1-844-221-6948
close

How pet business insurance protects your company

January 06, 2025 | Insurance 101

This article was originally published August 09, 2023

Whether you do pet sitting, dog walking, pet grooming, or some other form of pet care, you deal with animals that can be unpredictable. They’re also cherished family members, so their owners can be frustrated, angry, and ready to file a lawsuit if anything goes wrong. That’s why every company in this space needs pet business insurance.

Pet business owners hope everything goes smoothly in every engagement. But that’s not always the case. A dog slips off the grooming table and suffers a significant injury requiring expensive veterinary care. A cat sneaks out the front door as you visit to feed her and is struck by a car and killed. A dog you’re walking gets away from you, chases a squirrel, and breaks several planters and decorations on a neighbors porch.

If you don’t have insurance to cover these issues, you could be left with a big out-of-pocket expense for your legal defense, court-awarded damages, etc. It’s not uncommon for those expenses to be in the tens of thousands of dollars or more. Sadly, many uninsured small businesses go bankrupt due to these types of incidents. That can not only be the end of your existing business, but it can also make it difficult to start a new pet care venture down the road.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that it’s easy to research pet business insurance and secure the coverage you need to protect your company from unexpected but all-too-common incidents.

Read on to learn more about pet business insurance.

Does your company need animal business insurance? 

The terms “pet care business” and “animal business” are umbrellas that cover a long list of business types, including:

  • Dog walkers
  • Pet groomers
  • Veterinarians
  • Kennels
  • Pet sitters
  • Dog training companies
  • Humane societies
  • Mobile dog grooming companies
  • Pet adoption agencies
  • Service animal trainers

Essentially, if your company provides pet-related services, you need animal business insurance from a company you can trust—like biBerk!

7 essential types of pet business insurance

Pet care insurance is a form of business insurance. There are several policy types that a pet care business might need. Each is designed for a different kind of risk.

For instance, a general liability policy can cover you if a customer visiting your pet grooming shop slips on a wet floor, injures their shoulder, and sues you for the cost of their medical care. A commercial auto policy could pay for expenses related to an accident caused by your employee in a company-owned or leased vehicle.

The nice thing about buying insurance this way (rather than as one all-encompassing policy) is that you can buy just the coverage you need. So, if you don’t own or lease vehicles, you don’t have to carry commercial auto insurance. 

The pet business insurance policies owners most often need are:   

  • check
    Workers' Compensation insurance. Most states require this insurance for any company with employees. It helps protect your pet care business if a worker gets hurt, gets sick, or dies due to an incident on the job. It can cover medical costs, legal fees, and lost wages due to the injury.
  • check
    General Liability insurance. Also called commercial liability insurance, this type of policy covers multiple risks, including injuries to customers and other non-employees at your business location and damage to other people's property caused by you or your team. It can also pay costs related to libel, slander, and copyright infringement. Plus, you can add endorsements to customize your policy, including cyber, hired and non-owned auto liability, employment-related practices liability, and employee benefits liability. 
  • check
    Business Owners Policy. This is also called property & liability insurance. A business owners policy (BOP) combines general liability insurance with protection for the property you need to operate your pet care business. It can also pay for lost income due to a covered event. Like you can with a general liability policy, you can tailor your BOP with add-ons, including cyber, hired and non-owned auto liability, employment-related practices liability, and employee benefits liability. 
  • check
    Commercial Auto insurance. If your company owns or leases vehicles, this policy protects the business. It can cover your legal fees and the medical costs of others if you or your employee is at fault in an accident in your vehicle. It can pay for damages even if the vehicle is used for personal activities outside its primary business use.  
  • check
    Professional Liability insurance. Available for veterinarians, this policy (called errors and omissions insurance in some industries) protects your business if a customer sues you, claiming your services didn’t meet industry standards and they suffered a loss as a result. 
  • check
    Umbrella insurance. Every liability insurance policy has a maximum it will pay in the event of an incident, with your business being responsible for any amount over that figure. Umbrella insurance adds another layer of protection, potentially covering costs that exceed the limit of another biBerk liability policy up to its own limit.  
  • check
    Cyber insurance. You can purchase this coverage as an add-on to a general liability policy, a professional liability policy, or a BOP. It helps cover costs related to system hacks or data security breaches where someone steals sensitive data, like customer credit card information, and uses it to commit fraud or is likely to.

You can get additional information about each of these policies on our website. And if you have questions about them, our licensed insurance professionals are always happy to answer them. That includes helping you figure out what pet care business insurance policies are right for your company. Just reach out!

If you need pet sitting insurance, dog walking business insurance, pet grooming insurance, pet boarding insurance, or coverage for any type of pet-focused business, a good approach is to start your research on our website. That’s convenient since you can learn about policies whenever you have some downtime. Then, if you have questions about the specifics of a particular policy, you can reach out to us for answers.

biBerk helps pet businesses at all stages.

Wherever your company is in its evolution, our policies can help you protect it. 

Established pet businesses
People who have owned pet businesses for many years know how important it is to protect their companies from property damage, lawsuits, and other unexpected events that can hurt their finances. They like that we have the policies they need and that biBerk is part of the Berkshire Hathaway Insurance Group, with its long history of supporting businesses. Working with us gives them powerful peace of mind that their equipment, facilities, operations, and brand reputation are protected when they carry the right insurance. 

New pet businesses
People starting a pet care company and doing their insurance research discover that we’re trusted by owners nationwide and that being insured in general (and with us in particular) gives their startup business credibility. They appreciate that we understand the pet care industry and that our policies address the risks these businesses face, helping protect their finances from the unexpected, from pet injuries to client property damage and more. 

Expanding pet businesses 
Nothing feels better than experiencing enough business success that you can expand your operations. But it’s essential that your insurance coverage evolves with your company as you expand your physical space, hire more employees, buy additional equipment, or offer new services. biBerk makes it easy to get quotes for different types of coverage or to increase policy limits as needed. 

What does animal business insurance cost?

The premiums for animal business insurance policies vary based on many factors: the type of coverage, the size of your business, your claims history, and others. But you can quickly find out what you’ll pay with instant, self-service animal business insurance quotes.

You’ll be glad to know that you can typically get hundreds of thousands of dollars in coverage for as little as a few hundred dollars per year. And because biBerk sells directly to you with no brokers needed, you can save up to 20% over other pet care business insurance providers. 

Just as importantly, like we said above, we’re a Berkshire Hathaway company. That means we have the resources to process claims efficiently and get them paid. Also, as a company, we’ve proven through the years that we’ll be there for policyholders should they be sued or suffer property damage. Not every company can claim that trustworthiness and reliability.

Buying pet business insurance is simple!

Our focus as a leading provider of pet business insurance is making it easy to get the reassuring financial protection your business requires. So, we let you purchase policies online, with coverage active as soon as the next day in most cases. You can also manage your policies and report claims online for maximum convenience.

You’ve got a business to run and pets to care for. Once you’ve taken a few minutes to purchase policies from biBerk, you can turn your attention back to operating your business. You can also sleep better at night, knowing we’re here for you with solid financial protection if you’re ever sued or suffer property damage.

Check out our pet care business insurance policies today. Whether you need pet sitting insurance, pet grooming insurance, dog walking business insurance, or pet boarding insurance, we’ve got you covered!