes to their dog's care. A further 10.8% anticipated needing to make such changes during the following six months.

That forward-looking figure is important because it captures pressure before every planned cut has happened. It suggests that affordability can change owner behaviour in stages: first considering a reduction, then delaying a service, and only later removing it.

It is not a forecast for all UK dog owners. The survey responses were collected between 2022 and 2024, so they describe a particular period and a particular cohort rather than a live count of households making changes today. Publication this week makes the analysis new; it does not move the original answers into 2026.

Why this sample needs a careful label

These were not 770 randomly selected dog owners. Every respondent had bought a puppy during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and stayed involved in the RVC's Pandemic Puppies research as the dog reached 36 months of age.

The group was also relatively affluent. The researchers report that 71.6% had household incomes above the national average, and the cohort's most common income band was three times the average household income. The authors say the results may therefore underestimate the effects of financial pressure across the wider dog-owning population.

The study is cross-sectional and based on self-reported behaviour. It can describe patterns and associations in the survey responses, but it cannot prove that one financial change caused a later welfare outcome. Nor can it tell us whether owners outside the pandemic-puppy cohort would make the same choices.

What owners can take from the research

The most practical lesson is to notice which support has become negotiable before it disappears entirely. Training and behaviour help can look optional when a problem is still small; insurance can look like a monthly saving until a new exclusion or uncovered cost becomes relevant; grooming needs vary sharply between dogs.

The research does not prescribe one correct budget or tell an individual owner which service to keep. It does support an earlier, more honest conversation about cost. Owners can ask providers what lower-cost or staged options exist, charities can make support easier to find, and professionals can explain which delays carry the greatest risk without assuming every household has the same resources.

There is a second, quieter result too. Most surveyed owners reported holding their dog's care steady even when their income was under strain. Dogs remain remarkably effective household budget committee members, despite contributing very little to the minutes.

The next research question is whether those protections lasted, and whether a broader sample would show deeper cuts. Until then, the fairest reading is neither “owners stopped caring” nor “everything was fine”. Most protected care; a meaningful minority reduced or anticipated reducing support; and the study itself warns that the wider national picture may be tougher.

From theTailed

For the dog whose household role already includes morale officer and expenditure supervisor, turn that unmistakable expression into a personalised theTailed large-print mug.

Sources and update record

• Animals: Impacts of the Cost-of-Living Crisis on UK-Based Owners of Pandemic Puppies — peer-reviewed paper published 24 August 2026.
• MRCVSonline: Dog owners cutting back on behavioural advice as cost of living soars — published 26 August 2026.
• Royal Veterinary College: Pandemic Puppies research survey — project background and cohort context, checked 27 August 2026.

Checked and prepared on 27 August 2026. The survey data were collected between 2022 and 2024 from a relatively affluent cohort of people who acquired puppies in 2020. The findings are not a current census of all UK dog owners and do not establish cause and effect.