Cost of Owning a Dog Calculator · filed Oct 11, 2026
How much does a dog cost per year?
The short answer depends almost entirely on the dog’s size. Bigger dogs eat more, take more medicine, and cost more to groom — the same six line items, scaled up.
Posted at our defaults: a small dog runs $1,560 a year, a medium dog $2,640, a large dog $3,960. Every line below is editable in the calculator.
Medium dog · the $2,640 year
Small · large · the same six lines
Where the money actually goes
Food is usually the single biggest line for medium and large dogs ($660 and $1,020 a year at our defaults), while vet care leads for small dogs. Grooming scales hardest with size and coat: a doodle’s grooming bill can exceed its food bill. Boarding is the sleeper line — two weeks a year at $50 a night is $700 all by itself, which is why our defaults keep it inside the training-and-boarding line.
The monthly view
Vet bills do not arrive monthly, but budgets do: about $130 a month for a small dog, $220 for a medium dog, and $330 for a large dog. A separate pet sinking fund beats hoping the emergency lands in a good month.