The price of puppies

[Got99ProblemsBut]

Or dogs in general at the moment?

I can totally see how/why it’s spiked due to lockdown, but it’s still feels incredibly ridiculous. Do you think it will lower again after the pandemic?

I would love to adopt but already have a dog, cats, and children under 10 so there’s never any lovely rescue dogs suitable for us as they tend to need quieter homes Although I still keep an eye out!

I’m just browsing and waiting, thinking that some people might not be able to handle their lockdown dogs and those might need a forever home. Or they’ll hit the awkward 6m-1yr stage that people tend to change their minds at

Just to add I’m not getting a “lockdown puppy/dog” because I have new found free time or anything as I was home 24/7 before all this started, just want a companion for my dog and have a very dog-loving/focused family

YABU - The price of dogs today is appropriate

YANBU - Thousands of pounds for a dog that cost £350 before lockdown is a huge increase

YANBU!
It's crazy. Dh and I planned to get a pup next year instead of going on holiday but due to covid we moved this years hol to 2021 and looked at getting the pup back in April.
Jesus! the breed normally is anywhere from 650 to 1000
we couldn't find one for lower than 2500.
We didn't and aren't paying ridiculous figures so will wait.

What area of the country are you in? You don’t need to be specific snd people may be able to suggest rescues within a reasonable travelling distance.

@Foxinthechickencoop where abouts are you? Horses and ponies are cheaper in my area than ever before, my daughter brought a 3K mare for £1,600 in July and a pony for the riding school for £350 last week, he had been up for £1,200 in the summer, he was vetted and all sound. Many local people are getting rid and the 2 local dealers have dropped prices considerably.

Speaking only from personal experience, it doesn’t seem to be deterring reckless owners at all.

My DM still lives on a council estate. The family next to her (actually quite nice neighbours but hopeless parents - think sofa on front garden and social services involvement - two dc removed a couple of years ago and a new baby being watched carefully) have bought a male and female puppy for £2000 each. They got very high interest loans and plan to breed and sell the puppies for a few grand each. They are rubbing their hands together.

Pretty much everyone on the estate has a new dog or two.

Have you checked pets4homes

Mine was found through pets4homes.

Like i said earlier, huskies were averaging under 1k earlier this year, around £750-800 and of course there were the pure breeds available but we didn’t look at them as we couldn’t afford one.

When we’ve come to look again, the £750/800 pups are no more and we ended up looking at the 2k ones which is our one as we have had a windfall otherwise there’s no way we could have afforded it.

I do think though that once we get ours they will drop the price considerably which is annoying.

Ours wasn’t from a puppy farm (was about £1500 cheaper than puppy farm prices) he was from a kc registered breeder with her second litter. She had carefully selected the sire who was the same father as the first litter and we met 2 of v the pups from that litter (now 2 yo) and the mum. Plus I know the breeder as we worked together years ago. Her dogs are working and well known in the gundog community in our county.

Mn thinks all covid pups are from farms but only because people make stuff up on here. Everyone I know with a pup used reputable breeders except 1.

Following as we're also wanting a puppy but the prices are mad. Happy to adopt a rescue but there's none available for anyone with children around us.

Is pets4homes ok to use?

A quick scan on pets4homes and there are absolutely loads of dogs less than a year being sold. The prices are still in the thousands though so people are obviously still paying that much even for older puppies.

@pearljamming MN hates pets4homes. Use it with caution I would say, scrutinise adverts carefully, talk to the breeders to find out why they are breeding. Always visit the litter to see where they are living. Always see the puppies with mum. Dont buy a pup that seems nervous or fearful. Coats should be glossy and eyes bright. Ask lots of questions and trust your instinct.

Thanks @DotTheCaddy that's really helpful. We're not in any rush so will take our time to find our next pup.

Check out local facebook groups of pet lovers. There are plenty of animals looking to be rehomed (for free) and they are more reasonable than rescues. And dogs are less traumatized than those who ended up in shelter.
Our old dog's story was that she came from a lovely home with children and other pets, but parents divorced, property was split, and pets had to go.

Personally I find it awful that puppies cost so much.

I saw a previous poster say that at least if they are expensive it makes people think twice and prevents spur of the moment purchases, however I have seen a trend lately where people buy an expensive puppy but don’t worry about the price because they plan on breeding theirs and will make back the money plus more!

It really infuriates me that people have such a laid back attitude to the welfare of their dogs.

however I have seen a trend lately where people buy an expensive puppy but don’t worry about the price because they plan on breeding theirs and will make back the money plus more!

Well it's kind of the point of purebred, show category dogs - showing, breeding and selling.
There are pet category dogs, that cannot be bred and have to be neutered.

@CatsArePeopleToo it isn’t the point of pedigree. Not for people to buy a couple of random pedigree dogs, breed without any knowledge or experience and flog the puppies online (often to unsuitable homes.)
I have two lovely pedigree dogs. No reason they should have puppies. I don’t know enough to breed and raise a Really good litter.

Prices are outrageous at the moment. I'm in Ireland and dognapping is rife too with so many of them being sent to UK.
We got a gorgeous GSD a couple of months ago from a rescue. DH was walking her a few weeks ago and a guy approached him asking if he'd breed her. FFS she was just rescued from a breeder where she'd churned out pups for a few years until he didn't want her anymore. He's just out for a quick profit....knows nothing about her at all.

I think the increase in price is a good thing. Maybe people will think harder before they take on a puppy and be less likely to abandon them if they have already paid thousand of pounds. Plus it will encourage people to go down the rescue route, and consider breeds that they would have previously overlooked. Saying that I know getting a rescue can be tough when you have small children and other animals, but I don’t think that means puppies should be cheaper. If you can’t afford one then you can’t afford one. Simple.

I bought my puppy at 4 months last October for £250, I want to get him a friend but people are pricing their 4 year+ dogs at at least £1500, it’s ridiculous

It’s proof positive that all breeders are in it for profit and that there isn’t actually any such thing as a reputable breeder.

I think that, aside from genuine puppy farms, you just have to take your pick where to get a puppy from and then be aware that it still might be a scam.

our labrador was £350 back in january

he was 18 weeks when we got him as the owners loved the pups and weren't too fussed over money

I disagree that hyping up the price will discourage genuine dog owners into rescue. It’s more likely that genuine dog owners won’t put the money in and those who just really really really want a lockdown puppy will pay for it but either it will be left on its own all day when they go back to work, or some might end up taking them into rescue.

Remember there are a lot of dogs who end up being neglected rather than dumped, but we put all the emphasis on the ones who dump the dogs in rescue rather than those who keep them but just never walk them or who go out to work all day and leave them. There are far more of those than people who take their dogs to rescue. At least the people who take a dog to a rescue want to give it a chance with someone else.

Personally I wouldn’t rescue because A, the criteria are so strict as to rule practically everyone out of the process, and B, the kinds of dogs who end up in rescue tend to be the kinds that no-one wants either because of their behaviour or their breed.

The rescues need to work on changing their criteria to be more realistic, and they need to ban the import of foreign rescues as we have enough of them in the UK already without importing more with associated health and behavioural problems, many of whom will end up in UK rescues anyway.

I bought my beautiful pedigree dog for £600 about 6 years ago. That was the higher end of the price range at that time. Same breed now are about £2-3K!

I’ll definitely be going down the rescue route next time. I’d love to have my favourite dog breed again, but I’m not prepared to pay so much.

Someone I know bought a cocker from what was believed to be a reputable breeder. Long history of reviews and recommendations etc. She paid £800 for the puppy in March. In April the breeder contacted her and said she would give her back her money to give the puppy back as she wanted to sell it for £2000. .

They’re all in it for the money.

Pick up a newspaper, look up local pet groups - plenty of people looking to rehome pets. Surrendering them to shelter is almost impossible and absolutely the worst case scenario.

@midnightstar66 - there are a few about like that; you could be describing the home my DPuppy came from last year (vulnerable rare breed, home bred by breed enthusiast who has only had 3 litters from 2 bitches in the last decade, keeping going a line with lovely temperaments)

I don’t know if prices for this breed have gone up with lockdown - the most recent ad for puppies I could find online was from 3 years ago (commercial breeders don’t seem to go in for this breed at all)

Just adding first-hand experience from both sides of the coin as a breeder and a pup buyer. I just want to provide a voice for genuine breeders out there who are not out to make huge profits from over-bred dogs or conning people.
My family have bred our favourite breed of dogs for generations and I grew up with family pets who happened to also have litters of puppies from time to time. They were an absolute joy to grow up with and I hope to continue this love of the breed with my own children (and nieces as my sister is also currently breeding from her pet).
I have responsibly bred from my current girl for three litters, her final litter being sold last winter. We used DNA-tested stud dogs and provide hands-on care to the puppies from birth. We take every effort to socialize the pups as part of our own family life and they leave for their new homes in good health and complete vet treatments. There are 4 weeks when I get up at 5am just to make sure the puppies go outside in the garden as part of their house-training. Believe me, I put in the hours. Our eldest dog is now 6.5 years old and we look forward to watching her grow old with our toddler son, she is so good with him. Her last litter was planned after we lost her mother so that I could keep a girl (would have been 4th generation from my original lady). Sadly our final litter only had boy puppies and we sold them on to lovely families who we keep in touch with. We then managed to find a KC-reg girl pup for sale in February and she came to live with us right before lockdown. She was not easy to find as demand was high at that time and most litters advertised would sell out very quickly, we paid £1500 for our girl which wasn't the priciest litter but she had clear DNA tests and was bred from a champion line. I would have paid up to £2000 at the time.
I was in shock at the spiralling prices of puppies after lockdown hit and I realised I would have been paying at least double if we hadn't found our girl in February. I had several contacts from people looking for a puppy and had to tell them that my bitch was retired and it would be autumn before my sister's or mum's dog would have a litter but not everyone wants to wait.
The lady who owns our stud dog explained that people had been buying puppies and then re-listing them for inflated prices. To overcome this, breeders started to increase their prices so that they don't see their pups being sold on and on as commodities. Genuine breeders love their pups and want them to go to forever homes.
There is a lot of work that goes into raising the right dog to breed from, traveling to find a good stud dog, and ensuring both parents are health tested etc before caring for a pregnant dog and then raising their pups. It is time consuming and expensive but we do it because we love the breed, love our dogs, love the puppies and enjoy seeing them make new families happy.
We use pets4homes to advertise our pups because the website will verify your individual litter, won't let you advertise too many litters each year and requires a photo of pups with their parents. It is one of the more reliable sites to find a puppy. We don't advertise our pups until a week before they are ready to go because we are terrified of being targeted by dog thieves. We only give genuine buyers our info to visit when we are ready for people to see the puppies.
I've heard about Facebook scams where people take money for pups that don't exist. This is horrifying and adds to the confusion around where to buy a verified puppy from a genuine breeder. There are so many ways that buying pups has become a distrustful experience and the criminal activities are largely down to the large sums of money that puppies can exchange hands for. I wouldn't feel comfortable even advertising puppies for the inflated prices right now, but I do understand why breeders are trying to prevent unscrupulous people taking advantage of the issues with supply & demand. I also think the way that rescue homes are restrictive in the families who can adopt pets impacts the popularity of puppies. So many dogs available for re-homing are not suitable for families with children or with other dogs and it's understandable why getting a puppy is the route many people go down.
All-in-all the cost of puppies had been impacted by some people's greed during a time of increased demand. But genuine breeders will still be breeding (bitches are healthiest for breeding between 2 and 6 years of age so if you want to breed then you don't want to wait too long) but it may require some patience to find the right pup. Don't rush into anything and speak to breeders to reach into their networks to help you find a pup.