Why Pet training And Walking Insurance Is Essential For The Professional
Got a natural way with pets? Maybe you consider yourself a pet whisperer. Someone that understands and connects to them on a different level. Whatever the situation is and your skills are, it sounds like you’d make the perfect trainer or walker. Even if you have little to no skills with pets, you can become a walker. You’d be surprised how much money there is out there for pet walkers in Canada. Given that 57 percent of the households in the country own pets, you can imagine that there is a big market for it. That being said, both career paths do pose potential risks and threats. Risks and threats that could not only lead to the closing of your business but risks and threats that could ruin your family financially.
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The first thing you need to know about the pet walking and training industries is that there will be some policies that are required by law. For instance, if you are going to have a physical place of business or employees, you’ll be required by Canadian law to take on general liability insurance and workers’ comp insurance. Even if these policies weren’t required by law, you’d need them to safeguard your company. Simply put, pet care insurance policies are going to be something you just can’t get away from.
Given this coupled with their potential costs of protection, you’ll want to make sure that you are taking advantage of the best rates possible. The only way to do this is by getting quotes with numerous providers. And, there are plenty of providers throughout Canada. There are well-known and national providers like ProfessionalsCoverage and there are some lesser-known local providers that only operate on a local level. Whatever the situation, you have to remember that the cheapest option isn’t always the best.
However, it does lower your risks when you bundle policies as well. For instance, coupling general liability with workers’ comp through the same provider will lower your monthly or yearly premiums. Throw in more protection and it’ll lower your rate even more while offering more protection.
Working With Providers That Know The Industry
While the cheapest rates aren’t always the best option for coverage, cheaper rates sure do help cut costs. That being said, when seeking insurance, you’ll want to make sure you are working with someone that understands your chosen field. Each chosen field has specific risks. The risks of a dog walker, although similar, are still somewhat different from that compared to a dog trainer. The risks of a dog trainer are also somewhat different than those of a dog sitter.
If you want to minimize your potential threats while maximizing your protection to the fullest, you’ll want to work with someone that innately understands the field you are in. They’ll know the risks that you are exposed to every day and help you build a coverage policy to battle such threats. Pet Care Insurance can be tricky and sometimes just getting coverage isn’t enough. You always need to make sure you are getting the right type of coverage and coupling it with the right policies. Work with providers like ProfessionalsCoverage that understand and know the pet care industry!
Why General Liability Insurance And Business Owner’s Insurance?
When out there searching for policies, you’ll find that you not only have a number of providers available to you, but you’ll always have a variety of coverage options available to you. It is likely that you already know about some of these policies and some of them you might have never even heard of. Whatever the situation, there are some that are just more basic than others. While general liability insurance and business owner’s policy insurance are two of the most basic insurance policies that you can get, they are two that offer immense protection in certain situations. This is especially true for the dog trainer.
While these policies are equally important to the dog walker, they might not be considered as important when bundled together. And, this is because they have to do with injuries and damaged property on-site. As a dog walker, you’ll rarely have customers in your physical store. As a dog trainer, you’ll constantly have dogs and customers in your place of business. If they either are injured while on these premises, they can sue or at least ask for medical compensation. Whatever the situation, these policies will protect you in these situations. They’ll pay for the medical-related expenses as well as the lawsuits that might be involved.
Workers’ Compensation Insurance
Thinking of expanding? Thinking of taking your business to the fullest? This will likely require bringing on employees. While bringing on employees is exciting and offers the opportunity to get to know other people that care about the same thing you do, it’ll also mean that you are at even greater risks. You’ll not only be at the risks of your employees making mistakes on the job and injuring customers, but you’ll be at the risk of an employee getting injured.
Isn’t it possible that one of the pets you are walking or training bites an employee? Sure, it’s possible, and it happens more often than some might imagine. Whatever the situation, this is where workers’ comp offers the protection needed. This policy will not only cover the medical-related expenses, but it’ll also cover if the employee wants to take the case to the courts. Not only does it offer the essential protection in these situations, but it’ll also cover lost wages and rehab expenses to get the employee back on the job.
While this policy is one that is required by the court of law, you’ll want to make sure that you are always making the most of your coverage. Get as much coverage as policy, as providers like ProfessionalsCoverage will offer protection in different increments. They might offer some businesses as much as 1 million in protection, while they’ll only offer others $500,000. Of course, the more employees you have, the more protection you’ll need, but you certainly never want to skimp when it comes to protecting your employees.
Errors And Omissions Insurance
Despite all the policies available to both walkers and trainers, it is errors and omissions insurance or E&O or professional liability insurance that is the most important of all. Why? Because it protects against potential negligence. Whether you are actually at fault or not, a customer can claim negligence and sue you and your company as well as your employees. Just imagine an employee is walking a dog, a car jumps a curb and kills one of the dogs he or she is walking. While your employee might not be at fault, the customer can easily claim negligence.
They could claim that the accident was your employee’s fault and see retribution in the form of a lawsuit. Whether you are to blame or not, the case will likely end up in the Canadian court systems where it’ll likely get tied up for years and years at a time. The longer it stays in the system, the more it will cost you in court-related costs. Every time your lawyer deposes someone, provides advice, or talks to you on the phone, it’ll cost you. Are these expenses that you can afford out of pocket, unexpectedly? Probably not and these are the situations that lead a lot of dog trainers and walkers to close their doors.
Errors and omissions insurance is a policy that can prevent such situations. This policy will not only cover all the customer’s financial losses, but it’ll cover any of the court-related costs.
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Other Types of Pet Care Insurance We Provide:
If your business is not mentioned below, have no worries. Our insurance markets can provide liability coverage for the majority of pet care industries.