Exhorbent prices - Page 2

What I suggest is for you to purchase/import a nice titled and breed surveyed female. It would be nice if she were SchH3. Once you have her, start searching for a good male with compatible bloodlines. Now keep in mind, this male might be cross country, but that's OK. You can fly her out there. Stud fee might be $800 to $1,000, but that's nothing compared to what you paid for your bitch. And afterall, if the breeding doesn't take, you'll get to bring her back one more time. Oh, once she comes in season, be sure to do the progesterone testing. You want to ensure she gets pregnant, so you need to make numerous trips to the vet, but those tests are only about $75.00 or even more just depending. And you'll need the Brucellosis and vaginal culture...just routine. Ship her to the male assuming there are no heat embargos when her time is right. If there is, you might have to take off work and travel. But that's OK. Motels are pretty cheap. Then there's the ultrasound to confirm pregnancy, the radiograph later on and maybe some complications in delivery. And there you go...you have one or two puppies or maybe ten or eleven. Oh forgot...you needed a c-section. Just minor surgery. Now, you need a web site, and/or you can pay a couple grand for a nice ad in Dog World. You have to sell all those puppies and make sure they go to good homes. And the darn tattoos...puppy shots...health certificates for shipping........ OK...I won't go on. Just breed your own puppies. Then you will not be able to complain about the prices.

Most times it's what the market will bear. I have a set price regarding what I would pay for a puppy and I would only deal with breeders who price their puppies within my price range. While I may think that an 8 week old puppy is over priced at more than 2K regardless of the credentials of the breeder or the sire and dam, others might think it's a good deal. There is no shortage of GSD breeders or litters for sale so we should all be able to find a suitable puppy within our price range. I've not had a problem.

Amen Longhorns, And the others, but mainly LongHorns. I have people come to me, asking me after a LONG discusion how much I charge, I reply $600-$800, and you hear a short gasp, and then they reply in a snobbish attitude "I bet you make a crap load off of puppies!" I could try to tell them, "No, not if you do it right." until I was blue in the face, they won't and don't believe it. Then, a year down the road, "Hi Krista, we called you about a year ago, about buying a puppy, and we were under the impression that you could make a LOT of money selling puppies for that much. We were wrong, we bought a $50 dog out of the paper, bred her, and the puppies are having some major health problems, we don't know why!" Well, needless to say, I tell them to sit down, then we have a "Paw To Paw/Heart to Heart" chat about ALL the things one needs to know before even CONTEMPLATING a litter, so thanks LongHorns, you've made an excellent reply! Krista blueskyekennels@msn.com

Value is what it's all about in the pricing of puppies, and I think it's only right for a breeder/importer to "Value" their puppies honestly. IMO there are too many breeders out there who care more about the dollar sign than the actual value of what they are selling, and they will scam a person who is new to the dog world if given half a chance. It's about the integrity of the breed, and that starts with the breeder. I am not opposed to making money at all, but facts are, if you are breeding dogs for profit and not to better the breed, then it's profits that will become most important to you, and that can damage the quality of what you are producing. If I go by what Bob-O says, that the normal mark-up for a product is 6%-7% then lets say in my breeding practise the amount I spend on my breeding program averages out to about $500 for each puppy I produce, then if I mark that puppy up 7% then that puppy will cost a buyer $535.00, but lets say I add in the cost for my time along with other expenses and the average cost for a puppy comes out to about $750, and I want to make a larger profit, say 14%...then that puppy will cost the buyer $855.00 Still a pretty good value for the buyer, I think. selling a puppy for $2000+ goes way beyond a normal business mark-up. As for me, and the people buying my pups, I would want someone who cares and appreciates the effort I put into producing a litter, and considers the price a very good value. I would not want someone who is either not financially capable of spending $1000 because then they MAY not be able to afford caring for a dog yet. or a penny pincher who will degrade the value of my efforts. I also don't want someone who is so flagrant with their money that they do not understand the meaning of value and just want to look cool by parading an expensive dog on the end of their lead. It says to me that this is a person who is "easy come, easy go" and MAY not treat the dog as a living being that it is. BTW longhorns, I do have an import, and I've put more than $6000 into him already and will likely spend another $1000 before the year is out. I do know what the expense of having a good dog and doing all the tests and etc. is like. Also...it's cheaper to have chilled semen shipped than to ship the female ;)

If you think that is too much money, don't buy it. A seller is not forcing a buyer to buy a puppy. The buyer has the option of going elsewhere. If the buyer thinks that is a fair price and is happy with the puppy, that's all that matters. Of course there's all the other "stuff" that goes with buying a puppy. The contract, the health, the hips and elbows.

Good posts, most everyone. I think we are pretty much on the same page here. I know that I am speaking hypothetically, but I know that I am not far off base. We all know that we can take the first of our two (2) premium $10,000.00 bitches (purchase + training + showing + care) and breed her to a VA-rated male for the amount of $ 1,500.00-$ 2,000.00 and have but two (2) healthy puppies born. In our mind at the moment each puppy is worth $ 6,000.00 or so if we are just going to break even. No one is going to recieve such a price for one of these puppies, so the cost has to spread around. Perhaps our other premium bitch (with an identical monetary investment) delivers ten (10) healthy puppies. We know that we would break even if we sold each puppy for $ 1,200.00 each, but we have to recover the money lost on the other litter so we try to sell all of the puppies from both litters for $ 2,000.00 each, and still just break even. Logic would state that as the years go by and successive litters are born to each bitch, then the price should come down. But it can't. Bitches must be eventually retired and replaced. An occasional puppy must be replaced. The breeder needs to make a bit of money, otherwise it is an expensive hobby, and not a business. That said, I do agree that sometimes one sees not an exhorbitant price, but a ridiculous price for a puppy. It is first about the true value of the puppy, and finally what the market will bear. Bob-O

Bob-O, Normal business profit 6 - 7%??? Where have you been for the past 50 years? MOST business profits today are running at 45%! Some at 100! Puppies from quality, imported, titled parents for $500, even $1,000! You've got to be kidding. You can't run much of a kennel facility for very long at those prices. The price of a titled female, the stud fee, the quality dog food at $40 or $50 for a 35# bag, the vet bills, the air fare, the advertising, the lights, heat, time, and on, and on to provide someone with a well bred puppy for $800. NO THANKS!

I totally agree with Bob-O. The difference in price and value of the dog are two totally different things. Besides there is no restriction or rule on such thing to fix the prices at specific place. It depends on the person who is selling the pupps. In my opinon, if we dont like the price or the pupp or we think that price is not worth of the quality of the pupp, we always have the option to back out. There are usually things like name of the kennel, titles and placings of the parents and the habits of the breeders that determine the price and all these three things are variable.

Wagonmaster, this is not intended to be a snipe at you. I have been a professional engineer in private employment for many years, and had to develop budgets and work within their constraints as well as maintain the final bottom line of the "big picture". Most business of all sizes must retain a competitive edge or advantage. After capital expenditures, amortization, depreciation, hard burden costs, variable burden costs, R & D for the new products, stockholder's dividends, local, state, and federal taxes. Now, after all of that, some profit must be realized, or there is no cash for future growth. Within the spirit of competitiveness, a final profit of 6%-7% is quite decent. Again, I am not trying to be a wiseacre. Apply this same logic to dog breeders, and what is perhaps missing? Perhaps true competitiveness to deliver the best puppy at the best price. And who is the breeder who can hire enough beancounters (and engineers, love or hate them) to do this? None that I know. Hence, what often appears to be unfair pricing for puppies if one makes a factual analysis of all of the puppies for sale, and the cost that went into those puppies. Not much of an answer, I know. Bob-O

.....a $1,000 puppy will likely provide 10 years of the best companionship one could ever pray for. That's $100 a year. That's 27 cents per day. To any smokers out there: what is it costing you to harm your health each day? Any you divorcees.....how much did it cost you to get out of your "companionship"?? LOL.......sorry, just trying to put some perspective into the thread. Personally, I considered my dog purchases ($1,200-$2,000/pups) to be some of the smartest investments (in good health, good life) that I've ever made!!