If you've ever applied for homeowners insurance and gotten asked "what breed is your dog?" before anything about your roof or your claims history, you're not imagining the priority. For most carriers, dog liability is one of the first underwriting questions — and for owners of certain breeds, it can be the difference between an easy approval and a flat-out decline.
Here's what's actually driving that question, and what your options are if your dog falls on the wrong side of a carrier's list.
Why Carriers Care This Much
Three things make dog bites an outsized concern for homeowners insurers: the scale of the problem, the dollar amount, and Florida's liability law.
Dog bites are more common than most people assume. The CDC estimates roughly 4.7 million dog bites occur in the U.S. each year, and nearly 1 in 5 people bitten require medical attention. On the more severe end, CDC fatality data shows an average of 43 deaths per year from dog bites or strikes between 2011 and 2021 — though that number has trended upward, hitting a high of 81 in 2021 alone.
That volume translates directly into insurance losses. Nationally, dog bite and dog-related injury claims cost insurers $1.86 billion in 2025 across roughly 28,450 claims — an average of $65,450 per claim, according to the Insurance Information Institute. Claim frequency has climbed 57% since 2016, and the average cost per claim has nearly doubled over the same period, driven largely by rising medical costs and larger settlements.
Florida adds another layer most owners don't expect. Under Florida Statute 767.04, dog owners are strictly liable for a bite — meaning you're liable even if your dog has never bitten anyone before and you had no reason to think it would. Florida doesn't follow the "one bite" rule some states use to give a dog's first incident a pass. That liability exposure sits squarely on your homeowners policy, which is exactly why insurers underwrite it so carefully here.
How Breed-Based Underwriting Actually Works
There's no single industry-wide list — it varies meaningfully by carrier. That said, the breeds that show up most often on restricted or "higher scrutiny" lists include:
- Pit Bulls / American Staffordshire Terriers
- Rottweilers
- Doberman Pinschers
- German Shepherds
- Akitas
- Chow Chows
- Presa Canarios
- Siberian Huskies and Alaskan Malamutes
- Wolf hybrids
Depending on the carrier, owning one of these breeds can mean an outright decline, a higher premium, a liability exclusion specific to dog bites, or a requirement that you sign a liability waiver. Other carriers — State Farm is the most commonly cited example — don't underwrite by breed at all and instead look at the individual dog's bite history. In Michigan and Pennsylvania, breed-based denial or cancellation is illegal outright, regardless of carrier preference — though that protection doesn't extend to Florida.
The Data Problem Worth Knowing About
Here's the part that matters if you actually own one of these breeds: the science behind "dangerous breed" lists is shakier than most underwriting guidelines suggest.
The American Veterinary Medical Association officially opposes breed-specific legislation, citing a basic problem — breed identification by sight is unreliable, even among experts. Studies have found that most dogs visually identified as "pit bulls" don't actually have pit-bull-type DNA, and valid breed identification could only be confirmed in a small fraction of media-reported bite incidents. The CDC ran into the same issue and stopped collecting breed data on dog bite fatalities altogether back in 1998.
The AVMA's position is that individual behavior, socialization, supervision, and whether a dog is neutered are far better predictors of bite risk than breed alone. That's a hard thing to underwrite at scale, though — which is part of why breed lists, imperfect as they are, persist across the industry.
What You Can Actually Do About It
Disclose accurately, every time. Misrepresenting your dog's breed on an application is one of the few things that can get an entire claim denied later, even years into the policy. If you're not sure of the breed, say so.
Shop carriers instead of assuming you're stuck. Because breed underwriting varies this much, getting declined by one carrier says very little about what another will do. This is exactly the kind of situation where shopping 30+ carriers matters — a dog that's an automatic decline at one company might be a non-issue, or just a small premium adjustment, at another.
Ask about a liability waiver or higher limits instead of an exclusion. Some carriers will insure the dog if you accept a liability waiver for bite-related claims, rather than declining the policy outright. It's not ideal, but it's often better than no coverage at all.
Consider an umbrella policy. If your homeowners liability limit feels thin relative to the exposure — especially under Florida's strict liability standard — an umbrella policy adds another layer of protection above your home and auto limits, often surprisingly affordably.
Keep records. Vet visits, training certifications, and a clean bite history can support your case with an underwriter, even for a breed that's normally flagged.
Owning a "restricted" breed doesn't have to mean settling for bad coverage or no coverage. Reach out and tell me what you've got — I'll tell you honestly which carriers will actually write the policy and what it'll cost.
