advise needed regarding getting a dog....

[glaskham]

myself and my husband would love to get a dog, we aren't poor, but we're far from well off....we're sticking to a budget, but get to go for a few meals/days out a month with the kids (so paying for 4 really inc what the kids eat!!) and we can do luxury things still....we have 3 cats who go out, so we dont really see them exept for food time and bedtime.....

we have seen a labrador puppy (14weeks) free to a good home in our area, we went to see him on friday evening and we've fallen in love with him, and are taking him for a walk today to see how we get on with him,we're away this weekend so i gives us this week to amke our mind up, before taking him home a week today if all goes well. we're also hoping we can bring him to our house for a day to see how he ets on with the kids and our cats, and how well he fits in with our family.....we dont want to make the wrong decision as the poor puppy would be passed from pillar to post!!

so basically what i'm asking is what are the general costs of a dog, we know about food, bedding, leads etc, he's had his first jabs, but then what are the jabs he needs from then onwards, what age does he need them and roughly how much are they?

we want to know the costs before taking him in so we're getting no nasty surprises....we're hoping he could live on a budget of about £50 a month to cover food and any other things he may need over the year...is this a reasonable amount?

Yearly boosters. I'm not sure on the cost of them cause I'm in the channel islands, but I'd say no more then £40?
You also need monthy wormer and flea/lice/tick killer. Its usually bought in 3month packs for about £20.

I would say definately get pet insurance, even though it would take up a biggish chunk of your budget.You won't regret paying a penny of it.

A crate is a good initial outlay - they are brilliant. Its somewhere safe for him to retreat when family all gets a bit much, and you can settle him in there with a kong when you go out so your house doesn't get eaten (which would be my guess for why he's being sold on)

Good luck, and if you get him I want pics!!

get insurance! We have literally saved hundreds with our dog. We get ours from Tesco at about £15 a month and never had problems with them paying out. They don't pay for routine jabs et though.

I would look at type of food they will be eating and work out from there. My dh gives dog fresh chicken so quite expensive in our house!

p.s. be sure why they are getting rid of the puppy, that it doesn't have behaviour difficulties also make sure you have all the papers and you could even get him checked out by a vet. Puppies are alot of work and our dog took about 2 years to really settle down from being a bouncy puppy so as long as there's bags of energy in your house its fine.

jabs are not every year any more once initial course is up and running - I think the advice is to do it on a 3 yearly cycle so that's a few £ saved. you can have blood tests to check immunity every so often if you are worried.

you could probably get insurance for about £10 a month, this is a must-have as dogs can have bizarre accidents not to mention illness.

lots of people don't use commercially prepared flea preparations, I do because am too lazy to research the alternatives but you can find out about those. the vet will try to sell you stuff you can get more cheaply from the internet or even Pets At Home - such as drontal, frontline/pro meris and so on.

feeding costs will vary of course, according to what you choose - as long as you use a puppy food I don't suppose it matters a great deal whether it is royal canin/hills or ASDA own brand. just be wary of changing it too abruptly or too often.

why is the puppy needing a new home already?

£50 sounds reasonable, but it depends what you choose to feed him.

Don't forget about pet insurance

They only need jabs once a year after their initial ones, I believe thay are about 25 - 30 pounds

The big expense for us is when we go on holiday. I found a great place for them to stay which is not a kennel, but its about £13 a day - most kennels are more expensive (in this area anyways)

Are you home lots? From what I know about labradors, they really love to chew, so be prepared!

Is your car big enough? Do you have flooring where he will be coming in and out? (ie is your house fairly wipeable?)

Will walking him fit into your lifestyle? Do you already walk alot?

He may be perfectly behaved when he visits, but things will be different once he settles in he will need alot of training = that bit will be up to you!
I found dog training REALLY hard with our first dog, and she wasn't toilet trained totally until she was 6 months (some dogs aren't)

Thats some of the bad stuff, but I love dogs/puppies etc. They def give more than they take away!

Good Luck

well i have 2 under 4's in the house who both just loved him when we visited him on friday, so plenty of energy to keep going with him....

he's needing a new home because the woman who bought him her 7yo son is highly allergic, the puppy is currently living with the womans mum (who's house we visited him at) but she has 2 yorkies and he's a bit too big and playful for them so she can't keep him herself. when we visited the puppy the said grandson was there and he toutched the dog once and his hand flared up all red and lumpy so i know it is a real story!!

the woman who is currently looking after him is very sad to see him go as she thinks he's an amazing dog, but with her other 2 doesn't feel its fair on either of them.

pic of henry here

vacua - I didn't know that about the 3 year jabs. Do you know what age they can be when they start this? My three year old greyhound is due...

I have a spaniel and spent at least 3 years with mangled shoes! She is alot older now but does still chew the odd toy of ds's!

my greyhound took all the eyes off my sons stuffed animals

She has also wrecked a leather chair, and damaged our old couch.

I wish we had never allowed her on the couch, but when she was a puppy it was soo cute..... we are now trying to re train her not to. Methinks it may have been easier 3 years ago...

oh, x posts with vacua and purple duck....

i was hoping i could get a large sack of food from pets at home for around £15-20 and hope it lasted about 6-8weeks mixed with a bit of tinned dog food....

i am a stay at home mum so am home almost all day (with 2 20min trips to nursery with ds a day) i do tend to walk everywhere, and want to do more walking- i was hoping i could walk him in the evenings on my own and hoped that i could self-train a lot then.

our car is big enough for him to fit in, and we hope to change to a different car with even more room for him soon (with or without a dog this was the plan)

our back door is off the kitchen which has lino flooring so easily wiped, we have a big 30-40ft garden, mostly lawned, we have a mortgage so no risk of moving within rented and not being allowed pets or anything.

and as for holidays my sister lives at our house when we go away anyway, looks after our cats for us, and wouldn't mind caring for a dog aswell.

x posted with a million replies then!!

yes my main worry is the chewing as my dc have an awful lot of toys, the smaller ones that would easily fit in a dogs mouth all get put away into the toy box, and dh wants him to sleep in our room if we get him- he's a big softy when it comes to dogs!! and he's already housetrained....so i dont need to do that hard work, but we are expecting a few accidents in the initial stages of settling in....but i helped my mum train her dog a few motnhs ago, so know how to do a lot of that anyway.... I grew up around dogs, so am fully aware of how to handle and train a dog....i used to walk the family gods as a teenager, so know the responsibilities there too.

Sorry if we sound like we are interrogating you

You sound like you have it all sorted...

In that case - you have our blessing

LOL at "family gods".. sounds about right....

Good luck, and have fun. I am a bit . I would love a third, but dh says no. Although, he didn't want one and now i regularly catch him cooing at her, and loving her up

He's gorgeous - looks just like my dog (on profile) used to -

word of warning on the sleeping in the room thing - its VERY offputing having sex with a dog staring at you....

LOL mm
dog1 "harumpfs" at us then slinks off downstairs, giving us bad looks. She gets annoyed that we are disturbing her rest

dog2 just scampers under the bed

btw glaskam, how'd it go?

went well....though we've got home and ds has a rash all up the arm he was stoking him with....does this sound like an allergy?...its all lumpy and he says its itchy....blimin hope not!!

God, dare I admit it, sometimes she jumps on the bed and tries to join in!

You must, must get puppy training classes, unfortunately most dogs are given away because they are not socialised properly. They never develop the understanding of their status in the pack and develop bad behaviours.

Think it cost £195 for the course (South-east so expensive)

It's a enormous commitment but I wouldn't change a day spent with my dog

and insurance is a must - my dog (a springer) has had £1100 in the last three years spent on stitches from glass cuts to pads and leg (requiring general anesthetic) so the £15 a month we pay is very important

glaskham...um, yes that sounds like a rash maybe try again in a few days?

mm - Whenever we kiss, our little dog tries to jump up and stick his tongue in our mouths. He will literally run in from another room.

But anything more than kissing and off he goes. Don't you just crack up laughing??

well we've planned for him to spend the day with us on weds, so we'll see if his rash clears up before then and if it flairs up again we'll probably have to give him a miss....which would be very upsetting as we're all in love with him, i still do worry a little about the chewing, so we're getting a couple of toys for him for weds, hoping it will distract him, and then if that goes well and no rash then he'll be coming home to live with us on monday!! wuhoo!!!

Just don't leave any shoes near him when you go out or anything that smells of you, I lost a pair of copper Carvelas and was gutted - good tough chewy bones and things are good though - really hope your ds isn't allergic....it does sound like it though unfortunately. He may get tolerant and it can cure the allergic reaction but I don't know how long this would take or if it would even work...

Just as an aside - ds used to be allergic to cats. It wasn't a problem, as we don't have a cat. Then he got homeopathic treatment for hayfever, and now he is fine with cats.