To think the price of animals have gone up massive??

[Mummypig2020]

Yes I know, people should adopt, Don’t fund back yard breeders etc. And I’m no way buying a pet, but sometimes I like to have a mooch on pets4homes like I do on right move.

I can’t find one dog under 1k!! Labradors for £1.5k. Mixed breeds for a ridiculous amount.

Wtf? Do people really pay that much?

The cheapest dog in my area is a cocker spaniel for £1600.

Someone in my area has an advert up for a 6 month old daschund for £3.5k. The advert clearly states “only selling as I can’t deal with her food aggression”.

Right, so you’d like to make a profit on a puppy you bought at the start of lockdown, didn’t bother to train and now think is too hard work?! So someone is supposed to pay double what you paid to fix the issues you created whilst having the dog at the cutest and most trainable stage 🤔

I know this is blatent advertising but I have fostered for this organisation for over a decade and they are wonderful.

www.facebook.com/BlackRetrieverXRescue/

Please consider a rescue dog.

verity have you read the PPs?

After a year of trying to rescue but not being able to due to cat and dc (aged 9-12) we’ve decided to get a puppy. Prices are high but weighed up against ideal timing we’re going for it. Pup is pedigree with really good family lines/health and breed specifically for health and temperament. We’re paying £2k which we decided we would go to as our maximum due to the dog’s breeding and knowing the breeder for 15 years as a friendly acquaintance. As we get closer to connecting our puppy it really looks like our pup is one of the cheapest in the area with most being £3k+ and £4k+ for any poodle mix.

*collecting not connecting

It’s the same in the horse world, people buying unseen then being amazed that the horse isn’t as expected. Bonkers.

This happened to someone I know recently. Why would you buy anything unseen, unless you completely trusted the seller, and even then its still stupid. The horse was not at all what they were told it was, and it had to go back. Its just stupid, the horse had travelled ages for nothing.

Sorry pickledmybrain

Don't post very often so I'm not sure about the protcols etc..

No, I didn't RTWT but in the last 3 months I have rehomed two dogs that I had been fosteringsince February..

I had a look at kittens. All my local rescues are absolutely inundated with requests to rehome so can't keep up. So I thought I'd see. Bog standard moggies for £350+. Not even vaccinated, occasionally claims that they are deflead and wormed. Clearly not actually bred with any care. Highly suspect pictures of "pedigree" cats that I doubt exist. And lots of those Scottish Folds that look like a terrible thing to do with a cat.

I just couldn't do it. I'll wait until the rescues are more normal again.

I stated a thread in dog house as we are looking at rescuing
So far we have had no luck because

NO CATs -We have two cats
NO CHILDREN mine are over 12!
MUST ALREADY HAVE A DOG we don't hence we are trying to rescue.

However we live in a big house
I only work 8 hours a week.

Husband and kids around a lot
Miles of countryside around us
Secure garden
We have deliberately held off a dog up till now as with little kids we didn't have the time. We have lots of time now and feel ready.

It's massively frustrating.

I agree that some rescues gave high standards ,(which is for the dogs best interest and yours too) but there are a lot out there that will take the time to chat with you and help you.
There is also your local pound which can be the opposite, just turn up and take away.
I just wonder how many abandoned dogs will fill these rescues when people get back to their normal routine

I’m not having a go about protocols verity but there have been loads of posts on this thread about exactly why people can’t have a rescue dog. Looking at the page you linked to words jump out ‘inundated with requests’ ‘rehomed to ireland’ ‘rehomed to Bath.’

Those dogs are lovely. But they can afford to be picky.

I got a cocker spaniel puppy last summer for £850 - they’re now £2k! It’s insane. I expected and planned to rescue a dog but the rescue centres were so awful and unrealistic I couldn’t find a suitable dog. I’m an experienced dog owner with a park across the road from my flat. I wanted one that would be safe with my niece and nephew but wouldn’t live with them, and that could come to my dog-friendly office - so had to be good with other dogs and people. I work from home twice a week so it’d have been in the office three days a week. You’d have thought I expected it to sit on a motorway all day by the fuss the centres made about that. Oh, none of our dogs could possibly go to an office, they said. It’s a separate room with four other people in and we can close the door to the main office. It would be walked two miles there and back and run around the huge park nearby at lunchtime, plus evening walks. The existing office dog loves it and gets loads of attention. The rescue centres home checked and approved us but we never got any further because you can’t reserve a dog unless you’ve visited it, they’re only open in office hours except Saturday mornings and all the dogs are gone by Saturday mornings! So we didn’t even have a chance at convincing them to let us have a dog because we could never get to see one before it was gone anyway!

Our last dog was a rescue from a breed rescue. We had a large garden but it wasn't enclosed. Fortunately the rescue rep was pragmatic about it "no sane dog would run away from this" We gave him - and he gave us - ten years of happiness.

We rescued two black kittens back in January and thought £100 was a bit steep at the time.

I’ve just looked on google, and the price of DPuppy (who joined us in January) has doubled

That’s for a KC registered vulnerable native breed - but is still less than prices cited for fashionable breeds and crossed

Reputable breeders suspended matings during lockdown, so that has an effect on the numbers of puppies available now. And getting a puppy during the school holidays is usually a good time (people around for several weeks settling in, warmer weather for many toileting excursions)

My current concern is that DPuppy is from a very friendly line, and is only really happy when at least one of her people is nearby. I’d just about eased her up to 2hours alone before lockdown, but it’ll be back to square one when we’re all out and about again

@PileofToss

I’ve never understood why anyone would buy a puppy, there are hundreds of thousands of dogs that need homes.

It’s horribly sad that they sit there for often years with no loving home, and people go out every day spending thousands on puppies (often “cross breeds” which are actually mongrels 😂)

I changed job earlier this year which meant that, even in non- lockdown, I predominantly work from home. We have wanted a dog for years but always knew it would be unfair if we had to leave it alone frequently.

My changing job meant we could have a dog so I contacted all the local rescues. Not one had a suitable dog - we have cats and that rules out most rescue dogs. I've been on the waiting list at our biggest local rescue centre for months and have not been contacted about a single dog. i would willingly adopt a rescue dog but can't.

We have therefore decided to get a puppy. We are absolutely aware of the work that goes into a puppy but at the moment we have three adults living and working from home so we are all prepared to put the effort in.

And yes we are paying a ridiculous price but we have gone to a licensed and regulated breeder that we are happy with. We are using the money we got back on our cancelled holiday and we will get more lifelong pleasure from our puppy than from 2 weeks abroad.

I read on here at the start of lockdown, when someone said they were worried about how rescues are going to cope at the end of it.

I can't remember who said it, but basically it was enough to send me to have a look at prices of dogs then (I think start of May) and looking now, the prices have gone up by a good £200-500

It's all very well saying get one from a rescue, but some of them are insanely picky about the kind of home that they want for a dog. We applied for a collie springer cross, about 6 months old and got turned down because they 'thought he might like a home with other dogs'. We live in the middle of (our own) 500 acres, I'm out on the farm everyday. The dog we have now is the same breed and is the happiest dog you can meet - very busy, a great mouser, spends hours 'hunting' in the wood - fantastic life for a dog. And we were turned down. 8 months later that poor rescue dog was still in kennels as they hadn't found him a suitable home.

Completely with you on the cost of animals now though - every fucker is getting pygmy goats and building them a playground in their garden which is great, but they don;t really play as much past 18 months, and the last 10 years of their life (live about 14/15 years) is mostly pottering around the field - and they need a bloody field, not a playground in the garden.

I'll be waiting for the 'my friend has goats to re-home' calls in a year or two - we got loads of chickens this way after the silly chicken craze a few years ago. Completely stupid irresponsible behaviour.

Lots of rescue centres are really prescriptive, I know someone who was turned down by two different shelters for not having a big enough garden, despite living 100 metres away from a park. She ended buying a dog and he enjoys plenty of exercise in the park, while the poor shelter dogs are probably still waiting for adoption.

@PileofToss

I’ve never understood why anyone would buy a puppy, there are hundreds of thousands of dogs that need homes.

It’s horribly sad that they sit there for often years with no loving home, and people go out every day spending thousands on puppies (often “cross breeds” which are actually mongrels 😂)

Actually a crossbreed (one word and also not sure why you put this in quotations) is not a mongrel. A crossbreed is a dog bred from two purebred parents of two different dog breeds. And FYI they’re generally considered healthier than pedigrees and often live longer. I would never have a pedigree for these reasons and don't mind paying for a crossbreed from a responsible breeder of healthy and well-bred parents that have been fully tested for health and hereditary defects and DNA tested.

I actually think that the prices 2/3k are about right for a fully health tested dog.

In the end this is a little LIFE that you will have for years and years and, as one poster said upthread you would often pay more than that for a family holiday and certainly a car that you may only keep for 5 years or so.

Yes there are greedy people taking advantage of the current shortage in pups and also people breeding some crazy not health tested mixes for crazy money.

Poodle mixes cross breeds have never really been cheap so this is nothing new.

Buying from a licensed breeder only assures that when they were inspected and that everything was in order at that time, it's a bit like an mot in that it's only proof of compliance to the council regulations at that particular time.

Personally I'd rather buy from a breeder ( licensed or not ) that have one litter at that time, raised in the house ( not like some pups that are raised in kennels or outside in stables ) and raise their puppies as part of the family for the duration they are with them.

The whole licence thing is a debacle and was created as a money spinner for local councils and hmrc. I saw one particular case where a licence was granted to a breeder with 100 bitches, how on earth would they have the time to pay particular attention to each girl and give them the support that that is needed?

Again your pup will be with you for a very long time, I for one have thought that dogs have been too cheap and am glad they are more expensive now. Perhaps that will encourage people to really think and research their choice of pup before purchasing them.

I was on a Waiting list for my dogs, one purchased word of mouth from a friend who's breeder of her pup wasn't licensed but she only intended to have two litters from her only dog and my friend had had a pup from her first litter so I had a pup from her second. My other purchase was from a throughly researched licensed breeder.

Adopting is the way forward but as you can see from some of these posts very often it is impossible as not everyone meta all the criteria.

I don’t think it matters whether you call it a crossbreed, mongrel, whatever.

People like the dogs they like.

Ferrets are still far too cheap in certain areas in my opinion. There’s a large price range depending on markings and colouration but they can still be found for £10-15 per kit which just seems too little and I do wonder whether the people who buy them have really researched them.

Mine cost between £25 and £125.

Before lockdown we looked at getting another dog. I found most of the rescues wanted you to be loyal to them. They wanted you to pick their rescue, gets a home check and wait around hoping to be picked for a dog that came up.
The few bigger ones RSPCA, Wood Green etc didn’t seem to do this but they never had any suitable on their website.

We’ve had rescues before and I loved them but they were extra work training them out bad habits before the good training could start.
Our current dog is out first non rescue. We had children under ten, they wouldn’t let us rescue. The couple fo places that would never had anything suitable.
I work on a farm. I want a dog I can take to work with me and that doesn’t have some hidden thing that may make it aggressive towards people or livestock.
So I want a puppy.
But it’s waiting until we’ve moved house now and even then I’ll have to wait for prices to settle.

I've posted about this a lot recently on MN.

Despite what you say about not being able to get a rescue, people will still spout that line as a mantra. I've given up with rescues. We're usually not considered because we don't have another dog and we have a child under 10. Rescues are usually extremely rude as well. I understand they might be inundated but there is no need to be rude to somebody who could provide a home for a dog currently in a shelter. Someone on one of the rescue pages I'm on was told (on making a polite enquiry) not to even bother asking as they had enough people anyway. This is whilst asking for people to complete forms to be added to their register. I usually get a "you have a child so we won't accept your application or have anything for you". So no, we will no longer be considering rescues for that reason.

Puppies for the breed I want are between £3k and £5.5k atm. Decent breeders have also massively increased their prices from what used to be about £1200 to £2500 so I'll just wait.

I just looked up a miniature dachshund (I already have one) and they're going for £3,500!