I think for me the answer is no, Jake was £25 from a rescue and i wouldn't have swapped him for a million pounds, likewise Boomer was only £80 from a rescue. I will always get rescue dogs so the price will always be a fraction of the cost of a pedigree. I suppose if you show or breed then its a different mater and knowing the bloodline etc will be important and in those cases i'm sure money plays a factor.

I'm lucky in that i'll always be stuck with the mutts and castoffs

Line breeding does notneccessarily mean problems my bitch who lived to 15 was line bred, indeed one of the reasons the kennel did this was because their line mainly lived to a good age. My friends mongrel who had many breeds in her, mum was definitely a multi cross seemed to have inheruted problems from all sides though I suspect some of them were from poor rearing.

Personally I'd rather see breeders charge no more than £100-200 per pup, at least this would prevent people becoming bybs knowing they'll make lots of money.

I know if I only charged this amount for a puppy I'd be giving them away as if you rear puppies well & use the best dog available that is compatable you wouldn't break even at this price.

Not necessarily but likely. When a breeder line breeds they have no idea what health problems they are bringing to the surface no matter how much research they've put into the lines. There are over 500 hereditary diseases in dogs, only a very small number of these can be health tested for. Line breeding increases the chances of the diseases that haven't been tested for surfacing, not to mention the knock on effect of inbreeding depression.

Breeding shouldn't be about making money. Breeding is a hobby, hobbies cost money.

For me, money never came into it and I would never let it sway my own judgement. We wanted a ridgie, we looked around til we found a breeder we liked and we never discussed money til he was 7wks old. Some people would say that was daft and maybe it was but the price would have made no difference.
So no for me money doesn't guarentee anything.

I purchased kai my shiba - from a local paper for £70.... looked for an hour on the computer before i went to see him 8 years later - very very healthy dog - touch wood.

Jess my newfoundland - i did so much research it was unbelievable. Talking to friends and well established breeders for months prior to chosing my breeder and then drove from bristol to scotland to get her and parted with £1,200 for her.

She has not had one month of free illness, and at nearly 2 years old we have spent £8,000 in vet fees. As i sit here now she is on her back, legs in the air asleep complete with her elizabethan collar and bald patches from her itching.

Her 10 generation pedigree shows me everything i need to now, her parents had fantastic hip scores and heart test etc. Everytime jess walks past me, if i rest my hand on her bum i can feel her hips crunch togeather, so somewhere it all went wrong....

got to just add though......because of these problems i was offered a "free-be" from the breeder.....called Bianca And she is just perfect.

Sometimes i just think its the luck of the draw really....

Of course luck will always come into it, nothing in life is guaranteed. Sometimes you'll be unlucky and buy a well bred dog and that dog will be sickly and vice versa. I got my first ESS from a farm as a child for £75, she lived until she was 15 with very little ill health. On the other hand I got a mutt from a rescue centre and he was one of the most unhealthy dogs I've ever had, meaning he spent a lot of his time ill and also costing me an absolute fortune in vets bills right through his life (. Defintely luck of the draw in some cases, however.....

I really do believe that if you get what you pay for the majority of cases, as long as you do your research.

To me the amount a pup costs is closely related to how much time an effort is put into producing the litter. I will charge more for my pups than your average litter in the paper as I will have spent a lot of time researching pedigrees, getting health tests done before breeding and then a massive amount of time invested in ensuring the pups are well socialised before going to their new homes. This compared to your average litter advertised in the paper that more than likely doesn't do any of these things!

Yes you will always get exceptions to the rule, but 9 times out of ten, imo, you will get what you pay for (as long as you know your breed and breeder).

Researching should always be undertaken and most times will set you on a good footing. But as I said people shouldnt go into it thinking the higher price will mean you will get them a dog with less problems but hopefully the research people do will show them what is a decent/acceptable price and not be lured into paying over the odds for any type of dog.

Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't, sometimes it's just down to pot luck, the best breeder on the planet could breed a really sickly dog, despite health tests e.t.c and a byb could breed a dog that never has a problem in it's life. You can only do what you think is right and lessen the odds but the chance is still there that you will get a poor dog even from a good breeder, plus, a lot of byb now are charging more than good breeders are so that throws a spanner in the works too...

Not always no - there is less of a chance of a well bred dog developing inherited conditions, especially if you go to a concientious breeder who performs all the relevant health tests (and more importantly uses the results to inform their breeding!) however as has been stated, puppy farmers and unscrupulous breeders tend to jump on the bandwagon and sell their pups for the same if not more than reputable breeders do.