Why Are Puppies So Expensive?

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You may have noticed that the cost of a purebred puppy can vary widely. At first glance, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to this. Why would one pet store sell Golden Retrievers for $5,000 per puppy when another pet store in the same city sells the same breed for $1,000? And yet […]

You may have noticed that the cost of a purebred puppy can vary widely. At first glance, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to this. Why would one pet store sell Golden Retrievers for $5,000 per puppy when another pet store in the same city sells the same breed for $1,000? And yet another wants $8,000!

How are pet stores coming up with their prices?

If you’re thinking that these pet stores are just inventing numbers and getting away with highway puppy robbery, you wouldn’t be the first person to jump to that conclusion.

While we can’t speak for all pet stores, we can speak from our own experience and use what we’ve learned from being one of the most trusted names within the pet industry to answer the question:

Why are dogs so expensive?

Pet sellers are businesses. It can be easy to forget that when adorable puppies are distracting you. Pet stores, specifically, have to buy their puppies from dog breeders. The breeders set those prices. Then the pet store has to calculate the wholesale puppy cost with all of their business costs, such as rent, utilities, employees, insurance, veterinarians, and the list goes on.

By far, the biggest expense in the pet store business model is purchasing the puppies.

In any other retail model, a store can purchase the cheapest wholesale items available without raising ethical or moral concerns. For example, a store can buy polyester shirts at $1 a piece or silk shirts at $50 a piece depending on the quality of the wholesaler they wish to work with. Then they can retail the shirt at, for example, $25 or $290. The general logic is that the more expensive an item is to make, the more expensive it will be in the retail store.

Of course, in the mix you’ll find retailers who try to “get away with” insane mark-ups, like buying a polyester shirt at $1 and selling it at $290, but consumers tend to catch on to this scam quickly, and these greedy retailers eventually go under.

Just like regular retailers, pet stores also buy pets and puppies wholesale from breeders and then sell them at a retail price that reflects both the wholesale cost as well as other business costs they have that keep them in operation.

But unlike other retailers and the non-living merchandise they sell, pet stores have an added layer of responsibility because puppies are more than merely merchandise. Puppies require health care and so much more in order to develop in a healthy, happy manner.

Pet care isn’t cheap and it isn’t free. This means that a red flag you need to watch out for when you’re looking to buy a puppy is a cheap price tag. Cheap puppies likely have not received adequate veterinary care during the breeding process.

Puppies are expensive because puppy health care and the veterinarians that provide that care are both expensive. The fact of the matter is that vets need to be involved in every step of the breeding process in order to ensure the breeding dogs and their litters of puppies remain in excellent health. Retaining and paying for an on-site and on-call veterinarian, or several, is quite costly for the breeders.

Having veterinarians provide the necessary care to puppies can cost breeders thousands of dollars per month. The breeders foot the bill for the vets themselves as well as for the actual tests, treatments, and vaccinations that the parent dogs and puppies recieve. Prenatal, natal, and postnatal care all come with associated fees, which the breeders pay for.

These costs impact the wholesale price of a puppy. Other costs associated with providing excellent living conditions, nutrition, and care also impact the price of a puppy, which we’ll go over later in this article.

But for now, it’s important that you bear in mind that an “expensive” puppy is typically an indication that the puppy has received excellent care during his time at the breeding kennel. Whereas, a “cheap” puppy should be regarded as a red flag that the puppy did not receive adequate health care, as we mentioned earlier.

Here are some rough vet services to give you an idea of how pricey breeding puppies can be…

TOTAL: $1,000

TOTAL: $500

So, it can cost roughly $1,500 for the mother dog alone. Of course, the father dog must be fed, sheltered, groomed, played with, loved, and the list goes on. And we haven’t even gotten to the puppies yet!

Once a litter of puppies is born, all of them will receive individualized health care to ensure that they remain healthy and develop properly.

Responsible, ethical breeding kennels employ on-site veterinarians, who remain “on call” even after they leave the facilities. The necessary tests and treatments that puppies receive throughout their 8 weeks of nursing and weaning can really add up, which ultimately impacts the retail cost of a puppy.

TOTAL: $983

As you can see, quite a bit of money is laid out for veterinary care, and we haven’t even gotten to the costs associated with the kennel facility! Let’s take a look…

Dog breeders have to go above-and-beyond to not get lumped in with puppy mills. Likewise, pet retailers like Petland Texas have to go many extra miles to cherry pick the best, most responsible, and most ethical dog breeders out there in order to keep their reputations intact and remain trustworthy within the pet industry.

In addition to providing excellent veterinary care to their parent dogs and puppies, ethical dog breeders validate their trustworthy reputations by using state-of-the-art facilities that offer the best living conditions possible.

The breeders that Petland Texas works with specifically must meet our high-standard criteria for ethical animal treatment, which means that their facilities must be state-of-the art, and include:

All of these amenities can add up, and the expenses that the breeder incurs directly impact the wholesale price that we, as a pet store, spend to obtain the puppies. Then, in order for us to cover their own expenses, the retail price of a puppy goes up even more.

We can’t speak for other pet retailers, but Petland Texas has a policy of frequently and regularly visiting the breeding kennels we work in order to confirm that they are consistently maintaining the highest level of puppy care that we require.

As you can see, it’s quite expensive to properly breed puppies in a manner that ensures they receive the highest quality health care and are housed in comfortable, climate controlled facilities with access to outdoor spaces where they can run and explore.

These costs are what ultimately cost the retail price of a puppy to be so expensive.

Remember, an inexpensive puppy is likely an indication that the puppy did not receive adequate veterinary care or housing, which could be a red flag that later down the road the puppy could have health problems.

Our final word of advice is to research and learn as much as you can about the breeding kennels that a particular pet store works with before you buy one of their puppies.