How much would you pay for a puppy?

[Floweryfields]

Just wondering what is a 'reputable' pet shop. I am not picking, I thought that all pet shops got their animals from puppy mill type places and discredited all of them. Happy to be proved wrong if there are good ones out there.

Yep, this is true, many petshop puppies come from puppy mills and 'dodgy breeders'. I'd steer clear of pet shops all together.

[Astrid]

We paid $750 for a pure bred Aussie Terrier. We did not pay for the papers, so we cannot show him or breed him. Which is a good thing, as he is a complete nutbag and even though there are Grand Champions in his line, he is big for the breed.

[Glamourcide]

We bought a purebred Jack Russell from a local pet shop (we wanted a pup from a shelter or something but they just don't have anything except the council pound within a few hours' drive, and the council really only holds pets until their owners come to pick them up, strays and litters of pups/kittens etc they put down within 24 hours), and she cost us $500.
It was funny because we'd looked at them earlier on in the day and gone home to discuss whether we were up to the challenge/costs of having a puppy (cats are cheap, desex 'em and feed 'em and just keep 'em indoors to save on vet bills like immunisation etc), and when we went back there was another girl cuddling one and carting it around, obviously intent on taking it home... all went well until her boyfriend got off his phone and asked the staff how much they were - his poor girlfriend was ordered to 'put the bloody thing back!' and they left empty-handed
Note: Our local pet shops will take any old thing - if you bring in a box of your mutt's pups and say, 'I dunno who the dad is, hell I don't even know what breed my dog is' they will still take the pups and just flog them off for $50 a pop... they do have purebred pups and kittens come in, some with papers, some not, but there just aren't any 'reputable breeders' locally that have breeds suitable for small children and cats (which we needed because obviously we have a toddler and another on the way, and three cats we would never consider getting rid of)... It would have been nice to have the option of rescuing a dog from a shelter, but again, there are none locally that sell animals as pets, and I personally worry about an abused or neglected animal being around kids and other pets - an ex boyfriend of mine had a dog he rescued from a shelter and it was a complete a-hole. XB was the only person who could go near it, it would nip at me whenever I touched XB or slept in his bed because the dog got jealous, and I could never relax around the damn thing. So I wouldn't want to go and rescue an animal from a shelter, only to have to take it back there because it's bitten my daughter or mauled my cat, kwim?

Our pup (Turbo) came with her first round of immunisations, worming and a vet check completed (and the papers to confirm), and included in the price tag was a free vet visit for us so we could take her and get her checked out at our leisure solely for peace of mind. For us, $500 is a pretty ridiculous price and we are constantly complaining that 'this stupid mutt cost us half a k!!' when she's into mischief or harrassing our cats, but we love her to bits and we would have spent that money on some useless junk anyway

She's not desexed, and when we purchased her the owner of the pet store took our details and wrote them in a 'breeding book' they have that keeps records of which puppy from what litter went home with whom so that in future, if another dog owner is looking to breed, they can contact other owners on the register and discuss breeding. The way they're doing it prevents things like inbreeding and ensures that the dog they intend to breed theirs with is the breed the owner says it is, kwim? We still haven't decided whether we want to breed Turbo in future, probably not as it's a costly exercise and there are already plenty of puppies in the world that need homes, but until we decide for sure we're holding off on desexing her.

I figure that yes, they're expensive, but a lot of costs are spread out over time, kwim?? Like, yeah, you might pay $800 for the breed of your choice, but that usually includes their first round of immunisation and worming etc, and then other costs come later on, so it's not like you're paying out thousands of dollars in one hit... desexing (if they don't already come desexed) can usually wait a few weeks or months as long as the dog is being supervised (we keep Turbo indoors at night and if we go out, more to prevent her being stolen than to stop some dog jumping the fence and getting her in the family way), kennel fees etc pop up when you're planning on going away but you already know when that will be so you just put a few extra bucks in the holiday kitty to cover boarding, food obviously is a big cost but whether you pay $100 or $1000 to purchase the dog, you're still going to have to feed it, so it's irrelevant to me anyway...

[Cupcake]

I have a Rottweiler which cost me $80 in 2007, and just recently brought a pure bred American Staffy for half price at $1000 from a breeder =)

I dont think the AWL can justify charging that much for stray dogs that you still have to register, they are de sexed and a lot of the time they've guessed the breed, my father asked them why they charge so much and the lady said they are just charging what any other pet store would, yet with another pet store you get papers and a puppy which you can deside to de sex or not. Little frustrating

[Glamourcide]

^ I have to agree with Teagz_88, I'm convinced the reason they charge so much is to try and weed out potential 'owners' who are either buying on a stupid whim, or to stop people with less than good intentions from taking home dogs for dirt cheap and then using them for things that would make the responsible, loving pet owners amongst us sick to the stomach.

[Cupcake]

But what about people who love animals but cant necessarily afford the $400 ... the interviews they do with people prior to taking the dog home weed out a lot of unsuitable owners im sure

[1MOREPLZ]

there are quite afew 'rescue' dogs that breeders take on and re-home..some for the de-sexing fee..PM me if you want a link
for those that say..you didn't 'pay for the dogs papers' that is actually illegal, breeders have to hand over papers when you purchase a pedigree dog from them, they are not to keep the papers.


Crufts aren't the ones who are asking that British bulldogs are 'bred without so many face / leg problems' it is the FCI, Crufts is actually the name of a dog show.

As for Aussie Bulldogs being 'a newly recognised breed' they may be to backyard breeders / australian people but they are not a recognised purebred dog.

[LimeSlice]

It would be lovely if they were all $100 but unfortunately dogs cost money to keep. And many shelters dont put dogs down. They could have been caring for that dog, relying on charitable donations, for months before someone adopts it. It vet bills cost money, food, having people to clean out the enclosures and maintain the property, some come chipped.... These costs are real and cant just be ignored because ma and pa dont have $300. It is just of those things

[Glamourcide]

^ I know, I often complain about the cost of purchasing a pet too... I wonder if maybe they think, 'Well if you can't afford x amount of dollars initially, then how can you afford to 'appropriately' care for it' (immunisation, worming, flea treatment, grooming, emergency vet costs eg if it were hit by a car etc, annual registration, desexing, kennel fees for when you go away on holiday etc etc etc)... I get where you're coming from because I too am an animal-lover on a budget, but then you hear stories about people who are willing to spend up to $100 on an animal just to use it for something not very nice (eg I know of people who train them - abusively - for fighting, or buy kittens for things like crab-pot bait etc), or just people who are happy to spend a hundie or two on a pet and then realise later on that it's not a suitable breed for their lifestyle and it ends up back in a shelter or worse... and then I kind of feel glad that the initial cost is high enough to prevent people like that getting their hands on an innocent animal who depends on humans to love and care for them.