As mentioned already, supply and demand, location, rarity of the breed, numbers of pups being produced (might be a sought after breed but dams only have small litters), quality of the breeding...

There seems to be a big variation in prices of the most popular breeds. I'll take Labs as an example, because I'm familiar with them. £250-300 (or less) would likely get you a pup from a pet breeding, no papers, random stud dog sire, no health testing. Double that to £600 and that is typically what the good breeders who show and work and health test charge. Litters from very prolific kennels may go for even more.

Whereas, my relatively more unusual breed are always (from what I have seen thus so far) sold for the same price. I dare say if one or two breeders in a numerically small breed put their prices up, all others would follow suit.

Parker's breeder charges £950 but as they are a rare breed and she imports dogs from overseas and health checks them and knows the temperament of the dogs if I had this sort of money I would rather pay the extra than get one that was cheaper like the one I saw recently and I really wasn't sure if it was a Kerry Blue or not as it looked more like a Spanish water dog! It was also very feisty and when I asked the owner about the Dam he said that was quite bad tempered with other dogs apparently from what other people had told him who knew the bitch. Sometimes you get what you pay for and if I was buying a pedigree dog I would want it to resemble the blueprint of what the breed was supposed to look like personally.

I would imagine it depends on various things.

Popularity of the breed, how many breeders of a specific breed there are in that geographical area, reputation of the breeder maybe, would all have some part to play in it

And greed of some of the breeders

hi

i advise clients,when they have chosen the breed they want,call the breed club secretary and ask them what the price of said breed is(health tested of course)...then u can weed out the money grabbers.
what i dont get is crossbreeds being priced higher than purebreeds

i also think the higher prices put off people who just like the look of the dog and dont do any research.

i dont... i think it sometimes makes them more desirable

Yes, I agree. I know of responsible people , who refuse to pay high prices for certain breeds but would make great 'owenrs' . Don't get me wrong, these are people that have bought dogs, but not their first choice. So who is missing out?

I've noticed, with working labs and spaniels, that generally, labs sell for more down south, than they do in Scotland, and its the opposite for spaniels, they go for more in Scotland than they do down South, even with the docking laws. Having had conversations with people about this, we came to the conclusion, its to with the type of ground that people are working their dogs on, so as spaniels tend to be more in demand in Scotland, people charge more for them, and the same with labs down south. But I know plenty of people that have struggled to sell a litter of labs in Scotland and someone else with a litter of spaniels, that are still getting phone calls asking for a pup, even though, they had the litter ages ago!

In our breed the price can range alot, from what type of breeder you go to, if you want hairless or puff, what area the breeder is in, what lines they follow!! and apart from that some breeders just like to con the public..

I also believe that the expensive prices seem to attract a bigger market, maybe they think there getting something special? who knows but the breeders and laughing all the way to the bank....