Cost of lab puppy? Is $1200-1500 the new normal?

[Ldav]

Do you pretty much need to expect to spend upwards of $1500 on a purebred, papered lab with hunting lines nowadays?

One breeder I'm looking at is asking around $1800.

I'm considering getting a pup this spring and just wanted to see if I'm nuts to consider spending that much on a puppy or not. Seems like a lot of the breeders I've looked at are round that price though..

Just wanted to get anyones thoughts. Thanks!

[lokidog]

We sold our last two litter of Goldens for $1400 each. I've heard of Goldens going for $3K+, which seems a little extreme.

Of course, labs are a dime a dozen so they shouldn't be that expensive....  chuckle:  I haven't priced them so don't know.

[full choke]

Yes, that is the norm.

Most dog people will tell you that the initial price is the cheap part...

[bornhunter]

First purebred papered yellow lab pup I ever bought was 8 years ago. $950. At the time I thought I had gone nuts. Absolutely no regrets. Incredible dog. And when she is gone I will do it again.

[Gamblin Guy]

Do some research on the breeder you are looking at, breeders with proven lines usually have litters sold before they hit the ground for a reason.  The biggest thing to remember is the purchase price is the cheapest part of dog ownership, you get what you pay for.  Yeah, there will always be that story of the guy who has a neighbor who's sister bred her akc registered dog to the mailman's brother's cousin who had an akc registered female, but they didn't pay for any health clearances and bred the her every time she came in heat and never had any health problems with the dogs...…..

Purchase price of a pup from a proven breeder with known lines who pays to have all the health clearances done with each generation is the cheapest part of dog ownership....

[lokidog]

 

And more and more genetic and other testing is expected as well as increased levels of performance of the parents.

[Taco280AI]

$1800 for a lab??

[Naches Sportsman]

Try 2 to 3 times that price for a damn good pup.

[Iveexcaped3]

And 0% guaranteed they’ll be a good hunting dog

[Taco280AI]

Try 2 to 3 times that price for a damn good pup.

 

[fowl smacker]

The ONLY way I'd be paying that much for a lab is if it was from proven lines, came with health GUARANTEE.  If you know of a family that has a hunting dog that had puppies and they're selling them for $500 I wouldn't hesitate to buy one.  The "you get what you pay for" in a lab is total bs in my opinion unless it's coming to your door trained from the breeder.  I don't want to say a lab is a lab is a lab, but you can get an inexpensive lab and turn it into a healthy hunting machine.  There's no guarantee that $3k lab will be any better in the field (like I said, unless it comes professionally trained).

[Colin]

There are a lot of things that should be considered when looking at a littler of puppies and things that go into the price of a puppy.

I recently bred my stud dog to two females. A puppy from their litters are $1200 and $1250 respectively. So why do they cost what they cost? How did the owners of the females set that price?

Well lets look at my stud dog. He's nicely pedigreed. His sire FC/AFC Blackwater Rudy has produced 10 FC's and 11 AFC's and 38 offspring with All Age Field Trial points. That ranks him #28 and #23 (ish there's some interpretation here). Rudy's offspring, of those registered with OFA, 156 have "good" hips, 79 "excellent" and 9 "fair". His Dam has a MH title but her parents were a National Field Champion bred to an National Amateur Field Champion. My stud's Dam has progeny with OFA hips registered and of those 6 are "excellent" and 5 are "good". He's also 8 for 9 in Master Tests, has never failed a HRCH test and qualified to run at the MNH this past year where we did very well but went out in the last series. 

But all that doesn't mean he can hunt... I'll attach some photos and maybe some members will chime in that hunt with me.

My stud has a lot of health clearances and strong results.

Hips: Excellent
Elbows: Normal
Eyes: Certified by CAER
Heart: Echo clear for defect
EIC/CNM/PRA/DM/D Locus - Clear

The females he was bred to this winter both have MH titles and had "excellent" and "good" hips as well as genetic clearances, some by way of clear parents.

Here are links to the pedigrees:

https://huntinglabpedigree.com/puppy.asp?id=25050

https://huntinglabpedigree.com/puppy.asp?id=25038

You get what you pay for most of the time but you only know what your paying for if you know where and how to look for it.

Health Clearances should be found at www.ofa.org and you should check that they are, even if your breeder assures that they. There is a ton of info there that you can look at about the siblings, other offspring etc etc etc. So much data that can help you make a good decision.

If you can look a dog up at OFA then you can get the AKC number and look at a dogs performance record at www.entryexpress.net This will tell you if they took a lot of tests to title or if they did it efficiently. If they were pro trained etc etc etc.

Lots of nice dogs get posted on www.huntinglabpedigree.com and that can give you a good idea of what puppies cost from what kind of parents.

For me personally I want a dog with drive and style but balance and trainability. I'm gonna hunt this sucker hard. He's gonna wait to be sent on retrievers, be able to pick up the long cripple that sailed before searching in the dekes for the 3 birds that dropped stone dead. He's gonna run huge blinds on the snow goose in the back of the flock that gets shot as part of a scotch double out to 400 yards or more. In the off season we are gonna train 3-5 times a week and play in the dog games! I put a lot of time into my dogs and I think it shows. If you dont plan to train much then go ahead and buy a less expensive dog. A cheap untrained dog is still the same pain in the ass as an expensive untrained dog. The difference is generally found in health cost over the life of the dog and the ease of which the dog can be trained. There will always be exceptions to this but its genetics so why not stack the deck in your favor. We are talking about the difference between a $800 puppy and a $1200 puppy.

The litters for $1800 or more should be national caliber pedigree's with excellent health clearances and have at least on parent with advanced HT (MNH/GRHRCH) or FT (FC/AFC) titles other wise you're wasting your money on an overpriced lab, probably based on color or some other factor that really doesn't mean anything relative to performance and you should run like the wind from that litter and breeder.

[fowl smacker]

There are a lot of things that should be considered when looking at a littler of puppies and things that go into the price of a puppy.

I recently bred my stud dog to two females. A puppy from their litters are $1200 and $1250 respectively. So why do they cost what they cost? How did the owners of the females set that price?

Well lets look at my stud dog. He's nicely pedigreed. His sire FC/AFC Blackwater Rudy has produced 10 FC's and 11 AFC's and 38 offspring with All Age Field Trial points. That ranks him #28 and #23 (ish there's some interpretation here). Rudy's offspring, of those registered with OFA, 156 have "good" hips, 79 "excellent" and 9 "fair". His Dam has a MH title but her parents were a National Field Champion bred to an National Amateur Field Champion. My stud's Dam has progeny with OFA hips registered and of those 6 are "excellent" and 5 are "good". He's also 8 for 9 in Master Tests, has never failed a HRCH test and qualified to run at the MNH this past year where we did very well but went out in the last series. 

But all that doesn't mean he can hunt... I'll attach some photos and maybe some members will chime in that hunt with me.

My stud has a lot of health clearances and strong results.

Hips: Excellent
Elbows: Normal
Eyes: Certified by CAER
Heart: Echo clear for defect
EIC/CNM/PRA/DM/D Locus - Clear

The females he was bred to this winter both have MH titles and had "excellent" and "good" hips as well as genetic clearances, some by way of clear parents.

Here are links to the pedigrees:

https://huntinglabpedigree.com/puppy.asp?id=25050

https://huntinglabpedigree.com/puppy.asp?id=25038

You get what you pay for most of the time but you only know what your paying for if you know where and how to look for it.

Health Clearances should be found at www.ofa.org and you should check that they are, even if your breeder assures that they. There is a ton of info there that you can look at about the siblings, other offspring etc etc etc. So much data that can help you make a good decision.

If you can look a dog up at OFA then you can get the AKC number and look at a dogs performance record at www.entryexpress.net This will tell you if they took a lot of tests to title or if they did it efficiently. If they were pro trained etc etc etc.

Lots of nice dogs get posted on www.huntinglabpedigree.com and that can give you a good idea of what puppies cost from what kind of parents.

For me personally I want a dog with drive and style but balance and trainability. I'm gonna hunt this sucker hard. He's gonna wait to be sent on retrievers, be able to pick up the long cripple that sailed before searching in the dekes for the 3 birds that dropped stone dead. He's gonna run huge blinds on the snow goose in the back of the flock that gets shot as part of a scotch double out to 400 yards or more. In the off season we are gonna train 3-5 times a week and play in the dog games! I put a lot of time into my dogs and I think it shows. If you dont plan to train much then go ahead and buy a less expensive dog. A cheap untrained dog is still the same pain in the ass as an expensive untrained dog. The difference is generally found in health cost over the life of the dog and the ease of which the dog can be trained. There will always be exceptions to this but its genetics so why not stack the deck in your favor. We are talking about the difference between a $800 puppy and a $1200 puppy.

The litters for $1800 or more should be national caliber pedigree's with excellent health clearances and have at least on parent with advanced HT (MNH/GRHRCH) or FT (FC/AFC) titles other wise you're wasting your money on an overpriced lab, probably based on color or some other factor that really doesn't mean anything relative to performance and you should run like the wind from that litter and breeder.

Excellent post!

[rainshadow1]

I probably shouldn't chime in, as the whole world of showing and trials is a bit of an affront to me and my redneck socioeconomic class.... and I've been involved in it before, I used to breed English Bulldogs, and had lots of exposure to show snobbery and the dogs associated. I have shirttail relatives who were into breeding Labs with letters, heavily, dozens of breeding dogs in their kennels, hired hands traveling to trials and shows. My Sister in Law bred Huskies and Labs for many years. I have plenty of input... but it wouldn't sway anyone with the prefix letters firmly in mind.

Best field dog I ever had, or have ever seen, I bought for $40. Purebred unpapered Lab. She could go on a widely spread triple retrieve, and I could stop her in the field 30 yards out and make her lie down and wait for another flight of ducks while holding duck 2 in her mouth, then upon release she'd finish #2 and got get #3, all by hand signals. She would fetch specific things around the house, not random things, the specific things I told her to fetch. She hated to play ball, but was fiercely aggravated with anyone or any dog who didn't take hunting as serious as death. She taught herself to circle out and hunt late season pheasants back towards me when we were hunting alone... she got frustrated when they'd flush 70 yards out and I didn't shoot, so she figured that one out on her own. She was amazing. Slightly narrow hips, but never damaged her, nor cost me a dime. Only injury she ever had was when she pulled a jaw muscle fetching a large goose that was crippled and fighting her.

Only vet money I ever spent on her was getting her fixed after one litter of cross breeds, and a heated pad when she got old. I'm not like most, I suppose, but I don't rush an animal to the vet every few days. She healed a few injuries on her own, never got sick, and went and hid from us to die.

Hands down the best dog I've ever seen or had... But, I was at a time in my life when I was able to spend an hour a day training her for almost her entire first year. Combination of instinct, ability, drive... and lots of training.

I have a higher bred lab (female) now, without letters, but with good papers... a lot of the same personality and intelligence. I haven't spent 5% of the time training her, but she's still a great field dog. Has the potential to be amazing, similar to above. Much more "textbook" build and health, wide hips, sharp as a razor. But unshown and untrialed. I just don't worry about that. That whole "world" becomes a place I don't want to hang around.

I have a friend with a stud with the same status. Ideally built. Hunts him more and trains him more. Gorgeous dog.

Our pups are exceptional. We've had one litter and we'll have more litters. But we'd never charge the crazy money. Just don't believe in it.

Being fully in favor of free enterprise, and believing in quality control in all fields of endeavor, I don't want to poop on what I used to always call the "Championed Out" dogs... But the reader of this thread shouldn't be given the impression that there aren't any other puppies out there that will be "good". Far from it.

Look at the parents. Ask questions. And the market will come to you.

Be prepared to train - HARD - for the first year, then maintain it after that. Biggest factor by FAR.

I apologize in advance for the offense that may be taken by the high-bred abbreviation crowd! Still appreciate you guys!

[aman]

The initial cost of the pup is soo insignificant that it's not even really worth worrying about. You are going to spend way more on health care, training, cost in time, hunting, etc.

I would do your research and find a line that fits your lifestyle and get the healthiest pup you possibly can (even if it means driving out of state). Not everyone has the lifestyle or time to properly raise a high drive dog.

See Colin's post. He knows what's he's talking about.