£1500 for a puppy??? Greedy breeders?

[Stuckinstressville]

Wanted to get my mum her dream puppy of an Italian greyhound bitch as she just divorced and is so Lonely and sad . I can't be there for her 24/7 and she is honestly spiralling into depression , despite joining local clubs and stuff. She can afford to keep a dog but my dad screwed her financially so she needs to love to cheaper area 5 hours away from
Us and her home to afford retirement. Another thread etc .

She idolised her Doberman baby boy who passed 4 Year’s ago and is just about getting to be point where a dog would be lovely but she is is also fussy and would Like an ig.

The thing is the price. AIBU - the breeders are all saying £1500!! For a dog?????? Are they greedy or am I naive ? Sheer greed?or some other rational reason?
Would welcome some pedigree price comparisons.

( I know I know rehome not buy but she would be obsessed by this particular breed and character, this is not a thread on the merits of pedigrees etc pls!)

Could you go halves with her?

I don’t know much about dogs but the trend for huge prices for mongrels probably hasn’t helped matters.

Supply and demand, they’re not an overly common breed so I guess there’s less breeders meaning they can charge more. It’s not uncommon these days for even a fairly common breed of dog which is KC registered to be 1k.

I don’t know anything about dogs, but looking at this from a purely economic viewpoint, I don’t think you can call the breeders ‘greedy’. After all, anyone who sells anything does it to make a profit.

If that’s the going rate then there must be enough demand to justify it. If it was far too much, surely you’d see new breeders enter the market and undercut the existing ones?

Someone at work breeds schnauzers and sells them for 1k, she’s quite well known I think in schnauzer circles and often has a waiting list. Kc registered.

Another friend breeds pugs and cavapoos, typical back yard breeder, no health checks, no Kc register for the pugs and obv not for the cavapoos.....her cavapoos sell for £900 and the pugs for £1200. She has more people wanting them than pups.

Supply and demand. More common breeds I have seen around the 700-1000 mark so it doesn't surprise me to see prices that you quoted. If a breeder is doing everything right and getting all the health tests done then I doubt they make a huge profit (obviously if it's a puppy farm knocking them out it's a different story). It's like everything else people will ask a price that people are prepared to pay.

There is a Italian Greyhound rescue: italiangreyhoundrescuecharity.org.uk/

Even if you don't go down the rescue route there is lots of breed specific information on there.

Could she not adopt a retired greyhound, they are a little bigger but make great pets: www.greyhoundtrust.org.uk/home-a-greyhound

Also dogs are great, but they don't solve all life's problems, if your mum is depressed perhaps she could talk to her GP rather than spending £1500 on a puppy.

Hoiw many is in a litter? Some breeds like the Manchester Terrier are expensive because there are waiting lists for them and litters are so small. I suspect the Italian Greyhound is similar.

How about a rescue Whippet instead? Same daisycutter action and funky knitwear but much cheaper to get.

You would expect to pay something around that for a proper KC registered fully health checked puppy from a legit KC assured breeder. BUT price doesn't mean quality these days, you have to be so so careful picking breeders, for less common breeds (and even more so for the desirable breeds like Pugs and Frenchies).

Would definitely look the rescue route as she is basically looking for a companion so a mega expensive purebred pup shouldn't really the top priority. And if she's suffering with mental health issues, could a tiny puppy destroying the house help or hinder? Sometimes people forget exactly how hard a puppy can really be! Definitely look at breed rescues.
www.thekennelclub.org.uk/services/public/findarescue/Default.aspx?breed=6155

If she definitely wants a purebred puppy, find a Kennel Club Assured breeder that lets you visit several times and you may have to join a waiting list for a litter and pay top whack for it.

I have a crossbreed that cost £1300 (he was a common colour) and other more unusual colour pups in his litter were £1500.

He was from a hobby breeder (although I see the mix generally goes for that much).

It was the best £ we ever spent.

Well they are running a business. It's not greed, the are providing a service and asking market value for it. You aren't entitled to cheap dogs you know.

I can understand rare breeds being worth a lot, and Italian Greyhounds are rare. But I am amazed that anyone would pay such an extortionate sum for a crossbreed! I thought the reason some dogs are expensive was due to their pedigree and ‘pure’ breeding.

I heard just today that French bulldog pups are now $5000 in Australia!

We paid £300 for our KC reg which I thought was a lot at the time. Visited after birth and saw both the parents, they where family pets and it was the first litter.
So not all breeds are this expensive. I can't understand paying that kind of money if you are not into showing or needing a working dog. But I guess people are doing so.

The dog I'm interested in is £2k with a whole bunch of things coming with that. It's reasonable - the breeders have to make a profit, the breed is unusual but in the wrong hands could be trained as a vicious fighting dog so the cost weeds out irresponsible owners and the breed has to be registered abroad as well as her in the U.K.

From your mums point of view a retired greyhound sounds perfect though. No hyperactive puppy destroying the house and a companion.

My dd came in from school talking about her friend's dm who has puppies for sale for £1500. If they aren't sold by New Year she is apparently going to drown them as she can't afford to keep them any longer.
Breeding dogs is a sad sorry world.

I could have bought my cocker for several hundreds less than I did but they didn't have any of the dna tests I wanted done on the parents so I figured it was money well spent.

The thing with cross breeds is that despite their unpopularity on this board due to puppy farms they are hugely popular in RL and thus supply and demand pushes the price up.

OP if you don't want to or can't spend that kind of money and if that is the going rate for the breed of puppy then you will only find them cheaper if you consider rehoming

That's awful Tinselistacky. Are you sure? If so, you should report her.

For an Italian greyhound - that is cheap. I have clients who have paid triple that and more! They’re more common now, but still an expensive dog to buy.
As others have mentioned / perhaps look at greyhound rescue, although they’re ten times the size they make fantastic companion dogs!

Dd was very upset, asked if she got her to half price one could we buy one? She is 10.
Was going to ring rspca for advice today. I know the area and can get her address I think.

All good advice! Thank you!
Will look at Rehoming! Want a reputable breeder too which is hard to assess online .

She is already under gp
Care:) that was my first priority !

My toy poodle was £1200, but the breeder had done all the necessary testing etc to ensure a healthy bitch that wasnt going to pass anything on. It all costs I suppose. I find it ironic that, as a horse owner in my youth I spent more on one tiny puppy than I ever did on a horse. Having said that, I am a bit suspicious if I see cheap poodle pups (or poodle crosses)for sale because I wonder what, if any, proper checks have been done (PRA and the like). Puppies seem to be getting more and more expensive though.

We have a 4 year old mini poodle. 1500 seemed huge. Then I started really looking at the price ranges and what was available for what. Healthy animals cost money to breed and rear. And once you dig down it can seem as though per puppy the breeders are actually making very little. It’s just a shock for some of us because it’s hard to realise this is niche business meets small business fantasy meets capitalism meets people having specific requests and desires for what is hopefully a big part of the family.

Rare-ish breed, small-ish litters (3-5), delicate dogs. It all mounts up, I'm afraid.

But if for this price you are getting a well-bred puppy from health-tested parents, you will have it for 15+ years. £2 a week isn't bad.

Italian Greyhounds aren't cheap dogs to care for. Have you factored that into your sums?

My ex had one, she lives with my parents now as he works full time and I can't afford her. She's a lovely dog, I'd take her myself in a heartbeat but she needs made to measure collars as she's a small example of the breed and pet shops don't sell collars in her size, she needs a high quality, high protein, low grain diet or she loses weight, she needs coats for the winter to stop her getting cold, coats for the summer to stop her overheating, coats for the rain to stop her getting wet and cold (a summer one and a winter one), basically any weather other than mild she needs a coat. Their house has to be kept warm enough for her or she shivers (oh, yeah and she has a house coat for bed to stop her getting cold), they're v fragile breed, so insurance is relatively high for them and they need special mattresses because they're so spindy and fragile and did I mention the coats?

Personality wise, she's a mini greyhound, cat-like, laid back, affectionate and needs little in the way of exercise but greyhounds are slightly more robust (they still need a few coats but not a whole closet full).