To think the cost of a puppy is bizarre?

[PersonaNonGarter]

I am completely baffled by the cost of puppies.

I have been thinking about getting another dog. I’ve always had older rescues but this time I wanted to get a puppy. I googled puppy and OMG, all the sites showed dogs from £550 to £1300!

I am not going to buy one at that price, obviously, but it seems so strange. Who pays this, why, and why isn’t the cost so much lower?

Done properly, yes a puppy is an expensive thing.

It isn't just the cost of feeding, or vet checks/vaccinations.

The cost of travelling the country showing or working your dog and seeing the other dogs out there to pick the right stud for your bitch.

The time spent researching lines, checking the relatives of dogs you think are suitable.

The cost of the health checks on the bitch or stud dog.

The cost of maintaining an affix, maintaining facilities (if you are an assured breeder for the KC these are checked).

The cost of 8 weeks off work or 8 weeks of paid dog care in your home if you can't take that time off.

The slush fund (around 2k ) you'll need in case there are complications in whelping (it isnt covered by insurance at all).

All the food, toys, bedding, pens etc puppies require.

Done right, it is expensive and breeders don't make a profit unless they are a commercial enterprise breeding multiple litters per year (and I would not buy from such a breeder).

The problem is jo public does not know the difference between 'done right' and 'done badly'.

I paid a lot for our two dogs as puppies. Both had 5 generation pedigree, off spring of well known show dogs, both parents had dna tests to illustrate no genes for inherited potential issues, tests for various illnesses to illustrate they were clear, injections, chip, most of the way house trained and I’ve had been attending puppy craft classes so could walk on the lead. Both had been groomed. They came with insurance and food. One lived to a ripe old age never having any health problems. The other is now 9 years old and has never had any health problems. I viewed paying this price was well worth the proper breeding as ensuring I had a healthy, well adjusted pet in our home.

The prices are so high because your paying for a pure breed dog that could have KC registered parents which means that they can charge more for them and there is a lot of costs involved in looking after a mum and her new born puppy’s its not cheap. If you want a cheap dog then adopt one and stop complaining about the prices that people are asking for they sell them that high because they know they can get that much for them. I’ve just got a staffie Jack Russel cross puppy that I paid £150 for because she’s a mixed breed her mum is a staffie border collie cross and her dad is a miniature Jack Russell.

To everyone saying adopt don’t shop, I completely agree. But, this time I am looking for a puppy not full grown dog. I was looking at rescues but either they must not put litters up on their website or they must just not have any - well none of the rescues around me.

Ideally, I wouldn’t get a dog from a ‘breeder’. I’d get a puppy from a family pet.

I paid a lot for mine. I wanted a health tested, DNA tested dog from a certain line with a certain temperament and that’s exactly what I have got.

I thought about breeding but the tests alone were about £1000 and I scrapped that idea.

I have another (rescue if that makes any difference) dog who is a dream and cost £50 adoption fee however I now need a dog to do a certain job. I don’t want the uncertainty of a rescue, genetically or background wise and want to be as sure as I can that any new dog will fit what I want.

Shoot - that sounds a great mix, exactly the sort of thing I hoped for.

It used to be KC registered were £1000 plus and mixed were £250-£500. But now the mixed breeds have names and are considered breeds themselves they are now commanding hefty price tags.

There’s risks and costs involved in breeding but also a lot of arseholes running businesses.

I have a few friends who breed and show dogs. The costs of keeping a breeding bitch can be enormous. There's her feed, grooming, vaccinations, health checks, scans, insurance, cost of setting up a whelping room (whelping box, heat lamps, vetbed etc), vet bills in the event of a difficult whelping and someone needs to be at home with the bitch and puppies virtually 24/7, from the last couple of weeks of the pregnancy until the puppies are at least 6 weeks old.

Take my breed, the lakeland terrier. The average size of a litter is 4. The stud fee is the price of one puppy, or pick of the litter, so that leaves 3, assuming they all survive. The costs of all the tests, vet care, special food, registering the pups etc practically wipes out the price of another pup. If the bitch is unlucky enough to need a c-section, you're looking at a minimum of £1,000.

If any of the puppies show "faults", eg less than perfect bite, slightly the wrong sort of coat, top line less than straight, a decent breeder (which, thankfully, lakeland breeders seem to be) wouldn't dream of trying to get full price for them. The chances of getting a litter of entirely perfect puppies are slim.

I haven't looked at the price of a well-bred lakeland pup for ages, but I'd guess they're around £850-900. When you offset the stud fee and the costs associated with whelping, you're left with 2 puppies that you could sell, giving you £1700-1800 net income.

No reputable breeder would breed more than one litter a year from any one bitch, or more than 5 in the lifetime of the bitch. So at the absolute maximum, given that this breed can easily live to 15, even 17, breeding puppies could give you a princely total income of £9,000 over, say, 16 years, so £500-600 a year, and only then if you're lucky and every puppy makes it. Barely a tenner a week (less cost of food, insurance, grooming vet care), for spending hours looking after a dog in the best possible way for its entire life.

And if a puppy buyer later decides that they can't keep the puppy for any reason, at any age, the responsible breeder will take that puppy back and either keep it for the rest of its life or find a good home for it.

At best, breeding a litter, when done properly, subsidises the breeder's hobby.

Some breeds are probably more lucrative. Rottweilers, for instance, are renowned for being great breeders and they have massive litters (I've known a litter of 13). Some are probably a lot less so. Bulldogs are notoriously difficult to breed, the bitches suffer from dystocia and they have to have c-sections in 80-90% of cases. And bulldog breeders often use AI, as they struggle to mate normally.

Of course, this is all very different from the backyard breeder who churns out litter after litter of dubious crossbreeds, with no thought for their temperament or welfare, and sells them through Gumtree for £300 each. They're just scum imo.

The ‘adopt don’t shop’ mantra is great until you actually try to adopt. Basically, anyone who works or has kids is unsuitable. It’s really, really difficult. Plus there are potential health/behavioural issues with rescue dogs . I do understand the reasons why rescues make it so difficult, but that saying is so annoying.

I am completely against breeding animals for profit. There are so many unwanted animals in rescues or on the streets it is totally uneccessary to breed more. If people stopped paying these ridiculous amounts thereby fuelling this trade and rescued/rehomed then the whole horrible practice would collapse.

We've tried rescue centres but we don't match any of the criteria - we already have a cat (most won't let us adopt with other animals), we have a 4yo (all dc in the house have to be 6 or over) and no young children are allowed to spend a great deal of time at the house?! It's ridiculous!

After looking at rescue centres for over a year, we've had to use a dog breeder. The dogs have had health checks, vaccinations, etc. So I understand the high cost. £1300 is bonkers though!

£500 is a pretty reasonable price to me. We bought our working cocker spaniel pup for £450 last April and my parents bought their miniature schnauzer pup 7 years ago for £650.

Dogs aren't cheap, they also aren't cheap to keep either! There is good cheap dog food on the market which we use (not the vet recommended £20.99 per bag crap they keep selling to us!) that's good on our pups stomach and keeps him full (as he's a working breed they're very active!).

If breeding is such hard work, and apparently brings in so little profit, why do they do it?

I'm not a breeder and buy rescues not from breeders but the reason they do it is fairly obvious. They really like dogs, they like particular breeds of dogs and enjoy the process of breeding them. The breeder I knew barely made any money off it (broke even with perhaps a bit left over) but just loved Irish wold hands, knew a lot about them and felt proud of breeding nice dogs.

So many people have been turned down by rescue centres yet people are still coming on saying ‘adopt don’t shop!!’

Should also add that the breeder I knew was very selective about who the dogs went to. She would do a house inspection chat to them lots of times etc. I think partly it was a hobby she developed once her children had grown up (although I'm guessing a little bit).

I paid a lot for our two dogs as puppies. Both had 5 generation pedigree, off spring of well known show dogs, both parents had dna tests to illustrate no genes for inherited potential issues, tests for various illnesses to illustrate they were clear, injections, chip, most of the way house trained and I’ve had been attending puppy craft classes so could walk on the lead. Both had been groomed. They came with insurance and food. One lived to a ripe old age never having any health problems. The other is now 9 years old and has never had any health problems. I viewed paying this price was well worth the proper breeding as ensuring I had a healthy, well adjusted pet in our home

I paid a tenner for mine 20 years ago. Okay he was no pedigree, and I had to house train and socialise him myself-but isn't that part of the fun and the bonding process? But he was beautiful,intelligent,very much part of the family and certainly not devalued just because he didn't cost much to buy.He also never had a days illness in his life and lived till the ripe old age of 16 and I still miss him every day.

Get a mongrel pup. They are by far much healthier and usually free.

People are turned down by shelters because they are not suitable for the dogs the shelters want to rehome. It’s not difficult. These dogs are in shelters for a reason and the last thing they need is to wind up back in the shelter if adoption doesn’t work out. If you work full-time how can you devote the time to a dog that might have separation issues or need a lot of exercise?. Many are also nervous and jumpy around small children and dint socialize well with other family pets.. It’s not about you and you want; it’s about the dog and what the dog needs.

But surely a proportion of the dogs in rescue will be difficult or impossible to rehome, by definition? There are very mixed messages here: 'adopt don't shop' suggests that you can just drop into your local rescue and pick up a pet, when actually (and rightly) the process is almost as exacting and thorough as adopting a child. Most rescue dogs have additional needs. Most would-be owners aren't equipped to meet them.

I agree that rescue centres need to be strict but therefore the ‘adopt don’t shop’ argument doesn’t hold up does it?

It's about supply and demand.

Your "fashionable" breeds: Poms, French Bulldogs etc. have absolutely exploded in price in the last 10 years, it's absolutely crazy!

It used to be that the expensive litters were from responsible breeders of Kennel Club champions etc., but now for example you can buy a French Bulldog that would not even qualify for KC because it's not even a colour that is recognised by the breed standard but just has a "fancy" looking coat and thus has been bred for only that with complete disregard for it's health and wellbeing :(

It's very sad, but to answer your question as to why prices are so high. Because idiots will pay it!!

I'm not going to jump on the "adopt don't shop" bandwagon because that's totally your choice and if you are passionate about a particular breed, then go for it. But HEALTH has got to be the most important thing - people need to stop buying bloody tea-cup varieties for £1000's! They are RUNTS produced by breeding two other runts together and live with a multitude of physical and psychological problems. A responsible breeder would never do that!

An AMA from a dog breeder would be great, i’ll wager.

Id rather see puppies for sale for £10000 than £10. At least it’s more likely that the people buying them have thought long And hard to invest that much, and are more likely to be commuted to the dog, than someone who just got it cos it was cheap.

There are plenty of dogs and puppies that need a home in shelters across the UK and across the world.

If you want a puppy you can spend £1500 on one but that is your choice.
You don’t have to spend that amount. You can adopt and I am sure you can get a puppy or dog from a shelter for a fraction of that price.

@Serin, I’ve never understood that phrase. Don’t middle class people have sinks?? 🤨