I used to have a beautiful German Shepherd called Benny and he was quite possibly the most intelligently stupid dog on the planet, he could figure out how to open a door by jumping up and turning the handle, but whenever he farted he'd look around with a "what was that, who did that?" kind of look. He wasn't by any measure a vicious dog, he had a pleasant personality most of the time but occasionally he would be in a bad mood. There was this one time when my niece was staying over (he loved my niece) and she was out playing with some other children, quite happily, but Ben didn't understand that, he thought Ashley was in trouble, so when she opened the door he shot out and jumped at the boy she was playing with, knocking him over. He didn't attack or hurt the boy luckily enough, and the boys parents understood that he was trying to protect Ashley.
It could however have gone so badly wrong, he wasn't a small dog and he could easily have caused major damage to the child - if he was so inclined (luckily he wasn't).
After Ben died (he fell down the stairs which bruised his back legs, I'm convinced the medication the vet gave him killed him, one of the side-effects was possible death) we were given another German Shepherd from people who were emigrating. This dog *was* vicious, he hadn't been brought up properly by the previous owners and had even jumped through a patio door window to attack someone, he was too much for us to handle, especially on an estate with lots of children, so we had to give him away. He was however a gorgeous looking dog.
It's for dogs like the 2nd one that insurance would be needed, with an unpredictable nature we felt it wasn't a matter of "if he attacked someone" but more "when he attacked someone", we had to keep him muzzled even indoors so he wouldn't attack my brother who was visiting.
It is going to be expensive to insure lots of dogs, and I'm sure the police will be given powers to impound uninsured/non-chipped dogs. However, there are agencies out there which will help people on low incomes, especially pensioners. Ben's vet bills were covered by the PDSA or something, so I'm sure there will be ways for pensioners to whom a pet is a part of their life that helps them keep active, keeps them company and are wonderful, loyal and trustworthy companions, to obtain free insurance as well as free chipping (again, Ben was neutered by a PDSA scheme, he didn't enjoy that aspect of it though).
I just wish you hadn't mentioned mandatory microchipping..............
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