but if your dog is, as you say, “fragile,” i would highly recommend insurance. we have 2 labradors (5 years and 2 years old) who would have cost us a fortune if we hadn’t had policies on them. the most recent visit was $1400. they had enjoyed a bowl of grapes (grapes can cause renal failure in dogs and it’s a very serious thing — don’t ever feed your dog grapes or raisins!) and we didn’t know which dog had eaten them, so both dogs had to get treated. the insurance cost annually is about $350 each, so in just the one visit — and believe me, there have been others since, although not as expensive — the policies have paid for themselves many times over.