Lab prices?

[syoungs]

looking at a getting a new dog in the 1-6 month time frame, whats a fairly typical price to pay for a lab?

I am going to meet the sire and dam from a litter that was just born on 4-4 tomorrow afternoon, no health guarantee from the breeders, though both parents had health guarantee's. they are asking a 200$ deposit, and 650$ for the male puppies. seemed a little high to me, but its been 10 years sense I have bought a dog, so maybe that's on track? looks like another (more reputable) local breeder has puppies a few days older for 950$, but they come with health guarantee.

am I going to regret not spending big money on a dog and buying one not akc registered?

[wildweeds]

800 must be an average price on Labs,My daughters dog with all the testing done sired a litter and the litter owner(whos dog had all the testing done as well) priced them at 800

[trophyhunt]

My opinion, do the breed justice and pay a bit more for the guarenteed health.  Most reputable breeders charge more because they care about the breed.  This new family member your getting is worth the extra money.

[Birdguy]

AKC registration is a piece of paper anymore IMO. Last three labs I bought were $1200, $1000 (plus airfare from Iowa) and $1000. All had 26 month health guarantees and all applicable testing at time of purchase for pups and parents (new health risks have come around in the last 10 years in the lab world). In todays world the price of the pup is the small expense and even more so if the pup ends up with problems. Find a breeder that knows his/her lines and get a pup that is right for "your family". It will be worth every additional penny over the life of the pup  .

[syoungs]

yeah looking at the bigger names in lab breeders, im going to hold off on the local "backyard" breeders this time. especially for the prices they are wanting now, I don't mind spending more, I have 2000$ set aside for purchase, seeing the puppies posted today kinda got me and my fiancé all riled up and in a hurry to purchase though. as of now im back to my original game plan I think, either a pudelpointer from cedarwoods in boise, or possibly a drahthaars, they really have my interest peaked, especially as I want a more versatile dog, that doesn't shed!

[ghosthunter]

Paid 850.00 two years ago.

[Happy Gilmore]

Good breedings with all clearances and both parents with advanced titles should be about $1,000. $650 I would expect registration, clearances and a health guarantee for 26 months. Probably junior hunter titles on a parent

[buglebuster]

I understand where all you guys are coming from with health guarantees and what not but to me, I could care less. And those prices  for a dog? I paid $450 for my chocolate male, just neutered him so I didn't need papers. Best family dog ever, and excellent hunter. Paid $100 for my black female, once again opted to not get papers since I was speying her. Best hunting dog I have ever had! If your not buying them to breed and sell puppies I wouldn't worry about all that nonsense. Again this is just my

[lokidog]

IMO, if the parents are healthy (hips, heart, etc.), and they can show that, then the pups should be fine (just because the parents had health guarantees when they were pups only means that there was nothing seriously wrong enough with them to return them).  Health guarantee just means you could get your money back, but honestly, unless you are going to breed, who would return a dog that has been in the family for two years?     We are offering a health guarantee with our new pups, also born 4/4, but we have had all testing done and looked at the dad's test results and made sure that they were not closely related so expect there to be no problems.  If the parents are registered, you can look at their lines to see if they are related much.  Unfortunately, so many "champion" type dogs have been bred so much that it does seem somewhat difficult to find ones that are not related.
 
If you are going to do hunt/field trial stuff, they might need to be registered, but maybe not, someone more expert might chime in on that.

If you have the $$ and spending it will make you feel more secure about a new addition to your home, by all means, look for the perfect dog.  I had an awesome golden that was found on the side of the road when she was a pup, could have been from a back yard breeder as far as I know.  I've also bought a mutt dog from someone living in a trailer home, another awesome dog as far as smart and a good hunter goes.  You do roll the dice a bit if you don't know the background.

We have also had two accidental litters (our dog Loki), fortunately purebred goldens, that we did not offer as AKC, and the price reflected that.  We never heard a negative word about any of those puppies.

Having just gone through it, it is not cheap to have all of the testing done on your dog to make sure the genes are good for producing another generation.  Plus, our breeder required a title before she would sign off on our dog being bred, this is more expense and time of course.

In the end, only you can decide what is best for you.  As far as "doing the breed justice", if you are not going to breed, who cares?  Anyone that intentionally breeds should have doing the breed justice in mind, however, accidents happen sometimes.  It does not mean that puppy will be garbage.  There are no guarantees with high $$ puppies either, as far as what you will get, though maybe more of a chance of success.

   Good luck on finding a new addition to your family.

[Colin]

Similar to Bridget I'm getting a pup from iowa in a week or two. I researched for like 2 years almost and everything I read said to try and "stack the deck" in favor of a breeding to produce a healthy dog with all the potential for playing at high level dog games. I considered this and the more I read the more I wanted to get into the HT and FT game in the off season to keep from going I to the duck depression. I ended up getting a pup from and FC-AFC sire and a dam out of 2 NFC's. Not a grantee in any means that my boy will be an awesome HT or FT dog but it's the best I could afford. I figure with all the time and probably money I will be pouring into training it's worth the extra money. Just my opinion. With that said I've always had pound pups all my life and love them to death but when I decided to get a dog with a job I went a little overboard.

[Colin]

Oops I meant birdguy  not bridget.

[syoungs]

ell I went and looked at the local litter, dad was full of tiger mountain kennel dogs, with a couple hunting champs 2 and 3 generations back, mom had a hunting champ 3 generations back, and was sweet as could be, both dogs were on the smaller side, which I like.

So, meet my newest addition, beau.





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[syoungs]

Son had no idea we were going to look at puppies, he just happened to be holding the male we were getting when I told him he was ours, he was shocked.
he was disappointed when I told him the dog had to stay with mom, until it could eat and be seperated from its brothers and sisters. A couple minutes later he had one of those "ah-ha" moments, tells me to just get 2 puppies today, and we can just milk the dog! Lol, he had it all figured out.

[Timberstalker]

That's good stuff!  Congrats on the new addition.