As a breeder I always get inquiries about my puppies. I personally take great pride in every dog I own and every litter I produce. The day to day care of the adult dogs I have or every litter I produce is not a small amount of cost financially by any means. In almost every puppy inquiry I get that one question that is on everyone's minds.
" How much are your puppies" ?
Let me give you all a idea what goes into the factor of the price of your puppy.
The old saying " You get what you pay for " really does come into play when you are looking for a good quality puppy to add to your home. Sure you can get cheaper but sometimes cheap wont get you further ahead down the road. You will end up paying for that in health care and vet bills.
Lets start from that future Sire or Dam to your puppy. We pay for that start somewhere and usually that will come with large financial factors with it . The cost of the dog , Showing or trailing that dog. Showing a dog especially if you hire a handler can cost you alone over $400 + a weekend of showing, Health testing , Food, Day to day medical care, Breed club memberships.. The list goes on. Now imagine putting all this money into a dog just to get it to the point to breed and you get back health results and that dog has failed . Example hips, heart . Now all that money you have invested in this future Sire or Dam is gone and you have to start all over again , Not to mention all the time you have invested that is something you will never get back. Usually in these cases the dog is spayed or neutered and placed in a loving pet family home. Now you are in a negative financial situation , sometimes up wards to $8000+ .
Or you have this wonderful female and you try and try to have puppies and she never can give you puppies. Trust me it happens more then you think. I for one can speak to this, and not to mention the financial burden that goes into this , The heartbreak that you will never be able to carry that females bloodline forward. So again now you have to start over from ground zero .
Here is a chart that shows a rough cost of rearing a litter of puppies to give you a better idea of what goes into it all. This does not even include the breeders time!
The time off from work , time to travel for various reasons.
Travel for Ear cropping which has even become more expensive since no longer being able to crop in Canada , We need to venture South of the border to the USA to perform this service. Some cases we have to drive 15+ hours one way to go to a Cropping Vet.
Travel to go to the stud, With that comes more expense ( Gas, Hotel, food )
Time spent with each individual puppy, Time spent away from our friends and families , Time spent missing holiday events. From the moment those puppies are born I spend 24/7 in the whelping area with mom and pups for at least the first 3 weeks of life. Even after that more time goes into teaching and spending time with the puppies to shape them into a wonderful family member for you.
Now imagine all this and you get 1-2 puppies in your litter or even worse your female comes up empty.
Quality dogs are never cheap! When looking at purchasing a puppy you can't just consider the cost of that puppy, but a breeders overall expenses and time invested to just obtain that litter.
A true breeder is never in this for a huge financial gain , We usually break even if we are lucky or in large loss.
We put our whole heart into this . I personally could not see myself not breeding , The joy I have rearing puppies , And seeing them flourish in their homes makes all the ups and downs worth it.
Hope this gives you some idea what goes into the behind scenes and you can understand why that quality bred puppy costs what it does.
