Pets Land in Insurance Doghouse : Coverage: People with dogs that have a reputation for aggressiveness are finding it more difficult to get homeowners policies. Carriers say the risk is too costly.

Chris and Richard Clark are having a hard time getting homeowners insurance, and it’s got nothing to do with living near an earthquake fault or a flood plain or a brush-fire zone.

The problem is their dog, Cayanne, whose most threatening feature seems to be a tongue that slobbers on visitors.

But the couple’s homeowners insurance carrier has refused to renew their policy come April because Cayanne is a Doberman pinscher--a dog, the company said, that has “aggressive tendencies.” They were simply too risky to insure--despite the fenced back yard and padlocked gates of their High Desert home, the Clarks were told.

Indeed, it is getting harder for owners of pit bull terriers, Rottweilers and Doberman pinschers to get homeowners insurance in California. The owners of German shepherds, Akitas and chows are also encountering difficulties, and breeders worry that still other breeds with bad PR will be added to insurers’ blacklists.

And for an obvious reason, insurance industry officials say.

“If you have an aggressive dog, the chances are greater it’ll bite somebody than if you don’t have a dog, or one that is not aggressive,” said Jim Snyder, president of the Personal Insurance Federation of California.

“In this litigious society, if people get bitten, you get lawsuits and claims,” he said. “Some companies, based on their own experience and judgment, are choosing not to accept that kind of risk.”

Finding insurers who will underwrite owners of dogs considered aggressive has become more difficult since the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Reeling from $10 billion in losses and unwilling to continue to write earthquake policies, nearly all of the state’s largest property insurers have quit or drastically cut back underwriting home policies.

Among the diminished pool of remaining companies, those willing to cover certain breeds has shrunk sharply, some independent brokers say.

“Right now, I might have one company that might consider accepting someone with a particular (high-risk) breed. Five years ago, I would have had five to 10 companies,” said Kimberly Annas, a broker with Seaboard Insurance in Anaheim.

Jim Watje of the San Diego insurance brokerage firm Barney and Barney said there is a “definite trend” by insurers to back away from homeowners with certain dogs.

Each of the four companies he represents has some type of restriction for what they term “vicious” or “aggressive” dogs, he said, and some of the companies specifically blacklist particular breeds.

Snyder said the problem for dog owners in finding insurers is the price they pay for canine companionship.

“Insurance companies have the right to evaluate risks that are submitted to them, for the purpose . . . of determining whether or not to even offer the coverage,” he said. “We make choices in life, and there are consequences and responsibilities attendant to having any kind of dog, and additional ones if the dog is aggressive.”

Dog fanciers argue that their assertive pets are such a deterrent to home burglary that they should be as welcomed as an anti-theft device on a car’s steering wheel. In fact, because of growing concern about crime and home safety, certain breeds of “personal protection” dogs are becoming more popular, dog clubs report.

When Kathie Gallen shopped around for cheaper insurance for her Rancho Cucamonga home, she remembers being asked by one company if she had a home security system.

“I said, ‘No, but I have a 100-pound Doberman.’ And as soon as I said that, he said, ‘Forget it.’ The agent said his company would not insure homes with German shepherds, Akitas, pit bulls, Rottweilers and Dobermans.

“People are threatened by my dog because he’s big and he barks if a stranger comes to the front door,” Gallen said. “But he’s gentle around the children and doesn’t even touch my two cats. We’re not talking vicious.”

Bill Sirola, spokesman for State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., said owning certain dogs for home protection is not a mitigating factor when his company’s agents weigh whether to provide insurance to a homeowner.

“The loss from a burglary will be minuscule compared to the liability imposed when that dog somehow slips the chain or jumps a fence and attacks a little child,” Sirola said. “It’s almost unreal to have to talk about that in dollar terms.”

None of the state’s three largest home insurers--State Farm, Allstate or the Farmers Group--blacklists specific breeds, but none will insure a homeowner whose dog has been the target of a bite claim, spokesmen said.

There is little reason, however, for dog owners to call these companies. With a few exceptions, the three are not accepting new homeowner business in the wake of the Northridge earthquake. Together, the trio account for more than half of the homeowners insurance business in the state.

The Automobile Club of Southern California--which is selectively taking on new customers--will not underwrite owners of Rottweilers or pit bulls, a spokeswoman said.

The Clarks’ insurance carrier, Santa Monica-based Western Mutual Insurance Co., flatly refuses to insure owners of Dobermans, Rottweilers and pit bulls, a nickname for a number of short-haired, stocky terriers including the American Staffordshire terrier.

“Our experience has been that these particular types of dogs have a much-more-than-average tendency to bite and damage people, and those are very expensive claims,” said Paul Rubincam, the company’s senior vice president.

Rubincam said that Western Mutual has paid out “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in dog-bite claims and that the firm’s own statistics have found these certain breeds to be disproportionately responsible for those claims.

“In California, dog bite liability is virtually absolute. There’s no defense,” he said.

Dog authorities complain about discrimination based on unpopular stereotypes assigned to certain breeds.

“Insurance companies have missed the point: The issue is vicious dogs, but we have a very serious problem with anyone who proclaims that a breed is vicious,” said Ed Gilbert, president of the California Federation of Dog Clubs. “No breed is vicious. It’s dog racism.”

“There are probably more people who are bitten by poodles, but nobody gets upset by that because they’re cute little dogs,” said Catherine Thompson, president of the American Rottweiler Club. By some counts, Rottweilers are the second most popular dog breed in the nation today, after Labrador retrievers.

Thompson acknowledged that Rottweilers “are big, powerful dogs that are bossy and independent, and when they bite they can cause a lot of damage.” But like other breeders, Thompson said the problem of a maladjusted dog can usually be attributed to owners who do not properly care for or train their pets--or who go out of their way to encourage aggressive behavior.

To that end, an increasing number of dog clubs around the country have begun awarding the American Kennel Club’s “Canine Good Citizenship Certificate” to dogs that pass a 10-step test intended to show their civility.

The dogs are graded for how well they react to strangers, walk through a crowd and respond to other dogs, among other criteria.

The AKC, whose primary business is to maintain registries of purebred dogs, promotes the training program to assure that “our beloved dogs will always be welcomed and respected members of the community,” the club states.

AKC spokeswoman Robin Hoik and other canine experts say there are no accurate studies to indicate which breeds are most prone to aggressiveness.

One attempt to compile more reliable statistics was conducted last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers studying a particular Denver neighborhood found German shepherds and chows to be more likely to bite than other breeds. But that study was criticized by some for not assessing the behavior of the victims that may have contributed to the biting incidents.

A 1989 CDC study showed that pit bulls were most responsible for dog bite fatalities; pit bulls were not represented in last year’s Denver study because the city had outlawed ownership of those dogs.

“We’ve looked into it, and we don’t have any idea which breeds bite more,” said the AKC’s Hoik. “You can say that certain dogs are bred to fight, but you certainly can’t pinpoint a breed that is more likely to bite. The truth is, dog biting has to do with the environment and other factors.”

About 20 people a year are killed nationwide from dog bites, and 585,000 are injured, according to the CDC.

Some dog owners, aware of the growing difficulty in finding companies to insure them, advocate hiding their dogs from the view of insurance underwriters when the property is inspected.

One woman anonymously wrote a letter to a dog owners’ newsletter, identifying herself as an insurance underwriter for a company that will not insure owners of certain dogs.

“I am just warning all of you, keep a low profile if you have a dog,” she wrote. “Don’t turn in claims unless your house burns to the ground! Don’t do anything to attract attention to yourself.

“The actions of my company came after paying over $1 million in dog bite claims over the past 12 months. I understand the panic decision but I don’t agree.”

Bob Adams, a Los Angeles-based columnist for the dog publication Front and Finish, said he is aware of a growing number of people who are hiding their large dogs for fear of losing homeowners insurance--”but they’ll get in a helluva lot of trouble if their dog bites the neighborhood kid.”

Adams suggested that the dog-insurance issue wasn’t a real problem until lawyers got involved.

“In the past, a dog bite usually would just mean a $75 doctor’s bill,” Adams said. “But now you can’t get bitten by a dog without suffering mental and emotional distress, anguish, decreased sex drive and nightmares about being chased by hordes of attacking Chihuahuas,” he said.

The Clarks, meanwhile, were told by their insurance broker that no other company she represented would accept their business. The couple independently found another carrier--but at rates higher than they paid previously.

“If insurance companies keep adding dogs to their lists, some breeds will become extinct,” Chris Clark complained. “Out here, we need big dogs. Small dogs will become coyote bait.”