Price of a dog

when you buy a puppy today thats just for a companion do you ever feel like your paying for the vet bills rather then a nice dog??


Ive notticed so many breeds are worth so much money today I suppose its a good thing in some ways yet I still dont understand how so many dogs wind up in re homing centres after having window shopped for puppies since last november. Its a lot of money to decide that simply you dont want your dog anymore not mention it costs you an arm and a leg to buy one in the first place!

My dogs are not just for companions I compete with them, so the price of them reflects the generations of thought that has gone into breeding them for a specific purpose, health testing them, and competing/testing the stock for see if they are fit for function etc.

If I was buying a puppy then I would want to know that my money was paying for generations of health tests, years of invested time in research, socialisation and careful selection of studs/bitches, that it was ploughed back into the breeding of dogs and providing all the appropriate vet care, nutrition and environmental enrichment of the dogs. I have no objection to a breeder making money from breeding, but to invest back into their breeding program, not to go out and buy the latest flatscreen TV.
Even if it's "just" a companion dog, I, a) selfishly want a dog that's not going to have health issues and cause heartbreak (I know it can still happen, but no point purposely setting myself up for a fall going to a BYB who does no health testing) and b) want to fund these responsible breeders, not the irresponsible ones.

I can see what you mean, the problem is we live in a throw away society and apart from the genuine people who have real reasons to rehome a dog, most people see dogs as something they can just get rid of if they are bored or dont want to put the effort/work in anymore.

I have no objection to a breeder making money from breeding, but to invest back into their breeding program, not to go out and buy the latest flatscreen TV.

So you will only be buying dogs from breeders who can give you this written guarantee will you?!

Good God, when did it become reasonable to dictate where the seller of ANY PRODUCT spent their money?!!

A dog isn't a product to me, so shoot me Sure, they can spend the money on other stuff but I wouldn't support a breeder who's sole intention to breed was for financial reasons.

no... and imo thats a very odd thing to say

But does charging £800-£1,000+ garantee the health of a dog more then a dog being sold for half the price??

Do the health tests really garantee propper health for a dog? Its a big risk for both breeder and buyer to spend so much money. I mean half a decade ago the dogs today would be worth half the value but we still charge extraudinary amounts of money by popular demand today does this make dogs today anymore healthier then back then??

Odds are I'd never buy a puppy - I'm too much of a sucker for a hard luck story (hence having the cat a leg short of a full packet)!

wouldn't support a breeder who's sole intention to breed was for financial reasons.

Well neither do I, all the people I have bought dogs from have bred to improve the breed, and so far have done!

But if they want to buy a flat screen tv with their earnings that is THEIR business, and nothing to do with me!