We had our previous dog fully insured until he was 10 at which point the premiums shot up, £1000 a year so we stopped insuring him apart from accident and public liability. Of course the inevitable happened, he became very ill, he was at death's door. Treatment cost approx. £6000 but wonderfully he made a full recovery. However, we worked out that had we saved the insurance premiums we would have been financially better off. So that is what we are doing now. We only have accident and public liability insurance for our new dog, which is relatively cheap through Dog's Trust. What we would expect to pay out in insurance premiums now goes into "the dog's jam jar fund ". Quite a nice sum is gradually building up, hopefully it will not be needed. So far he has been very healthy, long may that continue.