How much does a puppy really cost?

(Clique aqui para a versão portuguesa)

People often complain to a breeder about his puppies' price. They often say “but if I go to breeder X his puppies are much cheaper”.

Truth is, people seldom realize the real costs of properly raining a litter.

As a family member thought a few years ago – “Oh, that is a great business… Let’s see, each bitch has X puppies, twice a year, each costing Y euros… Wow, that’s a gold mine!” Until I explained it wasn’t quite like that…

How much does it cost to breed a litter?

Let’s do a small math exercise. Let’s assume a medium sized breed (with which I’m more familiar with) and 6 puppies a litter.

Direct and quantifiable costs in raising a litter regard:
•    adequate and high-quality food for mother an puppies,
•    proper husbandry and health care for mother an puppies,
•    microchiping,
•    clerical procedures (registries),
•    miscellaneous material (bowls, toys for the puppies’ physical and mental stimulation…),
•    stud fees.

Thus, if we add up all the minimum costs, we get the overall cost of the litter*:

Raising a litter                                                                                                      Cost (€)
Mother’s food (2nd half of the pregnancy + 2 months post-partum)                                 200
Puppies’ food (up to 3 months)                                                                                   200
Mother’s worming                                                                                                       30
Puppies’ worming                                                                                                       30
Puppies’ vaccinations (3 shots each)                                                                          200
Microchips                                                                                                                 90
Registries                                                                                                            123.50**
Miscellanea (toys, etc.)                                                                                              50
Stud fees                                                                                                                500    
                                                                                             Total                   1423.50
                                                                              Cost per puppy                    237.25
    *This estimate is valid only in Portugal; different countries have different costs
** Portuguese breeds pay half this amount; some breeds or varieties are totally or partially excused of these costs


These amounts regard medium/high quality food, not necessarily premium food, and medium quality consumables (toys, etc.). They were assessed based on the combined experience of several breeders of medium-sized dogs.
Mind you, this is an estimate of the prices a well-established breeder can get, through deals with dog food brands and veterinarians! They are well below public retail prices for most items!!
A person who just breeds his pet dog and needs to buy his food at stores and use a veterinary hospital for treatment and vaccination will have much higher costs!

Stud fees are possibly the hardest to assess in this estimate. They vary from breeder to breeder and according to the merits of the chosen stud. It may even be 2 to 3+ times higher.

Also, these numbers only occur in a perfect world. A world in which there are no problems during whelping, a vet or caesarian aren’t required, there are no problems after birth, there’s no need to bottle-feed or supplement puppies. For example, there are some breeds where, due to their anatomy, most puppies are born by c-section.
All of these situations will considerably increase the litter’s costs.

Costs of the keeping the mother

If breeding dogs was a business, then puppy sales would at least cover the dam’s costs throughout the year, right? So, which are these values?

1 adult yearly maintenance                                              Cost (€)
Food                                                                                    540
Vaccinations                                                                          50
Worming                                                                               20
Miscellanea (leashes, collars, bowls, etc.)                               50    
                                                                       Total           660
                                                       Cost per puppy           110

Once again, this is in a perfect world (does it even exist??), in which the dam has no health problem during the year.

What’s the minimum cost of a puppy?

So, based on the values above, we can now estimate the minimum cost of a puppy raised with basic food and husbandry care:
   
Puppy’s minimum cost                                           Cost (€)
Puppy’s part in the litter costs                                   237.25
Puppy’s part in the mother’s maintenance                  110.00 
                                                               Total        347.25

Quite bellow what several breeders ask for? Yeah, but these values only occur in a perfect world (with no emergencies throughout the year nor during whelping and raising the puppies) and with backyard breeding, in which we just put a male and a female together (you can read more about different breeder types here and here). And they obviously do not allow for the possibility of profit (i.e., for the breeder to make a living out of breeding dogs)!

Let’s now see what they DON’T include…

What was left out…

The above amounts:

•    Do NOT include the costs of acquiring the breeding animals
Depending on the breed – its rarity, size, ease of breeding, required health testing – and on the quality of the individual – its type, ancestry, potential –, acquiring a potential future breeder may be an expensive investment.

•    Do NOT include the costs of assessing the breeding animals’ performance/quality (morphology and/or work trials)
Many people believe that as they only want a pet, they don’t need to go to a breeder who competes in trials with his dogs, or who has show or work champions. Nothing could be further from the truth! Competing in morphology events, and achieving certain minimum results, is the only way to make sure the dogs really resemble their breed. For example, I know of dogs with long pedigrees that don’t have the slightest resemblance to their supposed breed, apart from their size. Also, as in these events certain character flaws (namely excessive shyness or aggressiveness) are penalized, this also allows for a greater confidence that the pups will at least have a moderately stable character. As for competing in breed-adequate working trials, where applicable, that also ensures that the animals continue to exhibit breed-typical behavior.
Attending these events is not cheap, especially if done regularly, but it is an additional assurance regarding the potential quality of the bred individuals.

•    Do NOT include the costs of screening for health or genetic problems
Quite honestly, if the breeder says he doesn’t need to screen because he never saw anything wrong with his dogs, run!! We have long passed the time when this argument would work.
Nowadays we know that some diseases can only show at late stages of the animal’s life, but with serious implications for his welfare. Others, polygenic (caused by several genes working together), need the right gene match to occur. In others yet, the parent may be a carrier not showing the disease, but when bred to another carrier s/he will generate affected pups.
For some diseases no screening methods are known, and there’s nothing much one can do apart from an in-depth pedigree research and avoiding breeding to animals known or suspected to be affected.
For other diseases there are no genetic tests available, but there are screening tests, which should be done one or more times throughout the animal’s life.
For some other diseases the responsible gene(s) has(have) been discovered, so it is possible to test animals for it, even at a very early age.
Of course, all of this has costs. For example, a “simple” hip dysplasia screening may cost as much as 300€. In the Portuguese Water dog, the commonly required screening for an individual may add up to 800€ - all without an assurance that he will be bred, in case he doesn’t have the desired results.

•    Do NOT include the costs of taking the bitch to the sire
A serious breeder will not only (nor always) breed to his male. He will search for the best fit for his female, in order to try to get the best results possible – whether that male is on the next street, on the other side of the country or on another country. Of course, taking the bitch to the sire, or collecting and transporting semen if the litter need to be bred by artificial insemination, has its costs.

•    Do NOT include unexpected problems throughout the year
Any person dealing with several animals, or even a single one, knows that no matter how careful you are, there are always unexpected problems – wounds, infections, diseases – that need to be properly dealt with.
They also do not include failed matings, for whatever reason, which lead to a failed breeding season.

•    Do NOT include the costs of keeping the other dogs
Even if he was several breeding age animals, a responsible breeder will not breed them every year, and even less at every season. He will breed when he finds a match he believes will be beneficial for the breed and has enough potential puppy homes lined up. This means that, every year, some of his dogs will not breed. But that doesn’t they won’t be fed and cared for, just like any other dog!

•    Do NOT include the costs of breeder’s work
If breeding was indeed any other business, you’d expect for the breed to be financially compensated for his work like any other worker, right? And there’s plenty of work to go around – taking proper care of the animals, feeding them, keeping them clean and healthy, taking care of the puppies, physically and mentally exercise adults and puppies… We’re talking about many hours of weekly work, often stolen from rest and family time, which rarely (if ever!) are considered in the overall balance.

Cheap is expensive!

 I have showed you the minimum costs of breeding a dog without any concern for its quality. After that I have mentioned some fundamentals which will raise puppies’ prices – but also take their morphology, behavior and health to much higher standards, thus making them better prospects.

When you are looking for a puppy and you see ads of puppies of the same breed for sale at 50€ or at 500€, think hard about what the cheaper puppy isn’t receiving!
Remember that cheap will most likely be expensive, both financially and emocionally!

Carla Cruz
www.aradik.net


Did you like this post? Then feel free to leave us a comment and share it with your friends. Thank you!

So you want to be a breeder?

(Clique aqui para a versão portuguesa)

A few weeks ago I was contacted by a girl asking me countless questions about my puppies and their husbandry. I am the first to encourage potential puppy owners to ask all sorts of questions, but something started smelling funny. When I asked her about it, she answered she was asking all those questions because she would like to be a breeder. This has left me thinking about it…

What does it mean to be a breeder? Does one “want to become a breeder” as one wants to become a teacher, a doctor, etc.?

Who is a breeder?

 In its Regulations of the Portuguese Studbook, the Portuguese Kennel Club defines a “breeder” quite simply as “the owner of the bitch when she whelps”. This is obviously a broad and objective definition, more than enough for its role in pedigree issuing.

However, it tells us nothing about the goals of the breeders, which are in essence their main differentiation. I wrote before on this issue, you can read it by clicking here.

On one hand, there are those who breed with an explicit commercial goal, aiming to get their income through the production of puppies for sale.
Pragmatically, there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with this, as long as the animals are kept under the proper conditions. However, on order to maximize income, “shortcuts” are often taken, namely in regarding health care and screening; feeding quality; morphological, behavioral and/or functional assessment; breeding frequency; age the puppies are sold; etc. Rather than “breeders”, it might be more correct to call these people “producers”.

On the other hand, there are those who breed because they have a bitch (or male) and, for any excuse reason, at a given phase of the dog’s life or regularly, decide to breed a litter, without a defined reason or goal to achieve.

Finally, there are the real Breeders, those with a capital B. They are typically people who hadn’t even thought about being a breeder. They’re people who fell in love with a breed, who got some dogs first and foremost for their own pleasure, who committed themselves to study everything they could about the breed – behavior, function, health and/or genetic problems, breeding lines, etc. -, who often adopted the dog fancy “as a hobby (show and/or working trials).
They are people for whom breeding comes as a natural continuation of this passion and the knowledge about their breed they acquired over the years, always trying to improve it and get increasingly better animals. When they breed, they do it as a very thought-out action, aiming to get one or more dogs for themselves; selling puppies is mainly a “by-product” of this quest. They invest a lot on their dogs and litters and rarely (if ever!) manage to make a profit out of breeding.

Should dogs breed at least once in their life?

 

The myth that dogs (both males and females) should breed at least one in their life, so as they don’t get miserable/frustrated/insane, is still quite common!

This idea is maybe due to the fact that, as dogs grow up and achieve maturity, it is common to see them trying to hump chairs, sofas and even people’s legs, regardless of them being their owner’s or not. This does not mean, as many think, that the dog needs to breed or that he is trying to dominate his owner. It just means, quite simply, that the several sexual behaviors are starting to integrate and coordinate as a coherent functional chain.

As for the females, it is enough to think that in social wild canids in stable packs, most females defer breeding to the dominant female, so lack of reproduction does not affect them. Furthermore, any pregnancy in any species is always an additional stress and risk, which can indeed affect the animal’s quality of life.
Also, as far as we know, dogs are not capable of deep though moments; they cannot look back to their more or less distant past or future and think “Oh, how I would like to be a mother/father!”

The “miracle” of life

One of the most common excuses arguments used by those who breed their bitch without a defined goal is that it is important for their children to see the “miracle” of birth and life.

Well, I hope they are also prepared to teach their children about the “miracle” of the emergency trip to the vet if something goes wrong during whelping. And to teach them about the “miracle” of death – because even if nothing goes wrong during the birth and the female doesn’t die (it is always a risk to consider!), it is common that one or more puppies die during the first few days post-partum, due to a number of reasons.

What to do about the puppies?

 

If you are breeding because you want a puppy from your bitch/male, what to do to the rest of the puppies? Because hardly only you one puppy will be born…
If breeding because “it is important that children know how a birth occurs”, what to do to the puppies?
How many of us haven’t received, by e-mail or through social networks, forwarded messages from well-meaning friends, saying that “X puppies belonging to breed Y need to find an owner during next week or they will be put down”?

If you don’t have some previously arranged homes for your puppies, why are you breeding in the first place?
Are you prepared to explain to your children why you showed them the “miracle” of birth and then dumped the puppies somewhere or put them down because no one wanted them and you don’t have space/conditions/enough money to keep them?

Nowadays, even well established breeders, often with reserved puppies, are having increased difficulties in homing their dogs; many people show an interest but don’t follow through, others cancel their reservations due to (un)expected changes in their lives. For those who are not known in the breeding circuit, it is even difficult to find good homes for their puppies. Well, at least for those who take care in placing their puppies in homes that will not abandon them at the first "excuse" “problem”.

Health is important

It is known that dogs, according to their breed and/or size, are more or less prone to certain diseases. Even if their parents don’t exhibit them themselves, they may carry genes for some of them, and produce affected offspring if mated to other carriers; they may also be affected but not show them because they are still young (some diseases only show at later stages of life).

A person who only wants to breed for the sake of it will usually not worry about the possibility of producing sick dogs (after all, we always expect the best, we never think about what could go wrong, isn’t it?). Actually, some do it even knowing their dog has some kind of problem, just because it’s their favorite and they want offspring from him/her.

However, a serious breeder will naturally try to avoid breeding potentially sick puppies. How? By examining their potential breeding dogs, whether through genetic testing (if the genes for the diseases in cause have already been discovered) or by screening tests (trying to assess if the dog has clinical symptoms of the disease, even if they don’t show them openly).

Don’t think that, because you have a mongrel dog, or are breeding dogs of different breeds, you don’t need to worry about this. After all, the genes are the same throughout the whole species, even if the frequency of their alleles may vary. For example, large breed dogs are more prone to hip dysplasia, whether or not they’re purebreds. Breeding dogs belonging to two different breeds is not a reason not to test your animals; if both breeds are prone to the same disease(s), the puppies will not miraculously stop being affected just because they are crossbred!

Breeding takes effort and commitment!

Even if everything goes well, breeding isn’t just about putting a male and a female together, giving birth to the puppies, letting them grow up and hand them over to other people. It is an activity requiring time and dedication, so the puppies may have the best possible start.

It is necessary to watch the birth, to try to ensure there are no complications and the mother takes proper care of the puppies. It is necessary to watch, over the following weeks, if the puppies are suckling enough, if they are growing up well and if it is necessary to supplement them.
It is necessary to stimulate the puppies, physically and behaviorally, getting them used to different situations, sounds, smells, animals and people, so they grow up happy and emotionally stable.

It is necessary to weed out potential puppy owners, trying to ensure the future owner is capable of dealing with what can be expected from the breed’s typical behavior and trying to match individual characters of owners and puppies.

Breeding dogs does not take pity of the bitch’s owner chores. Is the mother incapable of taking care of the puppies for any reason (disease/death/insufficient milk/rejection)? It is up to the breeder to nurse them every 2 hours, day and night. Are you ill, depressed or having a family crisis? Tough, the puppies need to eat! Do you have a 9-18 h job and no one at home? Tough, the puppies need to eat! If you took the responsibility of bringing a litter of puppies to this world, we must also take the responsibility of raising it properly, even when their mother cannot or will not do it.

Decisions and dilemmas are part of the daily life

 

And what to do with that weakling, the puppy who would not normally survive? Should you try to save it at any cost, even knowing that in the long run that may negatively influence the breed’s viability and sturdiness (when latter on you breed with dogs that “shouldn’t” have survived)? Should you let it die, as that is what would have happened in a normal situation (but in a normal situation the bitch probably wouldn’t even bred)?

There is not a correct answer, a single or easy answer, but this is the type of moral decisions and dilemmas a breeder faces in each litter…

Do you still want to breed?

Breeding dogs and watching them grow up is indeed an unforgettable experience! It demands a lot of time and commitment, but when everything goes well, the benefits (for the breeder and the future owners) outweigh the concerns.
But you need to be prepared to the complications, something most people don’t like to think about and for which an inexperienced person (and sometimes even an experienced one) is usually unprepared for.

Think carefully if you want to breed your dog (male or female), ponder well on the reasons why you want to do it and think about what to do to the puppies (yes, this is also the stud owner’s responsibility, not just the bitch’s!). Most times it is better, financially and emotionally, to spay/neuter your dog (to avoid undesired mating and the troubles that come with it) and leave breeding for serious passionate breeders, who are willing to sacrifice themselves so each puppy born may be the best possible and lead a happy life from the beginning.


Did you like this post? Then feel free to leave us a comment and share it with your friends. Thank you!

Breeding goals

(Clique aqui para a versão Portuguesa)

At ringside conversations, I occasionally hear breeders whining they don’t know what type is preferred in their breed and that their breed club should issue guidelines about that.
I confess this type of commentaries always gives me the chills. For several reasons…

Breed standards

Breed standards are vague enough in their descriptions to allow for different interpretations and, as such, for different breeding lines – all while their individuals are still clearly identifiable as belonging to their breed.
This is actually beneficial, as it allows for different breeders to pursue their goals without risking breeding in close inbreeding, which would unquestionably happen if everyone started breeding the same type (line) of dogs.

Barbado da Terceira Female Open Class judging at Lisbon's 118th International Show.  You can see several types, but all dogs are clearly identifiable as being Barbado da Terceira.

The role of breed clubs

Should breed clubs issue guidelines about which type of dogs is preferred in their breed?
Breed clubs should issue procedure guidelines their associates would follow to try to breed litters as healthy and close to the standard as possible, namely regard health screening and minimum results at conformation, work and/or sociability tests. An extremely important role they could accomplish regards producing an illustrated standard, with images and photos showing desirable and undesirable traits.
But should they influence a breeder’s breeding work? There are proper places to evaluate the merits or lack thereof of this work, namely conformation and working trials!

A breeder’s goals

If the breeder doesn’t know what kind of dog he should breed, what is he doing breeding??
Breeding should be a natural expansion of a passion for the breed, of its in-depth study, of getting to know the several lines it has and, inherently, of choosing a preferred type!

Should “breeding X litters a year” be a breeder’s goal? Or should the goal be trying to get the dog he idealized as the correct type?

How will he breed if he doesn’t have an obvious goal to achieve? How will he choose the type of dog to complement his bitch’s flaws and virtues if he doesn’t know what he wants to complement?

X litters a year should be, at most, a by-product of trying to achieve a defined goal.

Breeding… or producing dogs?

Some “breeders” will merely breed the same couple over and over again. They’re doing nothing more than flooding the “market” with “photocopies” which, pretty as they may be, will quickly cease to contribute towards their set goal within the breed as a whole – this, of course, if they have a set goal! And what will happen when one member of the couple dies? They will have to start over again, without a progressive improvement work that will ensure, as much as possible, a relative homogeneity, within their preferred type, throughout the generations.

Besides, with so many closely related dogs competing, it is easy for the public to assume that is the ideal type, when it’s nothing more than the “flooding” of a line of dogs (can we call it “line” when it is nothing more than repeated litters from the same breeding couple??)

The search for immediate satisfaction…

Not knowing what type of dog he wants, the breeder mates his bitch to the winning dog of the moment, under the assumption that if the dog is winning so much he must be good. However, in dog shows as in so many things in life, fads and trends often dictate who is winning and when. And fads are often short-lived. Considering it takes at least a couple of years since you decide to breed with a certain dog until you have an adult dog capable of competing on an equal level with the rest of its breed (specially in medium/large breeds and/or with exuberant coat), there’s a serious risk that by then the “fad” is different and the “champion” we were so “committed” to breed may already be an “undesirable” type. In each litter we will have to start over again, towards the “goal” of breeding the type that is winning right now.

Not only that, he is also potentially creating problems regarding the breed’s genetic diversity – if we all breed with the same wining dog, unavoidably we will be increasing the breed’s inbreeding level!

…vs. long term results

On the other hand, if you have an ideal type in our mind, you can gradually try to step forward towards your concrete goal. Sometimes you may get better litters, sometimes worse, but you will always be thinking at least one or two generations ahead, searching for the mating that will take you one step closer to our goal.

You may or may not be breeding the current wining type, but regardless of show results, there will always be one satisfaction – while continuing to work within the breed standard, you will be breeding the dog YOU like! Shouldn’t that be the goal?!


Carla Cruz
www.aradik.net


Did you like this post? Then feel free to leave us a comment and share it with your friends. Thank you!