Most professional dog trainers today understand the need for liability insurance to protect them against injuries to clients and others that occur in their classes and/or where they are training. We've all heard about the horror stories when a person is bitten in a class or someone gets knocked down and suffers an injury. General liability insurance is designed to specifically cover these types of bodily injury claims. But what about coverage for the client's dogs in your care?
Unfortunately, most general liability policies contain exclusions for personal property in the insured's care, custody, or control, which for many types of businesses would be okay. However, for the professional dog trainer, it can potentially be a major problem, as dogs are considered to be personal property. To demonstrate the problem, let's look at a few claims examples:
1. Client's dog ingested a glove while being trained at trainer's home. The dog was taken to the vet and required surgery to have glove removed. Total Paid $3,095
2. During an individual training class, client's dog in trainer's care fell and broke its leg. Total Paid $5,324
3. Dog in trainer's care got loose, ran into road, and was hit by a car. Dog had multiple surgeries and received extensive vet care. Total Paid $20,986
4. Trainer was attempting to socialize client's dog at their training facility with another client's dog. The two dogs got into a fight and one suffered major injuries. After extensive vet care, client's dog passed away. Total Paid $12,477
All of the above claims would have been denied by the insurance company, had these trainers not purchased a general liability policy that included an additional endorsement (additional policy form) to cover the dogs in their care, custody, or control. Without including this coverage under your general liability policy, you have zero insurance coverage for the dogs in your care. Be sure to read your policy form (care, custody, or control endorsement form) carefully, as many insurance companies will claim to cover this exposure under an animal bailee or professional liability form, but when you read the forms, the insurance company is often limiting the amount of coverage for vet medical expenses to $1,000 or $2,500 per dog, per incident, or not including dog training under the endorsement at all.
If you are covered under the APDT Liability policy, coverage is mandated for dogs in your care, custody, or control, with choice of limits ranging from $10,000-$200,000. The care, custody, or control endorsement includes vet medical expenses up to the limit you choose, regardless of fault/negligence. Regardless of who you are insured with, be sure to choose an adequate limit based on your individual exposure(s). As you can see from the claims examples, $10,000 may not be enough to cover vet medical expenses should an incident occur.
Over the years I have had some trainers argue that they do not need coverage for client's dogs as they have their clients sign a hold harmless agreement and are not responsible for injuries to the client's dogs. Furthermore, some claims, such as the first two claims examples cited above, do not necessarily involve negligence on the trainer's part, as they could have occurred on anyone's watch. While I do strongly support having a contract with your clients, including a hold harmless agreement, I have to respectfully disagree with these trainers.
To most clients, and I imagine most everyone reading this article, dogs truly are our best friends. When someone loses his or her best friend, or if that best friend is injured while in someone else's care, it is a natural reaction to be upset and place blame on the care taker/trainer, especially if there is any negliegence at all on their part. You as the trainer may have a very good relationship with your client(s) and feel like none of them would ever look to you to cover their dog's vet medical expenses. You may have even had a prior incident without any problems at all from a client. However, from many years of experience in insuring/providing coverage for dog trainers, I can share that relationships can and do change when these types of claims occur. Negligence may not always be evident, you may not be at fault, and you may have an excellent hold harmless contract in place, but it does not stop a client from filing a lawsuit, and defending these claims can be costly. In many cases settlements are further increased when attornies get involved. By having proper insurance coverage in place for the dogs in your care, you take all of this off the table.
David Pearsall, CIC
Business Insurers of the Carolinas