Just wondering what I would expect to pay for a breed bitch emport. I know it depends on the dogs, But roughly?
Ron

This is kinda like asking how much an oil painting costs. There are a lot of factors that go into price. Pedigree, titles, bred or not, what she produces... how much the current owner likes her. etc.

I agree, very difficult question. You either have to pay a lot of money or be really lucky. What are your options.

1. Buy a proven high quality bitch. If their decent most people won't sell them because they are so hard to come by.

You can probably get a bitch that a breeder knows the flaws (but is not telling)for a fairly expensive price. 2,000 to 50,000 depending on the flaws.

2. Buy a pick puppy from a reputable breeder and hope the puppy is a good breeding prospect. A breed quality puppy from a good breeder may cost you 2,000 - 4,000 dollars at 9 weeks old. This price may seem a little high but your going to have to talk the breeder out of the one he/she was going to keep. Most people don't sell their best puppies. If you go this route you still have a lot of variables left to chance (reproductive ability, hips, temperment, working ability, making it to breeding age etc.)

This has a lot more costs involved in time, training, washouts etc. If you can Schutzhund train them yourself you can save some money. Otherwise it will cost about 750.00 a month to have them trained to SchH1. Average 750 a month for 6 - 8 months (About 6,000 dollars).

3. Breed your own. Start with the best you can get and breed to the best under an experienced breeders mentorship. This would probably cost more.

My guess to get 1 brood bitch that is worth breeding would be a least 15,000 on average with a lot of luck on your side. Taking into account washouts, training and time. On the other hand you could spend 100,000 and never have a bitch that is worth breeding.

Originally posted by Eric Lund:
1. Buy a proven high quality bitch. If their decent most people won't sell them because they are so hard to come by. You can do this sometimes for less than you think. The bitch might be older, and you might just get one or two litters from her to carry forward with, but it's not always so difficult. I've been offered 5 in the past month alone.

2. Buy a pick puppy from a reputable breeder and hope the puppy is a good breeding prospect. A breed quality puppy from a good breeder may cost you 2,000 - 4,000 dollars at 9 weeks old. This price may seem a little high but your going to have to talk the breeder out of the one he/she was going to keep. Most people don't sell their best puppies. If you go this route you still have a lot of variables left to chance (reproductive ability, hips, temperment, working ability, making it to breeding age etc.)

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$2000-4000 for a showline maybe, but not a working line, unless you're paying all kinds of crazy importing fees. Showline breeders are crazy with prices anyways. You can find a really good breeding to get a bitch from for $800-2000, you just have to know where to look and what you're looking for.

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3. Breed your own. Start with the best you can get and breed to the best under an experienced breeders mentorship. This would probably cost more. If you find the right mentor, they might send you a promising bitch pup for little to no cost, to assist you in starting up, sometimes asking a puppy back from an agreed upon breeding.

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Mike Russell



BANNED FROM THE LEERBURG BOARD

Thanks much, I appreciate the response.

Ron

Mike,

Yes 2,000 - 4,000 might be a little high but often people don't want to sell the best of the litter. I always keep the best and place in a home. In order to get the best you may have to up the ante and make an offer they can't refuse.

Actually if we were talking show lines. 3,000, what I paid for Keasha at nine weeks, isn't unusual. This is the price she charges for a puppy she will sell. Two or three of the most promissing she won't even consider selling. You could offer Jane 20,000 for one she wants to keep and she is not going to sell it.

I imagine it's the same with many long time working breeders. If they bred the litter looking for females to further thier line it's going to be hard to get them to part with their best. It would be different if they bred the litter to sell the puppies. You may have very good individual animals but they may not be breeding quality. You could find a breeding animal in the litter but you would have to get lucky.

A breeder may have to breed six litters to find 1 breed quality female he/she wants to use.

$20,000 for a puppy? I am in the wrong business.

Since working lines are bred for temperment/working ability, breeders are shooting for consistant litters. With good nerves and good drives the pick may be no better than the worst pup in the litter. Training and appropriate handling will choose the path of the puppy.

Conformation is easier to predict than working ability. Too many variables go into the working dog.

If you have to breed 6 litters to get one dog you think is suitable to breed, you need to stop breeding.

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Originally posted by Eric Lund:
Mike,
Yes 2,000 - 4,000 might be a little high but often people don't want to sell the best of the litter.

$2-4K for a pup is outrageous, period. Yes, you see it in showlines, but not in working line breeders. And it's no big secret that you're not going to get the pick bitch (unless the litter was bred for producing strong males), no matter how much you offer, if the breeder is keeping her to carry on with.

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This is the price she charges for a puppy she will sell. Two or three of the most promissing she won't even consider selling. You could offer Jane 20,000 for one she wants to keep and she is not going to sell it.

wow, you guys must be on some good crack. $20K for a pup? I'd tell them what anatomical part they could inhale, laughing all the time. For $20K, I could GO to Europe and meet some of my friends there to take me around to some good kennels and pick out quite a few dogs to bring back with me, rather than putting it all into one "potential".

Mike, you have friends? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Now I didn't say anyone was charging that much. I said she wouldn't part with her favorite prospect for that much. Not quite the same thing.

As far as how many litters it takes to get a good breeding female. I'll bet Ed doesn't find a female he wants to use for breeding in every litter.

If I was looking for a breeding female. I would go to a breeder that has been breeding 15-20 years and breeds the type of dog I want. Look for a litter that is a repeat breeding where I have seen and liked the results. Where the litter was uniform and consistent with good working ability and temperment. Both parents should either have OFA good hips or low HD ZW scores. I would also want it to be a fairly close line breeding. If it's not a close linebreeding there will be more inconsistency in your litters.

Better to by a middle of the road litter mate of a long time breeder than the best puppy in the litter from an inexperienced breeder. They have ussually raised the standard of what they are doing.