Price of dogs

I don’t know if I have had a rant about this already somewhere but the price of dogs has sky rocketed .
And they are nearly all cross bred or multi crossbred ie mongrels and people are spending thousands of pounds on them !
No wonder burglars are hitting on pipes or dogs to breed from .
What is the matter with people ?

Where do the get the money to spend on buying a dog ?

It baffles me and makes me sad when the dogs homes are full of dogs desperate for a good home .

Re: Price of dogs

Not just dogs...cats too i was looking at Main Coon kittens £1000 ....not that I'm buying one i was just curious. I might sell our Sox ......joking !!

Re: Price of dogs

I don't know either. Many/most of the people I know around here are rescues. I just one I know is a pedigree.

Re: Price of dogs

Muddy, Earlier this year when l was considering getting another dog, l was shocked at the prices then which were £800 up to £1,500.

Then the Lockdown came and the prices escalated because many decided they wanted a dog. I looked lately and was shocked that prices are now £3000 upwards.
It makes you wonder if they are now just bought for breeding purposes, as there is good money to be made.

Summer, My friend’s daughter has two Main Coon cats she purchased not long ago. They are massive with tails like a Fox!
My friend bought them a small bag of food especially for Main Coon cats and he paid £22 for it!
Totally ridiculous, l thought!

Re: Price of dogs

They would probaby be happy with a can of sardines !

Re: Price of dogs

The breeders are to blame for all this. When lockdown started, the demand for pets went up so the breeders hiked the prices up. Pure greed! Plus I believe you have to pay VAT now on a dog and anyone selling a puppy has to pay for registration ( a good thing in one way but again it pushed the prices up). The cost of a dog is now three to four times more expensive than it was before lockdown, that combined with thefts by mainly Eastern Europeans and Pikeys is causing a big problem.

Also, it isn't just ''cross breeds'' that are targeted, it's any dog including Labradors, Boxers and any other dog a scum bag can get his or her hands on. A black lab was stolen from the back of a car locally just a few days ago.

Re: Price of dogs

Unfortunately some unscrupulous people are exploiting the situation.
In the spring I got in touch with a couple of reputable breeders about getting a Mini puppy, it will be my last no doubt. They breed only the occasional litter and accept carefully vetted prospective owners onto a waiting list. Because of the lockdown they haven't had the litter they planned this year .
I was advised by one to get in touch with her in December to see her plans but I know with the uncertainties of the virus she won't be breeding yet.

Many of the high priced dogs and puppies available come from dubious origins some from abroad and they have not been health tested and could have expensive health issues.

If anyone wants to get a dog quick quickly I would advise getting a rescue dog otherwise contact the breed club secretary of your chosen breed and ask for a list of approved breeders who have signed up to the code of conduct and do all the required health tests and be prepared to wait for a health puppy that won't cost the earth.

Re: Price of dogs

This is my view.

The people who would like to help a rescue dog have mostly been unable to this year.
Earlier in the year, the rescues all had to close their gates to the public. They had dogs crying out for homes, but they were not allowed to let the public in to look round. Neither were they allowed to go to houses and do home checks, so these animals were stuck where they were.

People being furloughed would not wait, so they bought from either dodgy newspaper ads, or dodgy online ads. A lot of these animals were poorly bred and raised, or even stolen.
People are advised over and over again to see the pup with it's mother, yet they still don't do this.

When our puppy farms finally sold out, they imported from their cronies in the foreign puppy farms.
Imagine what those youngsters went through being dragged from one hell-hole, then on a long cramped journey to yet another hell-hole.
Some didn't make it, others died within days of being sold.

I remember reading some reports of interviews given anonymously by some crooked foreign vets, admitting they made treble their income by forging pet passport information, saying the puppy is older than it was, and it had rabies jabs when it was really nowhere near old enough to have them.
Money talks, as my Dad used to say.

People still wanted more dogs, hence the massive rise in dog theft.
I read of a case where 37 stolen dogs were found tied up at one travellers site!
They are being stolen from gardens, cars, properties, and even snatched from lone and vulnerable people walking them.
Why should they object to a £100 fine if they are caught, when they can make many thousands on a litter?

Even so-called reputable breeders are upping their prices now too.
I don't know what I would do now if I wanted another one.
When I used to breed (in a small way), I could keep back the one I wanted for myself. It was heaven to have a dog who I had known since the minute he/she took her first breath, had always been loved, and I knew how it had been reared. Alas, my girls are all spayed now, so I don't know where I would go anymore.

Re: Price of dogs

Good post Mups .
I really think we should not allow dogs in from Europe at all .
So many people adopt Romanian dogs and they are cute but there are plenty of dogs in shelters . I think they were wrong to shut their doors and I think that something could have been arranged for house checks .
The problem is so many shelters make life difficult for adopters .
They have difficult animal people who are loathe let a dog go to anything but the perfect home . Understandably people who would genuinely like to rehome a dog get upset and just go and buy one or get one from Romanian They are generally not criminals or dog baiters and have the best of intentions but I have met some of those ‘gate keepers’ and they think they have a right to speak to people as if they were a backward five year old . Or interrogate them with all the finesse of the Gestapo .
I am an animal person I love animals but unfortunately I know that so many animal people are fanatical about animals to an extent that is extremely off putting .

Re: Price of dogs

I know just what you mean about some rescues going too far with vetting people Muddy.

It sometimes seems that if you are retired you are automatically incapable!
Yet they would let a dog go to a young family who are out at work, and have small children poking and prodding, and stick it in kennels while they go off on holiday!

Being home all day, and having a lifetime of experience seems to count for nought with some of these people.
Some are now even not letting a dog go unless you buy health insurance with it. Ruddy cheek.