~ Articles ~

Pricing Pups

There are several things a breed community and organization shouldn’t do and one of them is recommending pup prices. Everybody’s program is different. In many breed groups I see people getting insulted when prices are too low, and insulted when prices are too high. But people can do what they want. It’s a free country.

There are two factors in a pup price, 1. how hard someone has worked on genetics, and 2. how hard someone else has worked on genetics. People just need to make sure they fall into category 1 if they have high prices.

If a breeder has spent years working on her own genetic lines, she will be able to ask more for her pups because she feels more confident standing behind them. Nature is nature and not all dogs work with all owners. The ethics and integrity behind my puppy program is supremely important to me. People trust me because I am the breed founder, so I have a huge responsibility in that, that others don’t have... I could really take advantage of my position in the breed. Yikes. I don’t use contracts (after years of using them). Some people have fair contracts and some sellers rip people off with contracts. I have been known to replace dogs even when they fail at 3 years of age. I feel so responsible for the breed that I have replaced puppies that I didn’t even breed -- pups bred from dogs I recommended to other breeders be taken out of the lines. I have replaced dogs that got hit by cars that people didn’t even buy from me.

How do I make money??? I don’t! I have an LLC, and a CPA and a bookkeeper and it’s well recorded how enormously I don’t profit -- except I do, because oh my goodness what a life! My animal habits self-support, upgrades facilities, and makes enough to innovate genetics. If I had a lot of money it would be bad.... I’d probably build endlessly bigger barns.

I value people more than money and more than dogs. My pup prices are median at this point. I have seen people charge twice as much as I do using my genetics, and having contracts to protect themselves from having to innovate genetics.

The reason I have to have good genetics is that I stand behind my dogs. I usually place great dogs, but not always. I innovate, and am striving for consistent temperaments and usability more than anything. As I see good dogs being born here, my prices can go up because I am not refunding or replacing.

Dog breeding is complex. You can’t really buy perfect breeders and go forward problem free. You really do have to work at it, and it takes generations. In nature, as in dog breeding, few animals are really breed quality. And there are categories of quality, some dogs being short term contributors, and some being that rare unicorn that has it all and can throw it. As long as people do not get money-oriented, things go well.

My pups started at $400 and rose slowly to $1250 in general, as my feelings of trust in my own genetics have risen. I could sure be a pet mill. People ask me for dogs every day. I absolutely could license with my state and pump out pups, and I just have no heart for that. I love genetics.... absolute geek for genetics. I foresee me being able to ask 2k plus for my dogs in about two years if all goes well, and to be able to stand behind that. I foresee my pedigrees being half filled with the efforts of the other great CMD innovators we have in the CMDR, and half my own innovations along with archival Caspian lines.

You can’t really serve God and mammon, (one of the best verses ever), or anything and mammon, and you definitely can’t serve dog and mammon. ;-)