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

[Bluemoon]

It's easy to get sensory overload with all the information here.  One thing I will ad. If breeder say health certs are cleared by parentage run away. It means breeders are to cheap to run a $100.00 DNA test. Breeding clear to clear  can still produce carriers. You are just lowering the odds.

[Colin]

It's easy to get sensory overload with all the information here.  One thing I will ad. If breeder say health certs are cleared by parentage run away. It means breeders are to cheap to run a $100.00 DNA test. Breeding clear to clear  can still produce carriers. You are just lowering the odds.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding but breeding clear to clear cant produce carriers. OFA gives a cert if you can prove clear parentage.

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[Bluemoon]

Colin here are a few links to read up on. You will find this interesting.
www.institutionofcaninebiology.org

Vetchick.com

There is a breeder on this site who boast tested healthy dogs.  I will not name or point fingers, however one of the pups bred at a year old came down with sever displacement.  Of course new owners were blamed by breeder who denied everything. Even though owners are in the health industry. One a Dr. the other a RN.

[Colin]

Colin here are a few links to read up on. You will find this interesting.
www.institutionofcaninebiology.org

Vetchick.com

There is a breeder on this site who boast tested healthy dogs.  I will not name or point fingers, however one of the pups bred at a year old came down with sever displacement.  Of course new owners were blamed by breeder who denied everything. Even though owners are in the health industry. One a Dr. the other a RN.

Thanks! Will read this tonight!

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[jackelope]

There seems to be a big difference between show dogs and hunting/trial dogs. I'm not experienced with either, but I've read enough times on here where the hunting dog guys crap talk the AKC and their standard for the breed and so on.
Figure out what you want and go for it. Most guys don't need a $2000 lab with all the background stuff. Health cert's should be a minimum.
I will say that my kid shows animals, and buying quality stock from reputable/established/proven breeders holds a lot more weight to me than taking a shot in the dark on an animal with no background. Some people want proven quality and will pay for it.

Make the best better....

[KFhunter]

BS

It's just a bunch of bling and marketing, every dog is a risk no matter what the breeding and some of the high end line bred animals are even more risky. 
It's all sales and what people are willing to pay. 

I had some labs that'd hold their own with any fancy dog and I got em free out the back of a truck at a feed store.




Do you all know the difference between "line bred" and "inbred"?   

line bred is considered to be successful, if it wasn't successful it was inbred.

Your best odds are with repeat breeding's that's had 2 or 3 generations of very successful pups, then your odds of getting something weird are a little bit less. 



$1500 lab     

I should start a puppy mill 

[jackelope]

I know the difference between line bred and inbred.

I personally think some of you guys think the inexpensive dogs will do what the fancy dogs will do because you've never seen what the fancy expensive dogs will actually do. It's about more than what they'll do in the field.

[KFhunter]

paper doesn't make a dog.

[Ldav]

Thanks for the thoughts guys. Didn't realize it was such a heated topic haha. I've sort of expected to be paying around $1000-1200 for a pup with solid hunting lines and genetics. The $1800 price shocked me though. That just seemed like a lot. Especially since neither of the parents have master hunter titles. More show stock I think. I do trust the breeder though and confident they run a good puppy program. Great referrals as well.

You guys now have me thinking though that I need to really look more into solid hunting performance/drive from the parents. Especially when you're spending that much money. The pup will be a duck dog as well as a family dog so I want to make sure there is some balance there as well.

Thanks for the links Colin. I will check them out! Looks like you can find recent litters on there too.

[Alchase]

Good hunting bloodlines will give a pup a better chance of becoming a good bird dog, but will not guarantee it.
My family raised hunting labs for many years. We had some incredible hunting dogs and some more suited for a couch.
Our best dog was given to us because he was the runt from a friend of my Dad’s litter. No body wanted to buy the runt. He grew to 95 pounds of amazing goose, duck, pheasant and chucar dog, with a massive square head. He lived 17 years.
When discussing papered dogs, My dad always said
 “anyone can read a piece of paper, but dogs can’t read, and very few people can read a dog and know a good one when they see one. A piece of paper can’t tell you that.”

[KFhunter]

Thanks for the thoughts guys. Didn't realize it was such a heated topic haha. I've sort of expected to be paying around $1000-1200 for a pup with solid hunting lines and genetics. The $1800 price shocked me though. That just seemed like a lot. Especially since neither of the parents have master hunter titles. More show stock I think. I do trust the breeder though and confident they run a good puppy program. Great referrals as well.

You guys now have me thinking though that I need to really look more into solid hunting performance/drive from the parents. Especially when you're spending that much money. The pup will be a duck dog as well as a family dog so I want to make sure there is some balance there as well.

Thanks for the links Colin. I will check them out! Looks like you can find recent litters on there too.

$1800 should buy you the moon on a pup, gotta have proven parents back generations, repeat breeding with proven litters, fully papered, tested and certified and in the color/gender you want. In other words there shouldn't be any compromises.

but really if you aren't breeding do you need all that paper?  I didn't even register mine, ain't breeding, ain't showing, ain't trialing, ain't selling.


Lot of people get hung up on buying top $ paper dogs and bring them home and never hunt them.   Wish I had a stat on how many dogs get sold as hunting dogs that never hunt?  Most.

[MADMAX]

Wow
I thought we were nuts spending $300.

[jackelope]

What’s ridiculous to me is the folks who are selling labs for $1500 that don’t have any health cert’s or anything at all to support their price. They think they see an opportunity to make money and they go for it.  The proven dogs with paper to back them I’m good with.

“Charles W. Herbster, a Republican donor and businessman, is also a respected cattle producer and owner of Herbster Angus Farms in Falls City, Nebraska.

His was the successful bid on 'SAV America 8018' at the Schaff Angus Valley production sale held on its ranch outside Saint Anthony.”




Some people pay $2.1m for a cow.

[KFhunter]

$1800 really ought to be buying a started dog, then you know better what you're getting than a pup chasing a wing around in a 4 foot pen, or picking one because it smelled something on your pant leg and came to you to "pick its owner"     


That one gets me, the pup picking its owner 

[KFhunter]

What’s ridiculous to me is the folks who are selling labs for $1500 that don’t have any health cert’s or anything at all to support their price. They think they see an opportunity to make money and they go for it.  The proven dogs with paper to back them I’m good with.

“Charles W. Herbster, a Republican donor and businessman, is also a respected cattle producer and owner of Herbster Angus Farms in Falls City, Nebraska.

His was the successful bid on 'SAV America 8018' at the Schaff Angus Valley production sale held on its ranch outside Saint Anthony.”


Some people pay $2.1m for a cow.

That bull will probably never see the back of a cow, too risky, it might bend its pink rocket; no....it'll be milked with an electrical prod to stimulate it's prostate and its semen sold in straws for a premium price to producers all over the world. 


I'm glad you posted this, that 2.1m is all business, there's no emotional attachment to livestock.  Dogs are an emotional purchase, and sellers capitalize on that with lots of ways to play to a buyers emotion and extract more money than the dog is worth - if the dog were to be looked at as livestock, but too many people they're shopping for a furbaby, they might as well be shopping for a child and no money is too much money if you're buying a child.