Insurance companies do not like backyard trampolines, waterslides for your swimming pool and certain types of dogs. Insurers, it seems, are huge killjoys.

Companies’ policies vary, but agents say it’s common for insurance companies to refuse coverage for accidents related to any of the aforementioned things – what’s more, many companies opt not to cover those homeowners at all, walking away at the first sign of a pit bull or spring-loaded backyard trampoline.

And the same goes for water slides for in-ground pools, says agent Joseph Leahy with Springfield-based Leahy & Brown Insurance & Realty.

A hodgepodge of dog breeds send up red flags, too, such as Rottweilers, Akitas, German shepherds and, Leahy said, “If you own a pit bull, I don’t know of any company that will cover you.”

As with most insurance-related matters, says spokeswoman Jeanne Salvatore with the Insurance Information Institute, it goes back to actuarial reports: Some things simply lead to more liability claims.

“Almost one-third of [homeowners’] liability claims go to dog bites,” she said.

Claims information for the other items listed wasn’t available through the institute, but product safety watchdogs have long harped on the dangers of backyard recreational equipment. For example, the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued its last trampoline re-port in 2001, claiming accidents on trampolines sent 92,000 people – mostly children younger than 15 – to the emergency room that year.

It’s a liability headache because the injured party often isn’t the homeowners’ kid, Salvatore said, it’s a neighbor kid, or your child’s friend – and if they get hurt, you’re in trouble.

If you own high-risk products, insurers respond by either charging you more for coverage, explicitly refusing to cover any accidents re-lated to them, or just deciding not to bother with covering you at all, she said.

Salvatore said owning a swimming pool wouldn’t get you rejected from coverage, but it usually does mean higher rates for homeowners.

Insurers’ anxieties over these individual factors seem to have become more common in just the past five years or so, Leahy said, and some homeowners eventually turn to the FAIR plan rather than give up, say, their favorite dog.

While such homeowners might be a greater risk to companies, Leahy said some companies are perhaps overly sensitive, ignoring homes that aren’t as high-risk and losing out on good business.

“It’s kind of throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” he said.