How much do dogs cost?

Humphrey10

Jesswithwings wrote: »

(whilst I like the idea of adoption, I have very young children and I want to know exactly the upbringing the dog has had before I can bring it into my home).

I would have thought an adult dog would be better if you had children, then you would know the temperament of the dog and not have to deal with an annoying destructive puppy.

kjmtidea

Humphrey10 wrote: »

I would have thought an adult dog would be better if you had children, then you would know the temperament of the dog and not have to deal with an annoying destructive puppy.

I got my springer spaniel when he was 8 months old, he was a rescue (in a roundabout way) and as cute as tiny little puppies look, I am definitely glad that we skipped that stage :rotfl:.

We also have 4 young children and haven't had any problems with our dog, it's the kids that are the problem! My 4 year old has a terrible habit of walking around with his hands in the dog mouth :eek:

Humphrey10

kjmtidea wrote: »

My 4 year old has a terrible habit of walking around with his hands in the dog mouth :eek:

They do do strange things with dogs. The first thing my ~2 year old (at the time) sister did when she saw my 10 year old dog was hold her face gently in both hands, and kiss her right on the lips/nose. Her expression! My dog was clearly the most wondrous thing in all existence! (It was hilarious, my dad runs to the sink to wash his hands if the dog so much as breathes on him, and here's his daughter kissing the dog full on, lol!).

A puppy could be far less tolerant of such behaviour, with an adult rescue dog you can go and meet them before you decide which one, and if necessary you can go and pester them all then choose the one that doesn't retaliate!

bwhomeresponse

[QUOTE=Sally A;49480165

On the upside, a dog will always love you if you treat it correctly, will be quiet when you want quiet moments, and always be glad to see you without sarcastic backhand comments.[/QUOTE]
I think you are confusing love with feed me

elsien

Mutt is a 22 kg bull terrier so lab sort of size.
If she were healthy, her dry dog food costs £40 a bag and lasts about 5 weeks. You can get cheaper but cheaper doesn't suit her. She doesn't get treats, and I put an extra tenner a month aside for things like when she needs a new collar, evening primrose oil for her skin or new toys. (Power chewer toys don't come cheap.)
Bedding comes from the charity shop at a couple of quid a time. Start up costs - new bed, crate (if you're using one), harness or lead, toys and collar, baby gates if you don't already have them(I got mine from freecycle and the car boot.)
Vaccinations and the annual check up (and I'm guessing as I'm not at home at the moment to check) are maybe £40. Frontline flea treatment I only do if she's scratching, maybe once a year so that's not too bad. Worming tablets I don't do very often, so I'm not sure how much they are.
It costs £22 plus vat for a vetinary consultation plus the cost of any treatment of top. (Which is when you realise how lucky people are have prescriptions subsidised by the NHS - some meds don't come cheap.)
Kennels or petsitter if you go away - anything from a tenner to £25 a day depending on where and what you choose.

Which is when you get into the realms of speculation.
Mutt is not healthy and she is old so her insurance which started at about £20 a month many years back is now £45 a month plus £120 excess plus 20% of the final bill.
Over the years she has also cost me thousands in vets bills which is why the insurance has been worth every penny. Many dogs don't get ill for years - it's the luck of the draw and how accident prone your dog turns out to be.
My other main cost has been replacing everything she has chewed - furniture, carpets, door frames, shoes, coats, the garden fence etc etc.

I'm not trying to put you off as I know mutt is an exceptionally expensive pooch - after my car and mortgage she is my next biggest expense. Lots of people have dogs that waltz through life never getting ill or destructive and hardly cost their owner a penny. The point is that until you've got one you don't know for sure, so any figures we can give might be either an under or an overestimate, all we can do is give you a rough idea of the day to day stuff and say be prepared for how expensive it can be if something does go wrong.

Having said that, even though I've had to give up on holidays purely because of her, I wouldn't be without her.

Hope that helps.

charlea

i have six dogs two bullmastiffs and 4 douge de bordeauxs the ddbs cost 4k in total to buy and the bullmastiffs 1k in total
and while im sure the cost of one dog is nowhere near what my cost is even for one dog it still adds up to a pretty sum

The ddb pups are 4 months and the other 4 dogs were all rehomed /private buys but we still paid a lot of money for them

So far since july when we bought our first two puppies not including feeding, and insurance we have spent 2500 pounds and thats not including the purchase of the dogs

the 2500 adds up from the following
2 of our dogs castrated at a cost of 170 each dog

1 Full set of injections for on dog as we had no health records for him at a cost of 80 pounds

1 puppys second injection at the cost of 40

4 micro chips for four dogs 100 pounds in total

insurance for 5 dogs at cost of 35 each dog each month

one dog is 8 and too old to insure

then there were two puppy crates, bedding, toys, leads, collars pillows bowls ect i reckon around another 250 easy

food at around 40 a week for all of them puppies are on expensive puppy food so this pushs the bill up a bit and we also get them trip and then there is probably a tenner a week on treats /bones

2 huge kennals for them at the cost of 700 pounds as they are outside most of the daytime and our old ones were falling apart

Some new fencing as at first two of our male dogs didnt get on cost 300

worming/fleeing cant remember the cost of this

one of our dogs has just had surgery today on his eyes for entropian at a cost of 400 inc consultation ( not covered on insurance as its pre exsisting condition) but he is ok

oh and forgot the re registering them on kc website as the new owners,
We did splash out and get the five generation pedigree certificates as well at a cost of 33 each so around 200 for 6 dogs
(but we do have them in nice frames in the kitchen which we bought for a pound from pound land )

We will have our pups spayed when they are older as we have no intention of breeding, plenty of dogs to rehome out thre and the dogs are just our family pets and will stay that way

when we go away on holiday in jan we will have a 600 kennal bill for three of the dogs DCs are looking after the older 3 dogs and the younger 3 will be in our local kennal

every month 2 of them are gromed /washed + blowdried at the poochie places so another 40 pounds
Then there is the time of walking them all dh dose do most of this and i do it on the weekends with him

DS is scared to leave home in case the dogs take his bedroom

wow that is scary reading all this never realised it was this much
Slight heart attack now

Chakani

Everyone here is talking about the costs of pet dogs, but you are talking about getting a dog with the intention of becoming a responsible breeder, who plans to breed with the intention of improving the breed.

To do that, your stud will have to prove himself, either in the showring or as a working dog, depending on his breeding. You will need to factor in the cost, in money and time, of doing these things, including entry fees, travel, possibly higher insurance costs, not to mention needing professional training and maybe (since you are a dog novice) the cost of having an expert to prepare and compete him for you. There is also the consideration that you will have to buy a dog of hopefully suitable quality to be a top stud dog (and if he's not a top stud dog, he won't be improving the breed), so I would expect to spend at least £800 on a pup, if not considerably more, from a really good breeder. Also take into consideration that having spent all that money, you might find, as a poster above said, that you have a "dud" competition dog, or that his hip/elbow scores aren't good enough to breed from.

I don't want to put you off getting a dog, they can enrich life so much, but to be honest, it sounds like you really want a lovely family pet, rather than a breeding dog. Maybe think about getting a pet this time, and doing some competitions for fun, to see if you enjoy it. Lots of people compete just for the fun of it, and the doggy community is a lovely supportive (if somewhat forthright) one. You will get to know people who are really expert in what they do, and if they see that you are keen to breed for the right reasons, and that the dogs you plan to breed are going to be a genuine asset to the breed, then I'm sure you will have a great deal of help and support. After all, all good breeders started somewhere, just probably not with the family pet as a part time stud

manda1205

Right aside from the fact you mentioned you MAY stud the dog out should you get one. The first question you asked was how much does a dog cost roughly. The initial costs are the biggest.
We paid £350 for our lab bit**, then £50 for vaccinations, then monthly worming and fleaing till 6mnths was about £5 a month. We also paid for puppy classes £40 for 6weeks. After that I bought gwen baileys, a perfect puppy book and spent time each day doing her training myself. Theres also lots of time taken in the beginning with socialisation. Which to me is the biggest and best thing you can do for your dog. We took Molly to shops, towns, city, beach, woods, parks, vets, near nosiy traffic, anywhere and everywhere, saw lots of different people etc. This all takes time though, I spent probably 1hr nearly every day(more at weekends) doing these things until she was nearly 6mnths.
After all that her costs now are not so bad. She has Skinners food which is VAT free and costs £18 a bag which lasts 2mnths. Treats, which are a few ££s maybe a month, flea and worm is all got from vetuk and costs about £48 a YEAR (god knows how some of you are spending so much each month?). Yearly booster is £30ish but mine doesnt have it anymore, though if you need to use kennels you will need this done. Bedding and other bits and bobs are just as and when. I tend to get blankets from my mum (she works in a hosp and they throw blankets away every so often so she brings them home for all our familys dogs). We also dont have insurance, but we always have plenty of money in the bank and know that we can afford it if she needed anything (as she did when she got hit by a car last year, only cuts and bruises thank god, but did cost about £300 in total for vets).
All in all if you have spare cash each week and some savings I would say go for it, and I would advise a puppy not a rescue if you have young children, then the pup can be brought up to know exaclty how to behave with children. Our DD was about 4 when we got our lab and Im so glad we did it then. She loves her now it not only teaches the dog how to be with children but also your children will get so much from the dog. I wouldnt be without my Molly now and if it ever came down to it I would go without to feed and look after her if I had to it.

Sally_A

bwhomeresponse wrote: »

I think you are confusing love with feed me

I think you are confusing dogs with cats

gettingready

Caroline_a wrote: »

you are intending to keep your dog entire and breed from him with your friend.

Caroline, I believe it was with that friend's girl dog...

Sorry, just could nto stop myself... LOL

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OP - as everyone above said...you have no experience with dogs and you want to jum into breeding a dog that is very common as it is - what for?