Dogs, they say are man’s best friend. While a dog will never be a perfect replacement for a human, when properly trained, a dog can offer its owner a lot of value. This might be common knowledge among people that have dogs or have owned dogs.
The value that a dog offers its owner might be free. However, it gets paid for in some way. One of the prices you will need to pay to have a dog around is the cost of getting one.
There are several dog breeds in the world. Some of them are affordable while some are not. Well, almost as a rule of thumb, the most valuable dog breeds in the world are expensive. So, if you are getting a dog because of the perceived value attached to it, you should be ready to spend some money in getting it. In as much as a lot of people are comfortable with the fact that dogs are very expensive, not many of them can actually tell why there is a huge price tag attached to dogs.
Since you are on this page, it is safe to assume you want to find out why dogs are so expensive. Well, you might not need to wonder why dogs are expensive after going through this article because we provide an answer to the question ‘why are dogs so expensive’.
That said, below are reasons why you might be spending a lot of money to buy dogs;
The Cost of Food
The amount spent in feeding a dog by its breeder is one reason you will have to pay a premium fee when looking to buy a dog. During the first few months after birth, puppies are known to feed on their mother’s milk. This is because their mother’s milk contains all the nutrients that they need to be healthy and because they do not have teeth that are needed to eat solid food. At this point, one could argue that no amount is being spent on feeding the puppy. However, the truth is money is not being spent in feeding the puppy directly. Nonetheless, the amount spent in directly feeding a dog is indirectly spent in feeding is puppy.
When the puppy finally grows teeth and is ready to eat solid food, money is spent in feeding it directly. Different dog breeds feed on different types of food. This means a dog breeder will only simply have to buy one type of food in huge qualities for feeding their dogs. They will need to buy foods in small quantities for the various dogs that they will be feeding and this can cost some money.
In as much as the best way to feed dogs is to give them diets that work perfectly for them, some breeders might decide to give dogs any type of food. Nonetheless, the way to get the best out of a dog is to give it the diet that is best suitable for it. If you have done this before you can attest to how expensive it can be.
Since a breeder puts in a lot of money into feeding a dog, it only makes perfect sense that they attach a huge price tag on the dog they are selling.
The COVID-19 Pandemic
A couple of years ago, dogs were expensive. They did not become expensive overnight. Regardless of this, they have become a lot more expensive than they used to be. This sharp skyrocket in the price of dogs can be attributed to the effect of covid-19 on the business world in general.
Although you might really not be aware of this especially if you have not tried buying a dog since civid-19 became a thing. It really might seem like the pandemic had no effect on the price of puppies. Nonetheless, there are various ways in which the price of dogs has been affected by the pandemic. The major reason why covid-19 led to a spike in the price of dogs is simply an increase in demand.
While the lockdown was on, a good number of people that normally spend ample hours out of the house had no choice but to sit at home for several months. And as you would expect, a lot of them really got bored. So, they had no choice than to look for a means to keep them occupied. Those that had people around to spend time with perhaps started communicating more often. The same, however, cannot be said about people that had no one to communicate with. This people had to rely on dogs for companionship.
Beyond simply getting a dog for companionship, a good number of people that never had a dog around simply because they did not have enough time on their hands to closely relate with one finally had the freedom to spend a lot of time with a dog. So, they went ahead and got one.
That’s not all. Since it appeared lots of people were beginning to buy dogs, a set of people only bought puppies because people around them were shopping for puppies. Regardless of their actual reason for shopping for a puppy, lots of people bought quite a number of dogs during the pandemic and if you have any idea how demand and supply works, you can tell this situation would lead to an increase in the price tag on puppies.
The increase in the demand for puppies during the coid—19 pandemic brought about a major shortage in the number of available puppies. This shortage was so serious that even adoption agencies were able to give up a lot of their dogs for adoption.
Breed
There are various dog breeds in the world and it appears these different dog breeds have their seasons. Some of these dog breeds are generally trendy. Others, however, are not trendy.
As a rule of thumb, the demand for dog breeds that are considered trendy usually gets a lot more than the supply for them.
Beyond the fact that trendy breeds will almost never have the right supply, it is even worse for designer breeds.
As a dog gets more popular, it will be difficult to get a breeder that has it in stock because people will always be on the lookout for it. When it becomes difficult to get a dog breed because a lot of people are looking for it, it is only normal that the price tag attached to it increases significantly.
One might argue that breeders should get their dogs to make more puppies so that there will be more in supply. However, you must note that dogs are living things and not machines. So, there are only a number of puppies they can make in a year. After making a couple of babies in a year, dogs will need to rest. Since there are lots of demands for these puppies, breeders will put a high price tag on them to filter through the number of prospective customers.
Furthermore, not all puppies can be sold. So if a designer dog breed gives birth to puppies, only the healthiest puppies will be sold.
Vaccinations can Make Puppies Expensive
Dog breeders go the extra mile to ensure that the dogs in their care are always safe and healthy. One thing that they have to do to ensure that their puppies are safe is to vaccinate them. With vaccinations, dogs get to develop a stronger immune system.
The average puppy spends a lot of time around grown dogs and doing this could make them sick. So, with vaccines, the likelihood of a puppy getting sick because it spends time around older dogs reduces significantly. Also, if they get sick, they can pull through the sickness in good shape.
Breeders are not comfortable selling unhealthy puppies to their customers. Due to this, they ensure they give these puppies the right vaccine and this cost some money. Now, dog breeders do not have to wait for a puppy to get sick before they vaccinate it. They vaccinate both healthy and unhealthy puppies because one unhealthy puppy can affected all the other puppies.
When buying a dog from a breeder, you might be told all the vaccines that it took will not be paid for. Nonetheless, the fact is you will pay for the cost of these vaccines even if you are told you are not paying for them.
Obedience Training Makes Dogs Expensive
If you are experienced with dogs you might want to handle obedience training by yourself. However, this is not the case if you have not built any experience with training dogs.
If you buy a very young puppy, you might want to attempt taking it to obedience training on your own. If this is something you fail to do, you might have to take it to an obedience school and let professionals get the job done.
For dog lovers that want to buy older puppies, you must note that the dog breeder might offer to take it to obedience school for you and this could affect its price. This is because they will include the price for the obedience training, as well as the time spent in visiting the obedience training center.
Rare Dog Breeds Have a Huge Price Tag Attached to Them
There are several dog breeds all around the world. Some have better physical features and usually get a lot of attention because of their good physical features. Some others are very rare and the fact that they are rare means they will never be sold at the same price as dogs that are very popular.
Generally if a dog breed is considered very rare, then, you can be certain that there will be a huge price tag attached to its puppy.
Conclusion
If you cannot afford to get the puppy of your choice right now because of the price tag attached to it, then, there is a chance you might be unable to ever afford it if you do not have an increase in your income. This is because the price of dogs might never get less expensive than it is at the moment. Instead, it will increase.
